Muslim graves could displace 350,000 bodies

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Tower Hamlets council is considering reopening its Cemetery Park in Mile End in response to a long-running campaign for a Muslim graveyard in the area.

The park, off Bow Common Lane, was deconsecrated as a Church of England cemetery by Parliament in 1966, after being deemed full with about 350,000 bodies buried there.

Environmentalist and broadcaster David Bellamy is leading calls for the park to be kept as a wildlife haven. The botanist is patron of a charity that acts as the guardian of the graveyard.

The other options are to find land outside Tower Hamlets or redevelop the Bow Common gas works.

Councillors had asked officers to find ways of opening a Muslim-only cemetery but lawyers warned them that would be illegal. The authority then examined the possibility of a multi-faith site, clearing existing graves to create a new cemetery with an area set aside for Muslim burials.

The Rev Alan Green, chairman of the Tower Hamlets Inter-Faith Forum and dean for the borough, has warned of the "emotional, practical and ecological issues of removing thousands of bodies".