Bismillah 

Calgary Muslims cemetery underwent a development project in 2021 where concrete was used to reinforce headstones, graves were levelled, graves were walked upon, and heavy machinery equipment was driven over the graves - I was shocked to see it. This is a departure from usual Muslim norms of respect and etiquette with the dead. The proposed development project at the end of April 2023 seemed poised to replicate those actions, but it seems as of today the MCC is starting to listen to the community's concerns - this  petition is to make it clear that such actions and disrespect for the dead will never be tolerated by the signatories and such proposals should not be revisited again. Muslims do not walk on or level graves.

This petition is also to show the MCC and Calgary Muslim Leadership that a significant body of Muslims are not okay with the direction they were taking things in at the cemetery. The signatories would like the graves to remain simple, resembling the graves of Jannatul Baqi and the shuhada of Badr (which is what the cemetery was originally modelled after) with a mound demarcating grave, with a tomb stone/marker and for visitors/maintenance workers not to walk on the mounds. The signatories make it know that any development project to beautify the cemetery and make ongoing maintenance easier must take these concerns into account. 

This petition also asks for codified bylaws to be created to prevent actions like those taken unilaterally by the MCC in 2021, because the cemetery is not the property of any MCC board member, it is a community trust.

If you are in agreement with most or all of this petition please sign and show your support so the MCC/Muslim Leadership will hopefully come to the table and consult with the community before it's proposed project is to start at the end of April.

Below are the petitions itemized calls to action for the MCC:

(1) Attention to aesthetics should play a prominent role going forward, having standardized tombstones/markers is important.

(2) Keep costs of funerals down. Development and aesthetic projects must factor this in.

(3) Avoid leveling graves, the area of graves should be slightly raised and known (as is the custom all over the Muslim world and at Jannatul Baqi in Madinah) and should not be walked upon or worse machinery driven over them. We are not ISIS, we do not level Muslim graves and disrespect the dead.

(4) Cement/concrete reinforced graves debate should be shelved once and for all. There is no need to use that here we have been managing fine without it.

(5) Broader consultation with the community about the current proposed development - this isn't the personal property of an Imam or MCC board member. This cemetery is community property. It has been around long before any of them were and will outlast them. They are not entitled to make unilateral decisions about making changes to the nature of the cemetery, without sufficient consultation, that will affect the cemetery for generations to come.

(6) Do not make any changes to individual graves without contacting the family members of the deceased. 

(7) Have greater transparency about where the funds are going in the cemetery. 

(8) Have a breakdown as to why the prices of the burials are so high and what the money is being spent on. 

(9) If the MCC leadership is ill equipped or unable to explore solutions for the need to make cemetery more aesthetic while respecting the dead and the nature of the cemetery they should set up a taskforce to deal with this issue. 

(10) There should should be written codified bylaws governing the functioning of the cemetery to prevent people from coming along every few years and imposing drastic changes to the structure and functioning of the cemetery according to their whims. There should be stability and continuity. The cemetery should not be the plaything of successive different MCC boards. If the need arises to revise the bylaws it should be done with community consultation and keeping in mind the principles upon which the cemetery was founded (simplicity, low cost, following the Sunnah, modelling the graves after Jannatul Baqi).