Township board in Dakota County approves Muslim cemetery's request

About 60 people gathered at the Castle Rock township hall Tuesday as the board of supervisors approved a Muslim cemetery's request to use a building on site as a prayer room and space for ritual washing for burial.

More than a dozen people brought signs saying "We support Al Maghfirah Cemetery."

The town board unanimously approved the permit on the condition that the cemetery either put up fencing or plant trees as screening anywhere the cemetery abuts houses.

Board member B.J. Elvestad said there was a lot of support and most concerns were about details of the cemetery's use, he said.

Members of the Somali community handed out donuts and cookies after the approval.

"The majority of residents today said no to hate," said Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "This cemetery is going to serve the metro-area Muslim community for more than 100 years."

The permit allows a prayer room or mosque and a space for bodies to be washed without chemicals or embalming and a second structure to hold cemetery equipment, including an excavator to dig graves and landscaping equipment.

The 73-acre cemetery in a rural area near Farmington will provide a final resting place for members of the Muslim community, which has just one other cemetery accepting new burials in the metro area. That cemetery is in Burnsville.

Hussein said the cemetery's location in a rural area allowed for a larger cemetery that will have space for burials longer.

Hussein said the cemetery had been vandalized in recent years, and buildings there had sustained hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. Such incidents aren't isolated, he said.

"I think the big thing is that Muslims continue to face challenges with land use opposition for cemeteries and mosques," he said.

Some upgrades to buildings and roads near the cemetery will occur within the next year, Hussein said.

Last month, the board of supervisors held a public hearing that drew more than 100 people, most of them supporting the project. At a public hearing in June, many attendees said they supported Muslims' desire to naturally bury their family members with dignity and in a "green" manner, without embalming.

A few audience members said they worried about groundwater contamination affecting local wells, while others said the property had not been well-maintained in the years since it was bought in 2014.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has advocated for the cemetery since 2015.