Assalamualaikum wrwb.
Bismillah
Thank you to everyone who has signed. To all of you, may Allah accept your good intentions and effort in this matter, your fasting, your praying, forgive you and grant you the highest station in Jannah. I would encourage you to share this, especially with those sympathetic but who haven't gotten around to signing, numbers will help.
To those who do not agree with this petition, who saw and rejected it or heard of it and were angered by it, I/we love you, we will continue praying with you, breaking fast with you, may Allah reward your good intentions in not supporting our cause, may he reward your fasting, prayer and grant you the highest station in his jannah. Please don't let this matter divide you or make you lose your focus in this month. Our disagreement is just that, a disagreement on a few issues, nothing more, and we certainly do agree with eachother on a lot more than these few issues. I/we are sorry to irritate you, that was not the purpose of this, but we feel our cause is just and so with Allah's name we will continue.
The wording used in the initial text of the petition might have seemed too stern or full of "righteous rage" this was to convey the depth of my/our displeasure, sense of betrayal, hurt and, yes, anger on this topic. I feel it was appropriate to use strong language to convey my/our sentiments accurately. I don't think "I'm unhappy you are walking on my loved ones grave, please stop" would accurately present the gravity of this situation.
As for an update: Some discussions have been had with MCC (they have been cordial) and a meeting is planned. The results of the discussions have not been the most satisfactory, and I am hesitant to say too much here lest I say something here that may jeopardize future progress. I have addressed with them the salient issues in this petition. In the upcoming meeting, and I will repeat those points and try to make it clear that this issue is much bigger than me and my personal concerns (as some have implied) and that I am trying to best represent this community of signatories and others who share some of our concerns. Greater numbers on the petition will help convey this point. I intend to state among other things that I feel this work should be postponed (whether or not they agree with this, as they have explained to me the difficulty in them doing that) until a broader meeting (General Body Meeting) can be held for community at large to voice their thoughts and give their input (i.e. the matter should not end in meetings with a few people privately) and vote on the matter and ideally work done on exploring alternative ways to develop OUR cemetery (not the MCC's cemetery, they are just it's temporary stewards) that are not divisive or disrespectful to our dead. So far they have not agreed to these requests for a broader meeting for the public, but I think going forward requesting for broader consultation should be a priority, as this is what many of you have voiced to me in person. Please let me know if this is appropriate or if you have other thoughts of how I should proceed on your behalf and I will try my best, as I have have been trying.
Wassalam,
Mohammed Saeed Qureshi