Hawzah News Agency (Walsall, UK) - Atta Ul-Haq, a practising Barelvi Muslim, has decided to take Walsall Council to the High Court after its officials kept denying his request to build a four inch marble edging around his father's grave in Streetly Cemetery, West Midlands.

He wants to prevent people from walking on the grave, something which he deems "deeply offensive" and prohibited by his religion.

The Council has been citing violation of cemetery regulations: they only allow the "mounding of graves", which is the method commonly adopted by Muslims to stop people stepping on them.

Ul-Haq, in turn, said that the cemetery's policy violated his human right to exercise his religion under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Two judges began examining the case at the High Court in London on 4 December, and the hearing is due to end on 5 December.

Lawyers for Ul-Haq suggested that the dispute could have implications for the Islamic community.

The Council's lawyers, in turn, believe the judges should throw the claim out, and say that the Council's approach has been "careful, sensitive, and accommodating".

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