Alongside all the #NotAllMuslim stories, here's a small dose of reality.
Omar Mateen, the Orlando Jihadist who murdered 49 people, got his burial at Florida's only All-Muslim cemetery.
His death certificate lists his final resting place as the only fully Muslim cemetery in South Florida. Others, including private cemeteries in Opa-locka and Sunrise, have sections where Muslims are buried, but the Muslim Cemetery of South Florida is dedicated entirely to Muslim burials.
The Hialeah Gardens graveyard is on a desolate stretch of Northwest Miami-Dade just off of Okeechobee Road, on a street where people dump unwanted furniture and other clutter. The cemetery and funeral home is guarded by a fence topped with barbed wire, and has video surveillance, according to a sign posted on the property. Access is controlled by an electrically operated fence that, on Thursday, was closed. A sign says “Peace be Upon You, Oh Inhabitants of these Graves, Believers and Muslims.”
And the All-Muslim cemetery thinks that maybe the shooter had his side to the story.
Another cemetery official, Bilal Karakira, said he had been out of town was unaware of Mateen's burial. Karakira said he did not expect the cemetery would face any problems because it took Mateen's body. Asked what would happen if the family of anyone else buried there objected, the official said, "Too late."
He called Mateen "a bad guy" but defended the decision to accept his remains, saying, "Everybody deserves a place and we don't know his side of the story so he is entitled to be buried like anyone else."
What's his side of the story? Don't expect any public elaboration. But it's a little slip. A slight moment of truth.