New York Town Wants Sufi Cemetery Shut Down

AP reported  yesterday that in the rural upstate New York town of Sidney Center, the town board voted in August to pursue legal action to shut down the town's small Sufi cemetery. Town Supervisor Bob McCarthy says the cemetery is illegal and that the two bodies already buried should be removed. He fears that the town may be saddled with the cost of the cemetery some day if it is abandoned. A Sufi spokesman says that the town zoning board approved the cemetery in 2005 and that burial permits were filed with the town for the burials that took place. Hans Hass of the 30-member Osmanli Naksibendi Hakkani community charges that the town board's action was motivated by the controversy over the proposed Islamic center at Ground Zero in New York City. The leader of the group proposing that mosque is a Sufi, but is not affiliated with the Sufi group in Sidney Center.