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Muslim cemetery in Amsterdam put on hold

Three years ago the city of Amsterdam set aside 416,000 euro for a Muslim cemetery but now the construction of a separate Muslim cemetery in De Nieuwe Ooster cemetery has been put on hold for the time being due to the costs.

In the beginning, there were problems with the project and Muslim Welfare Foundation (Stichting Welzijn voor Moslims) left the project because the administration didn’t want Sunni and Shiite Muslims to be buried next to each other. A committee led by former mayor Ed van Thijn got the people come to an agreement.

The municipality paid 400,000 for the washing and prayer area. De Nieuwe Ooster itself paid 350,000 to make the ground available for 1,400 graves. Again, last year, the cemetery asked to make a new tender, hoping that due to the crisis the contractors would give a cheaper deal. In the tender for a washing and prayer area the cheapest contractor was 100,000 euro over the budget, says a spokesperson for the cemetery.

If completed, the cemetery would serve for at least twenty years and expects at the most 15 Muslim graves per year for the first year, followed by a turnaround, which would require an expansion in the future.