Untold Story Of WW2 Stirs Muslim Youth Pleasure

Untold Story Of WW2 Stirs Muslim Youth Pleasure

"Untold" story of WW2 stirs Muslim youth pleasure
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On this picture released completely to Reuters on January 31, 2009, Taliban militants with their weapons pose for pictures in an undisclosed location in Afghanistan January 30, 2009. REUTERS/Stringer
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A file photograph reveals former Taliban soldier displaying his weapon throughout a ceremony in the western metropolis of Herat March 10, 2009. REUTERS/Mohammad Shoiab
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On this image released solely to Reuters on January 17, 2009, Taliban militants are seen with their weapons in an undisclosed location in Afghanistan January 16, 2009. REUTERS/Stringer
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BIRMINGHAM, England Taunted by racists as a "Paki" and "terrorist," Haroon bin Khaled spent his teenaged years feeling rejected by mainstream Britain and more and more drawn to al Qaeda extremism.
But the younger Muslim of Pakistani descent discovered an surprising answer to his alienation the day he heard the story of how Muslim soldiers, many from what's now Pakistan, fought and died alongside Britons against the Nazis in World Warfare Two.
Virtually at a stroke, the jobless young man with an unpromising future felt a way of belonging. As he examined the info, he began to shed his belief Britain despised him or that fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan was a worthwhile concept.
"Honestly, it touched me," said the former gang member, now 21 and with a jail stretch for fraud behind him.
"If that could be proven to different youths it may make a big difference."
That "difference" may very well be better group relations, hurt within the years after the September11, 2001 attacks on the United States and especially after 4 younger British Islamists carried out suicide bombings in London in July 2005, killing 52 people.
It may additionally assist security by dissuading Muslim males from joining the Taliban conflict against Western forces in Afghanistan, or from taking part in assaults at residence such because the London bombings or assaults in Madrid in 2004 that killed 191 individuals.
"WE USED TO ADMIRE THE TALIBAN"
Bin Khaled is certainly one of dozens of youths of Pakistani descent in the industrial second city of Birmingham to have attended a workshop by tutorial Jahan Mahmood that makes use of the Muslim position in the war to wean young males away from extremism and alienation.
Jahan says his presentation is intended to counter the notion of perennial confrontation between Christians and Muslims that al Qaeda seeks to present as an immutable truth of historical past.
Another attendee was Sabeel Saddique, 19, who used to observe movies of al Qaeda beheadings on his mobile phone for kicks and still feels Britain doesn't absolutely accept him.
"I've all the time thought that we were on our personal," the burly former gang member mentioned in an interview within the largely immigrant Sparkbrook district, a colorless district famend for drug dealing.
"We used to assume, 'Taliban - yeah!' We admired them, we simply wanted to be like them as a result of everybody was all the time on about 'Muslims are terrorists' and it just used to make us indignant."
Saddique mentioned when New York's World Trade Heart was attacked "we all thought it was cool.. However now I see it differently. That is all simply flawed. It is killing innocents."
He nonetheless opposes Western armed motion in Muslim countries. However he says his sense of belonging to Britain and his distaste for al Qaeda is actual and stems from Jahan's lecture, which showed "what our grandparents have executed for the nation."
He just wishes white Britons knew that history as nicely.
"We're a part of this country it doesn't matter what, as a result of we did combat. You simply don't feel prefer it, as a result of the folks do not learn about it, they usually don't treat us like we're part of it," he added.
Bash Arat Najib, a youth counselor within the close by town of West Bromwich, stated Jahan's workshop received a "very, very constructive" response among the alienated younger men he works with, a lot of whom are of Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin. Many often ask why they weren't taught this information about the battle in school.
"The vision they'd from school was Germany on one side, Britain on the opposite, and the Individuals coming in at the finish," he mentioned.
"They have no affinity with Britain though they could be born right here. But the troopers' story provides them a sense of belonging. It gives the missing ingredient of affection for the nation."
The workshop tells how troopers volunteered in the military of Britain's then Indian colony and fought in north Africa and Italy.
India's army grew from 200,000 in 1939 to 2.5 million in 1945, with Muslims making up a couple of third of the numbers at anybody time. Most Muslim recruits came from what's now Pakistan.
"A WAY OF PRIDE"
In all, 87,000 Indian military soldiers had been killed within the battle, in keeping with the Commonwealth Battle Graves Commission.
Jahan's research, which focuses on 5,500 Indian military deaths in Italy, fascinates its audiences because it breaks down Muslim casualties according to recruitment areas inside British India, and then traces hyperlinks between at this time's British Pakistani communities and the areas where recruitment took place.
Younger Muslims specifically establish with Jahan's finding that of the 122 deaths of troopers under 18 in Italy, ninety have been Muslim. Among them were three 15-year-olds - Amir Khan, from Attock, Gulab Khan, from Rawalpindi, and Mian Khan, from Kohat.
In a lecture at Oxford University in April, Jahan spoke of a "a urgent need to restore a sense of id and self esteem for young British Muslims today."
"If more was known about the contribution of so many Muslim troopers of the British Indian Military, it will assist to restore a sense of satisfaction, cement the social bonds of various communities in British society, and turn the concept of a shared heritage right into a meaningful weapon in opposition to prejudice," he stated.
The workshop was funded by a state program known as "Optimistic Futures" which helps native initiatives to help disengaged and vulnerable younger individuals.
(Enhancing by Sophie Hares)
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