LEWISTON – Somali immigrants have done many things to improve their lives in Lewiston-Auburn. They have set up comfortable homes, found jobs, opened businesses and established a sacred place to pray.

“Life is good for many of us,” said Said Mohamud.

Now, Mohamud and other members of the African Immigrant Association are focusing their attention on what happens to local Somalis after their lives are over.

Among the group’s many plans is to find the money and land to create a graveyard for local Muslims.

“The people who are here, they are scared,” Mohamud said. “They don’t know what to do with their dead bodies.”

So far, it hasn’t been a big problem.

According to several people in the community, only two local Somalis have died. Both were newborns whose bodies were taken to a section of a cemetery in Portland reserved for Muslims.

But local Somalis know it is only a matter of time before others need to be buried.

The act of burying a dead person is an extremely important ritual to people of Muslim faith. Unlike Christians, they do not send their deceased loved ones to funeral parlors to be embalmed and fixed up with make-up and hair spray.

“The body must remain the same as it was,” said Omar Ahmed, a Somali man who lives in Lewiston.

When Muslim people die, their friends and family members wash their bodies and wrap them in a clean, white sheet. After a prayer service, the body is taken to a cemetery and buried in the ground without a casket.

Muslims believe they came from the earth and they should return to the earth, Ahmed said.

“It is important that there is nothing between the body and the sand,” he added. “The way we bury a person is different.”

For living relatives and friends, however, cemeteries serve the same purpose as they do for those of many other religions. It is a place to visit, pray and remember.

That is why it is important, Mohamud said, for local Muslims to have their own graveyard, a place where the stones are engraved with lines from the Koran instead of crosses, the Christian symbol for God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

Won’t be easy

At this point, the search for a Muslim cemetery is only in the beginning stages. Members of the African Immigrants Association, a group formed last year to advocate for local immigrants, hope to meet with city and state officials to ask for help.

Lewiston City Administrator Jim Bennett said the city doesn’t usually get involved with cemeteries, unless it has to take over an old burial ground that has been neglected. Given the city’s tight budget, Bennett added, it is unlikely that it will be able to help financially.

But, Bennett said, the city may be able to help in other ways.

Kader Said, the president of African Immigrants Association, acknowledged that finding the land and money for a cemetery won’t be easy. It is going to take some time for the group to accomplish its many goals, he said.

Formed to serve as a bridge between immigrants and the local, state and federal agencies that help them, the organization had hoped to have its own office by now.

So far, all of its attempts to obtain federal and state grants have failed. The group recently joined with several other local immigrant organizations to apply for a grant from the Maine Community Foundation. It is still waiting for a reply.

“We have a lot we want to do,” Said said. “But when you don’t have the basic necessities, like an office, it’s very hard to get stuff done.”

Five steps in preparing a Muslim’s body for burial
1. Washing the body: Family members wash the corpse. Men wash a man’s body. Women wash a woman’s body.

2. Wrapping the body: The body is covered with a clean, white sheet, tied at the head and feet.

3. Prayers: Worshippers divide themselves into rows facing the direction of Mecca. The body is placed in front of the congregation. The opening chapter of the Koran is read quietly. The entire funeral prayer is done while standing.

4. Funeral procession: Mourners walk in front of or beside the body as it is carried to the burial spot.

5. Burial: The body is placed in the grave. No casket is used. Everyone shares in filling the grave by pouring three handfuls of soil.
African Immigrant Association’s other plans
• Start a summer camp where local children will be able to learn about their own culture and history, and local teens can improve their academic skills, specifically in math and science.

• Conduct a survey to determine how many Somalis live in the area and what their most important needs are.

• Provide information and case management services to local immigrants who still need help finding housing, education services, employment, child care and transportation.