Project COVID-19: Cremation or Burial

Preface
The wave of the spread of COVID-19 arrived in Japan in February 2020. The Pandemic
has caused a dramatic change in law and order in the world. New normalcy has emerged,
symbolizing the remarkable transformation of the world. How to take “social distancing”
became almost a top priority for all people on the planet. In the post-COVID-19 world,
avoiding the “Three Cs” (Closed spaces, Crowded places, Close-contact settings) has been
recommended in Japan and abroad as a measure to prevent the spread of infection.
Restricted public spaces (often even in the private space, too) is today considered to befor “public good.”
Under these circumstances respecting religious freedom as religious and culturalrights has become a vital issue. This problem is particularly pronounced in Judaism andIslam, where group worship is a religious obligation or commandment. Whether to buryor cremate the deceased person whose life was lost due to COVID-19 generated a publicdebate in the Muslim communities in Europe. For Muslims, burial of the deceased ismandatory for the deceased and the families due to Islamic teachings. In Islamic societies
in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, cremation is not practiced even during thepandemic. On the other hand, in Europe, the state’s measures to cremate infected victims
for epidemiological and public health reasons have led to Muslims’ protests. In the worldof Judaism, some Jewish Ultra-Orthodox communities have not stopped mass worshiping
nor closed their schools amid the pandemic, despite the state order to do so.
Preventing the spread of the coronavirus infection is the most core human rights
issue of the “right to live.” The spread of the infection endangers human life and if thecorona infection becomes severe it can lead to death or serious after-effects. Also, thenumber of socially and economically vulnerable people who have lost their jobs hasincreased. It is ironic, but those who complied with the national policy of keeping social
distance became unemployed. For people, such as these, the right to live is threatened
differently.
This project examines how religious freedom and public epidemiological good canbe compatible, especially in the complex and multi-layered effects of the COVID-19infection. This report consists of two parts. Part 1 discusses religious freedom under thepandemic conditions from both human rights and human security perspectives. Part IIcovers the case studies both in the worlds of Judaism and Islam. This part illustrates theiProject COVID-19: Cremation or Burial

relationship between state authority and religious communities, media coverage ofCOVID-19 and Jewish Ultra-Orthodox communities, and the pandemic effects on Muslim
women in their daily lives and social movements. The articles in this volume are theoutcome of this project, which started in May 2020 and continued up to March 2021. TwoWebinars with scholars from abroad, on January 10th and 13th, 2021 inspired the authors.
These Webinars stimulated much discussion among the participants and the contributorsof this report. Some synopses of the two Webinars are to be posted on the Doshisha
University’s website shortly.
This research was supported by Doshisha University’s ALL Doshisha Research
Model “Urgent Research Project on Coronavirus Infectious Diseases.” We would like toexpress our sincere gratitude for this grant. All the members who participated in theresearch, recognized that it could be an essential research subject during the era ofCOVID-19. However, it is still in its early stage, but we hope that the research-outcome
will lead to further in-depth research. Frank opinions and impressions regarding thecontents of this report would be much appreciated.
We are grateful to the staff of the Research Planning Office for their extensive
support. We express our gratitude to Dr. Taiji Abe, research fellow of the Organization for
Research Initiatives and Development (CISMOR), Doshisha University for his help andcooperation in the preparation of this volume for publication.

Prof. Hisae Nakanishi
Graduate School of Global Studies
Doshisha University, Kyoto, March, 2021

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