On Thursday I casually retweeted an interesting looking tweet from
Rokeby School about "
Remembering the sacrifice of Muslim soldiers, who gave their lives and their limbs in the name of duty"
Today I had a closer look at the tweet and
its link to this article and video.
I would recommend that all EDL and UKIP supporters should read about the sacrifice of Muslim soldiers in the first and second world war, who fought and gave their lives to save Britain from tyranny and for
their King.
Some highlights:-
"Visit the Menin Gate at Ypres in Belgium and you will see
these and numerous other obviously Muslim names on the memorial that is
dedicated to the commemoration of soldiers killed in the Ypres Salient
of the First World War, whose resting places are unknown. It is
a large Hall of Memory, honouring 54,896 British and Commonwealth
soldiers who could not be buried, their names cut into vast panels.
"The
marble in Ypres that bear these names will endure, but they remain cold
and silent. As a country – and as Muslims in particular – we have
failed to honour the memory of those who fought to protect the
freedoms we enjoy today. The memorial in Ypres testifies to the service
of Muslim soldiers but we, their descendants and their debtors, have
neglected to remember the scope of their sacrifice"
"Military historian Major Gordon Corrigan says the role of the British
Indian Army was vital to the war effort; had they not helped fortify the
front line during the First World War the Germans might well have
broken through and made it to the ports on the English Channel. “The
Punjabi Musselman was regarded as the backbone of the old Indian army,
and constituted about a third of the British Indian Army. Known for
their reliability, they were steady men who could be depended on to
carry out any task at hand.”
"From the trenches "In May 1915 Subadar Muhammad Agia of the 57th Rifles wrote, “It is just
like the grinding of corn in a mill; there is no counting the number of
lives lost. Not a single British or native officer of the old regiment
is left, and not one sepoy.”
"British officers who led Indian regiments immersed themselves in the
culture of India; learning to speak the same language, even eating the
same food as the men they were leading. Major Corrigan explains, “The
reason the British were better at running armies not of their race was
because of the accommodations they made; unlike the French who would
make recruits learn their language, the British Officer was expected to
learn the language of his men. Urdu was the official language of the Indian Army at the time but they
also had to learn regional dialects and have specialist knowledge of the
religious needs of their men.”
"Stationed in France at the time of Eid in July 1917, Abdul Ali Khan
wrote, “All of the Muslims of the Division had their prayers together
and the assembly was close to our regiment. We, as far as possible, gave
them food and tea. About 1,500 men assembled and prayers were offered
for the victory of our King.”
"so important was the Muslim contribution in both World Wars that
Churchill himself wrote, “We must not on any account break with the
Muslims who represent 100 million people and the main army elements
which we must rely on for the immediate fighting.”
"Field Marshall Sir Claude Auchinleck, a British army commander during
World War II, “Britain couldn’t have come through both wars if they
hadn’t the Indian army.”
"there was also the Palestine Regiment; and in World War II Arabs and
Jews fought together under the British flag against Nazi Germany and
Fascist Italy".
"World Wars I and II connect every family in Britain. “If more was
known about the contribution of so many Muslim soldiers of the British
Indian Army, it might help to restore a sense of pride, and cement the
social bonds of different communities in British society,” Jahan
suggests. “This would turn the idea of a shared heritage into a
meaningful weapon against prejudice.”
"The recognition of a
shared past has the potential to give us a sense of a shared future; a
future not marred by war, but rather one of contributing to the common
good. That is why this Remembrance Day we must honour all those who
died, including the Muslims who gave their lives for the freedom of this
country".
...and so say I. Last Remembrance Day I went to
Menin Gate at Ypres in Belgium and you could clearly see the names on the monument of the many Muslim, Sikh and Hindu soldiers who died in Flanders fields.
