[Illbay]

US investigators told The Times that they had certainly recovered, if not yet identified, the bodies of several of the suicide hijackers, prompting a debate over how to dispose of what is left of the most hated men in America.

Is there some traditional Middle Eastern mode of dishonorable burial? No, I'm not talking about this adolescent fantasies involving porcine body parts. I mean is there seriously some tradition in the Arab or Moslem world, where the bodies of cowards can be dishonorably disposed of?

EX: In ancient Rome, a suicide had his or her hand removed and buried separately, because self-murder was an abominable act in that culture.

I'm serious. I think it would be a fitting thing to dispose of these bodies in a manner that resonates with the world from which they came.

[raygun]

That is totally incorrect. The barbaric ancient Roman custom of suicide was the best hope of providing for the family of those that would be left behind (it was the alternatives that were attrocious). This is something is documented thousands of times as the Imperial governorship of the Roman Empire changed...