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BCMA's funeral services would be there when our time comes
2-24-2021
There is one certainty none can deny – death. However, do we have the faintest idea what our loved ones will have to go through to give us our last rites and proper Islamic burial? Although many of us have experienced the difficulties of making funeral arrangements when dealt with a death in the family or among friends. Yet, we somehow place it on a backburner planning our own funeral and ensuring that our loved ones will not have to go through the difficult experience. May be its psychological, maybe we are afraid to deal with this matter while we still can do so.
Thanks to the BC Muslim Association Funeral Services we have developed this sense of security knowing that no matter what happens. The association’s funeral services would be there for our family members and will come to the rescue.
However, what is bothersome is when uninformed individuals in our community with little or no knowledge of what it entails to run such services and having absolutely no clue whatsoever about the ground reality and issues of the community at large start to raise doubts about services and people delivering these services. BCMA funerals Services are offered at reasonable prices as a religious duty yet these individuals with unknown motives are questioning the motives and insinuating malice against those whom have done nothing but provide honest and sincere services to the entire community. It is than it becomes incumbent upon us all to call them out.
Let’s face it. It is not in municipalities interests to issue graveyard permits for what they consider to be “dead piece of land.” It does not generate revenue in form of annual property, garbage sewage and water taxes. Therefore, there is no willingness on the part of municipal councils to entertain municipal land for the purpose of community graveyard. This is the reason why we see that BCMA and other religious organizations being pushed away more in the interior where there is still some willingness on the part of the municipality to entertain graveyards. Soon they will also disappear. So, whatever the little land becomes available multiple religious organizations are bidding to grab it. In times like this it is imperative for our community to come together and support and strengthen BCMA in acquiring as many burial plots as possible for the community and its future. Rather than being sidetracked by naysayers who do not have the foggiest clue about the ground reality our community and our children face in the future.
For decades, BCMA has always been on a lookout for new burial lands for the Muslim community, and have secure burial plots and in Burnaby, White Rock, Chilliwack and now Hope.
For decades, BCMA has provided profit free burial services to the Muslim community of BC at the lowest cost possible.
If we google burial costs by province, BC ranks one of the highest for the simplest burial cost at $12,000. Now if compare that to what it costs to bury a loved one in BC. It is fraction of the lowest simple burial British Columbians pay for their loved ones. Yet, we have individuals in our community for self-glorification raise doubts about the services being provided by the association, and alluding “profiteering.”
It is extremely important for our community members to understand the dynamics of burial and burial plots and costs associated with the burial plots alone.
For decades BCMA has purchased burial plots and provided community members with the opportunity to pre-purchase plots for themselves and their families. This has created a vacuum because the plots acquired by the BCMA have all been taken, and those plots sit unfilled because the plot owner is still alive. While it faces an ongoing demand for new burial plots by those who did not purchase the plots when they were available. Now if you wish to bury your loved ones in Burnaby or White Rock where you could visit their graves on a regular basis. Your most likely option is to find an owner of a burial plot in that cemetery and pay whatever the current market value of that plot would be. Just to give an idea, for Burnaby, it is North of $15,000 and White Rock approximately North $10,000. You can visit Craigslist under cemetery plots and verify the information. There is a live auction for a dead piece of land.
BCMA is now trying their best to ensure that family members of the deceased are not faced with exuberant and unnecessary cost of purchasing a burial plot in free market society and minimize the cost by purchasing plots and keeping it under the ownership of the BCMA and make it available to the community members on need basis only at the lowest cost possible. This is a noble idea. However, few individuals in our community have managed to twist this noble act and calling it “profiteering” from the dead. We would rather have our family members pay little higher price than what the BCMA has paid for our burial plot for managing it rather than have our family members instead of grieving our death trying to secure a burial plot for the deceased from some craigslister online.
The choice is ours. Are we going to be dissuaded by some naysayer noise makers lacking facts and void of ground reality or are we going to evaluate the BCMA’s position on factual knowledge, facts, and ground reality?
At the end of the day, no matter what others might say or think. BCMA by far has established itself not only in the province of BC, but possibly in the entire country as amongst the most reliable funeral services providers. To raise doubts and questions about their intentions, honesty, sincerity, sacrifice, and dedication for self recognition purposes is despicable, deplorable, and outright abhorrent.
We would like to request the community members not to be distracted by naysayer noisemakers who are busy in creating confusion and promoting alternative funeral services with no history or background and continue supporting and strengthening the one association that has a history of standing by Muslim families in their very hour of need without seeking rewards and accolades.
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