Asalaam alai kum,
 
Hope you are well Inshallah.
 
This Sunday is nationally commemorated as Armistice Day, remembering the contribution of those families and the soldiers that sacrificed their lives for us.
 
In this important time, it is more critical than ever for us to also recognise the Muslim contribution to that war effort. The then British Indian Army whose numbers of Muslims numbered in hundreds of thousands, enlisted to fight the enemies of a country, for a country, they neither set foot in, nor were ethnically or religiously from, voluntarily.
 
The first Indian born recipient of the Victoria Cross Award, Khudadad Khan of Jhelum Pakistan was a Muslim. 65% of the regiments serving in North Africa, Italy and Burma, fighting the Italians, Germans and Japanese respectively, were comprised of Muslims. (painting on the right – Khudadad Khan)
 
In a letter addressed to US President Franklin Roosevelt, dated 4 March 1942, Winston Churchill acknowledged the crucial Muslim contribution to the war effort, when he wrote:
 
“We must not on any account break with the Moslems, who represent a hundred million people, and the main army elements on which we must rely for the immediate fighting”
 
 
Ethnicity of British Indian Army 1939 – 1945 was recorded for Sikhs as 150,000. For Muslims, it was recorded as over 700,000 soldiers.
 
(left – Eid ul Fitr prayer in a large tent which had been set up outside the Woking Mosque as part of the celebrations. Included are men of the Royal Indian Army Service Corps, 1941)
 
Italy is home to the graves of some 122 British Indian Army soldiers aged between 15 and 17. 90 out of the 122 are Muslim, 89 of them belong to areas within pre-partition Pakistan.
 
Because of the dip in Hindu and Sikh enlistment between 1940 – 1942, Britain came to rely heavily upon the Muslim population. Most of the adult population were already fighting in Britain's wars which meant that an increasing number of teenagers were accepted into the military.
 
These men, as did all the soldiers, fought with dignity and honour, sacrifice and loyalty, and it is important at this time to recognise that as Muslims, we are also heirs of their sacrifices, and as a community, we contributed very significantly to a war effort, that many extremists, both Islamic and Far Right fascists (especially the EDL...), would have us utterly ignore.
 
Let us pray for all the fallen, the families and the victims with our prayers Inshallah. May Allah swt guide us all on the path of virtue, sacrifice and faith in helping those in need, no matter what their race or creed, as our predecessors did, with their lives, Ameen.
 
Wasalaams
 
 
 
Raja Yousaf
Thames Valley Muslim Police Association