Several leaders from the local Muslim community have made a request to Garden City officials that a section of Valley View Cemetery be dedicated to members of their monotheistic faith.
Leaders from the Burmese, Somali and Ethiopian communities presented a letter to City Commissioner Nancy Harness during a Saturday meeting of the Coalition of Ethnic Minorities detailing their request to create a burial ground that is separate from the rest of the cemetery by either a fence or other structure around the designated ground.
The leaders, who identified the number of Muslims in Garden City at about 500 and also represent Arab and Eritrean families, said they are exploring their options at this time for burial grounds in the area.
Harness, who passed along the request to fellow commissioners during a public meeting Tuesday, said while she was surprised by it, she understood their concerns.
“I think they’re excited about what they’re finding here and want to stay and raise their families,” Harness told commissioners, adding that, like everyone else, the Islamic community’s burial needs need to be fulfilled.
An opportunity to accommodate the request might be possible, Harness said, because Valley View Cemetery in the north part of the city is expanding on its west side.
Jim Hahn, the city’s cemetery sexton, could not say Tuesday whether the request was a fair one to make to a municipality without more specific information. He did say that over his tenure as cemetery sexton, the city has tried to move away from old-fashioned practices. For example, back in the 1900s, there were sections of Sunset Memorial Gardens, the county cemetery, designated specifically for Catholics, Protestants and other Christian denominations.
“We try to accommodate everyone as best we can, and we’re trying to get away from sectioning off sections of the cemetery to specific people,” he said Tuesday. “The way I look at it, being a municipal cemetery, you want to stay as neutral as possible. There are a lot of different religions out there, and we try to accommodate them as best we can while fitting in with our rules and regulations.”
Hahn added that there are about 15 smaller and private cemeteries around the county,
Mohamad Abdulkadir, a leader of the Somali community and also a part of the ethnic minorities coalition, said today that two members of the Somali communities in Dodge City and Garden City who died over the last year were buried at a Muslim cemetery in Wichita. Abdulkadir could not say whether the cemetery was public or private.
“If they deny our request, maybe we can buy some land, but we’re waiting to see what (the city officials) say,” he said.
Manners, customs and styles of a Muslim gravesite, burial and funerals vary by regional customs.