While "remembering", Please Don't Forget The 400,000 Muslims Who Were Our Allies In Ww1.

[Canary42]

While "remembering", please don't forget the fact that some 400,000 Muslim soldiers fought or laboured for Great Britain in WW1.

Although somehow I doubt this will dilute the Islamaphobe's bigotry and hatred. A good try though.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46124467

[Mamyalynne]

I have never categorised my remembering, it has always been for all who served.

Never forget.

[kvalidir]

^^Likewise^^

[douglas9401]

I've made a note. Thank you.

[Theland]

Yes they should be honoured and remembered, and held up as great role models to the Muslims who live here and hate us.

[Lie-in King]

I can only agree with Mamya's post.

[Peter Pedant]

Only the awful Beeb seem to have forgotten that men other than Christians fought in the Great War

I pointed out that the Ottoman Empire er full of Muslims of various shades fought with germany - and dont forget Lawrence ...

They (the Beeb) had an awful bit about Muslims in the war and illustrated it with headstone and inscriptions which were ..... Sikh.
Only broadcast once I think

They had a bit about the Irish serving ( no surely not) and were not aware that 186 000 fought for King George in the second world war. Their view was ten in the first and none in the second - and they had never heard of an Irish Regiment

this am they had another awful bit about Edith Cavell - as a college gel shipped out to be an icon and nurse the dead and dying

she wasnt - she trained at St Leonards Hoxton ( er London that is!) and ran a clinic in Brussels where she sheltered Tommies left behind by the Allied retreat. They used to get possed and sing its a long long way to Tipperary in Hun-occupied Brussels on their way back from the pub ( oops estaminet). She was indicted for aiding the enemy ( us, Brits) and the german judge telegraphed home for instrucitons about shooting her ( jawohl). She made a complete voluntary declaration to the German ( oops Hun ) authorities and involved the du Bocq family who were also shot
Louis du Bocq's last words to her - were - May you rot in Hell!

so yes history is rewritten for every generation
but perhaps not in the way you might expect.

[Peter Pedant]

// I have never categorised my remembering, it has always been for all who served. //
what even the japanese ?
just asking just asking

[Mamyalynne]

Sigh.

[tamborine]

they are represented by the various High Commissions wreath laying at the Cenotaph.

[douglas9401]

That'll be a 'no' then.

[mallyh]

I don't ever think about religion when I buy poppies or remember the brave people who lost their lives .

[DTCwordfan]

what about the Hindus and Sikhs then??

[retrocop]

I visited this last year.
https://www.tracesofwar.com/sights/43121/Memorial-to-the-Muslim-Soldiers.h

[Theland]

Peter - Dad was a POW on the Burma railway.
He hated the Japanese cruelty, but maintained they were the bravest soldiers he had ever seen.
Yes, we remember them all.

[kvalidir]

I think the point is that no young man wanted to be carted hundreds of miles form home to die in terror in the mud for ideologies most couldn't hope to begin to understand and many possibly wouldn't want to represent if it was not attached to national and community identity. It's these people I am remembering, I don't care what nationality or religion they were, the all died just the same.

[Theland]

Kval- Quite.

[ummmm]

My grandad fought in WW2. He was seriously injured. He's Irish and joined the British army by choice.

He received an injured soldier payment of £134 a month from the age of 18 to the age of 87.

[Tilly2]

Memorial Tablet.

SQUIRE nagged and bullied till I went to fight,
(Under Lord Derby’s Scheme). I died in hell—
(They called it Passchendaele). My wound was slight,
And I was hobbling back; and then a shell
Burst slick upon the duck-boards: so I fell 5
Into the bottomless mud, and lost the light.

At sermon-time, while Squire is in his pew,
He gives my gilded name a thoughtful stare:
For, though low down upon the list, I’m there;
‘In proud and glorious memory’ ... that’s my due. 10
Two bleeding years I fought in France, for Squire:
I suffered anguish that he’s never guessed.
Once I came home on leave: and then went west...
What greater glory could a man desire?

Siegfried Sassoon.

[Peter Pedant]

Sikhs joined up in large numbers - I am pretty sure they had stayed loyal during the mutiny 1857 and so were er 'trusted'. They have a shared graveyard with the Muslims and headstones of one was used by the Beeb to illustrate deaths in the other a few nights ago - - oops !

Muslims were also recruited from northern India as they were considered war like

hindus - not encouraged - and brahmins ( high caste) were apparently refused if they applied

Someone asked for chrissakes
[My grandfather was ICS - yeah yeah I know there is gonna be a hail of one liners - wodda brahmin? wodda caste den? wodda ICS when dat at home? wodda dalit - were day enlisted? Why dere no pakistani troops den, ansa dat! and so on and so on and so on
Sigh as someone said above.]

[Peter Pedant]

// Peter - Dad was a POW on the Burma railway. //

My father was a POW in germany poland and was liberated by the americans in 1945. If you recollect Patton sent a party to rescue his son in law from Hammeln in April 1945.
The recruiters came around soon after and tried to enlist them for the Far East ("After five years in the bag I bet you want a crack at the Japanese") and they all declined saying they had had enough of volunteering

so people really do learn from experience