Thread by @TazzyStar

My dad's friend died of COVID-19 today in So Cal - the Muslim graveyards are so backed up, there is a two week wait. They can only bury 4 graves a day. Muslim burials are supposed to be asap, 48 hours usually. There is not enough room & time for the burials of all the dead.

Muslims are also supposed to partake in a last wash - ghusl - before you are buried. You are being washed/blessed for the afterlife. People that dying from COVID-19 are not getting ghusl. Ten people max at burials. All the end of life prayers and rituals are truncated.

STAY THE FUCK HOME AND WEAR A GOD DAMN MASK IF YOU LEAVE YOUR HOME.

There are not that many affordable Muslim graveyards in Southern California - the one my mother is buried at is "sold out" and has Sunni, Shia, and Ahmadiyya areas. Sometimes a mosque will buy a section for congregants. When someone dies it's a scramble to find a lot.

Back in the 90s, the only affordable Muslim graveyard that working class folks could afford was out in the desert, 2 hours outside of Los Angeles. The community is not ready for the amount of dead coming our way.

I mention this not because Muslims are dying at a disproportionate rate - ALL people are dying at an awful rate - the Southern California morgues are overwhelmed - there is not enough places to bury ANY people at this rate here. There are similar stories across the region.

Great, now comes the difficult issue of of trying to convince my dad he shouldn't attend the funeral because he is elderly and the family members of the person who died are all covid positive and sure to attend.

We need a @LorraineAli LATimes piece to cover this shortage of Muslim graves.

I I want to also note the NY Times covered the shortage of Muslim graves when NYC was the epicenter in spring: nytimes.com/2020/05/04/nyr…

It's just now Los Angeles is the epicenter and we are not prepared.

Um, I don't have a soundcloud but... if you are interested in Muslim grief & death rituals, I published a collection of grief poems a few months ago which is particularly prescient to this thread: amazon.com/Day-Moon-Split… (Also avail on Etsy shop)