Many native British people feel the time has come to seal off the borders to immigrants, specially those from Muslim countries. As somebody who has been watching the news religiously over the past eight years, I am partially sympathetic to this idea. Many people in my country (Pakistan) also want to seal the order to Afghanistan so as to prevent terrorists from entering into our country and killing our people. British people have also suffered several times at the hands of terrorists, who just happened to be Muslim immigrants. So while, it is understandable that people living in the United Kingdom would want to tighten immigration policies for reasons of security, they should not forget that Muslims have, over the course of British history, played a significant role in the country’s successful military expeditions.
Major Gordon Corrigan, a renowned military historian, has highlighted the significance of Muslim soldiers from India in Britain’s efforts in the two world wars. He argues that had the British Indian army not fortified the front line in the first world war, the German army may possibly have broken through and gained access to the Channel ports. Reports suggest that in the 1.3 million Indians, who fought on the British side in the first world war, almost 400,000 were Muslims. Corrigan talks about the vitality of Muslim soldiers in the British Indian army:
The Punjabi Musselman [Muslim] 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.
Recently, a lot of letters of soldiers from the first world war and the second world war have been uncovered. These have helped us understand conditions and thoughts processes during wartime. Among the interesting perspectives we have gained are those of Indian Muslim soldiers fighting on behalf of the British army. One such soldier, Abdul Ali Khan wrote in July, 1917 that all of the Muslims used to pray together.
Although Muslim soldiers were reluctant to side with British forces in fighting their fellow Muslim Ottoman Turks, their loyalty to the British flag triumphed all. The colonizers did not force anybody to join into the British Indian army, and even still, 400,000 Muslims voluntary joined hands with them.
The next time you consider opposing Muslims coming into the United Kingdom, remember that not all of them want to inflict violence upon others. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims worked to defend Britain and fight alongside it in its military endeavors, and it is essential that their contribution not be forgotten by a generation that has probably seen the worst from Muslims. In the port city of Karachi in Pakistan, the colonial British government created a number of war memorial buildings in order to pay homage to the brave Indians who fought for the British cause. It would be unfair to those thousands of brave men and women, who lost their lives in combat, if their efforts and sacrifices would be forgotten by this generation because of the acts of a handful of Muslims who have terrorized the United Kingdom in recent times.
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