Way to go Garden City!
The community leaders there have been polite about the whole thing, but they have declared that the community cemetery will remain just that — a community cemetery.
They are not going to segregate it for the benefit of Muslims who are working at the packing plants there.
According to The Associated Press, “Abdulkadir Mohamed, vice president of Somalis of Southwest Kansas, says that in recent years, Muslims from southwest Kansas have been buried in a Wichita cemetery that better serves the religion’s requirements.
“A growing number of Muslims, many from Somalia and Burma, have settled in southwest Kansas, most to work in four meatpacking plants within a 70-mile radius of Dodge City and Liberal. An estimated 500 Muslims live in Garden City.
“Muslim leaders asked Garden City in June to set aside a segment of Valley View Cemetery for members of their faith.”
Garden City Commission members have noted that the cemetery is not going to be segregated.
Everyone, people of all faiths, people of no faith, people of all colors and backgrounds, have equal place in community cemeteries.
That is a part of OUR heritage.
That is the tradition of OUR culture — the culture in which they are residing.
Everyone — in death, if not always in life — is deserving of equal respect in this culture and we are not about to change that.
— Chuck Smith