Muslim man launches High Court fight after council 'breached his human rights' in dispute over father's grave
Islamic law forbids people from stepping on burial sites
A Muslim man is preparing to challenge Walsall Council in the High Court after he was prevented from building an edge around his father’s grave.
Atta Ul-Haq has accused the council of breaching his human rights by not allowing the border which would prevent people walking across the burial site in Streetly Cemetery in Walsall.
He said Islam forbids people from stepping on graves and claimed the council’s policy breaches Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights – which allows people to exercise their religion.
Council leaders refused his request on the grounds that the building of an edge would breach cemetery policy and maintain that their policy is lawful.
Regulations permit the "mounding of graves" and mounding is the way Muslims normally inhibit people from walking on graves.
Barrister Michael Fordham QC, who leads Mr Ul-Haq’s legal team, believes the case could have implications for the Islamic community.
“He seeks a judicial review of the (council’s) ‘rules and regulations in respect of cemeteries and crematorium’, by which it has and continues to refuse to permit him to erect a raised marble edging around his father’s grave,” he told judges in a written case outline.
“The request is borne out of a fundamental religious belief that the grave is sacrosanct and stepping on the grave is a deeply offensive religiously prohibited act.”
Washall Council declined to comment on the case.