Community

Inauguration Ceremony of the Muslim Burial Place at Hope Cemetery
By Tahir Ali
Pictures by Mohammad Aslam Butt

Worcester: "Today– (9/26/2019) is a very important day for the Muslim community in Greater Worcester area. Thanks to Mayor Petty, Town Manager Augusta and Hope cemetery officials and many others," observed Dr Khalid Sadozai at the inauguration of the extended land in Hope Cemetery reserved for the area Muslim community.
"I have no words to express my true feelings that you all have worked with us to achieve a peaceful place where we can bury our beloved when they leave this world. This was not easy, we tried to find a Muslim burial place in surrounding towns, but not without resistance. Today, I am grateful, the Muslim community is grateful, that we finally have a burial portion in Hope Cemetery. We do not have to travel all the way to Connecticut to bury our loved ones," added Dr Sadozai, Trustee of the Islamic Society of Greater Worcester (ISGW).

Dr Sadozai, Mohammad Rafae and others have been working on the Cemetery project diligently for many years. Today at the ribbon cutting ceremony, members from both ISGW and WIC, the Worcester officials all joined in the celebration.

Worcester Mayor Joseph Petty welcomed the guests to his city and thanked all those involved in the extension, especially Town Manager Augusta for his planning and fund raising. The mayor called out to officials to speak, including Imam Asif Hirani of the Worcester Islamic Center. The Imam thanked the city officials on behalf of the Muslim community, and said, "I have met many Mayors and they were all cool, but you Mayor Petty are the coolest." He further thanked the Mayor for always being there when we needed him, in good times or bad times.

Members attending included WIC President Dr M. Ramzan, Dr Mushtaque, Nawal Ahmed, M. Aslam Butt, Hanif Balaparya and yours truly and we thanked the Mayor and the officials.
Channel 3 TV anchorwoman, Anna Bottary talked to Sadozai and others. The news item was aired in the 6 and 10 PM news bulletins.
The ribbon cutting ceremony could not take place at the ground because it started raining real hard, but that did not stop Anna to take a few shots of the allocated land while we walked in the rain reminiscing 'Raindrops keep falling on my head."

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