Remembrance Day & British Muslims
By Paul S Armstrong
While reading a newspaper article to mark Remembrance Day, I noticed reference was made to a despicable demonstration against the event. I would like to draw attention to the way this was reported, “Muslims protesters burn poppies at a Remembrance Day event in Kensington, west London”. While it may be true that they were Muslims, this in itself is irrelevant, as Islam does not teach anyone to disrespect the dead or war veterans. What motivated them to behave in such a fashion, was Islamism – a political ideology propounded by such ideologues as Syed Qutb, Mawdudi and Nabhani, whose views had more in common with Karl Marx than Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him!
The President of the Association of British Muslims, Shaykh David Rosser-Owen, is a war veteran, as are many Pakistanis settled in the UK aged 85 and over, which also means many British Muslims are themselves the descendants of those who fought for this country’s freedom during World War II. A fact not given nearly enough press coverage.
One only needs to visit Menin Gate Memorial in Belgium, to see names like Malik and Khan, who fought in the British Indian Army during World War I, or one of the Indian Memorials on the continent to see the names of Muslim soldiers who lost their lives, while fighting for this country during World War II. Even today, many British Muslims serve in Her Majesty’s Armed Forces. Thus, to suggest a small group of political islamists is representative of Muslims, is doing a great disservice to the vast majority of British Muslims, who are at least as loyal as any other British citizen, some of whom go beyond the call of duty for the sake of our great nation.
