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Posts Tagged Abrahamic Faiths As Brothers

PTT ARCHIVES: GOJRA BY MAJ.MUHAMMAD HASSAN MIRAJ, PAKISTAN ARMY

GOJRA BY MAJ.MUHAMMAD HASSAN MIRAJ, PAKISTAN ARMY

 

 

Islam-and-Christianity

“You do not do evil to those who do evil to you, but you deal with them with forgiveness and kindness.” —Prophet Muhammad عليه السلام (Sahih Al-Bukhari).
 
Jesus never taught, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”, but rather
He taught “When someone strikes you on the left cheek, offer the other side
also”. He wants us to be forgiving and loving towards those who hurt us 
and not render evil for evil, but instead render good for evil; that your
light may shine and the Love of God show through your life. 
(Matthew 5:38-40) (Matthew 5:16)
 

GOJRA

by

Major Muhammad Hassan Miraj

Pakistan Army

The track from Sar Shameer meets the road from Samundri at Gojra. The city is famous for many reasons but all of them are tainted with remorse.

Before partition, a large eye hospital functioned at Gojra. India, in those days, had three ophthalmologists. The other two practiced in relatively large cities but Dr Harbhajan Singh stayed at Gojra and treated his patients, some of whom traversed almost entire India to visit him. In 1947, the doctor decided to leave. The locals tried to convince him but the new found land was far more promising than the one which had nurtured him for decades. Many eyes were lost due to tears while others went dark due to absence of treatment, but the city had an answer to blind eyes.
When Amir Ali, a 2nd year student from Gojra lost his eyesight, he did not lose his hope. Graduating from Lincoln’s Inn, he went on to become the first blind person to secure a Doctorate in Legal studies from Canada. The spirit which illuminated Dr Amir Ali Amjad’s ambition now furnishes his dream to build a large eye complex in Gojra for low income patients.
Field hockey is another feature of the city. Gojra rose to prominence as a nursery town of Hockey players, when Pakistan championed the game. As the public and private interest faded, the game also divorced itself from the city. Few kids, however, can still be spotted chasing the torn ball with improvised hockey sticks. The last reference to the city is from the first of August, 2009. The day was painted black due to carnage that resulted in eight deaths including three women and a child. Along with the sun, the hopes and the sense of security also went down. The Christians of Gojra realised that though the city had an answer to the blind eye, it could not do anything for the blind heart.
Few miles away from Gojra is the village of Korian, home to many Christians. It all started from a Christian wedding on July 29, 2009, when a Muslim guest was shown out due to his bad behaviour. After few hours, a mob started building up in front of the wedding house. The rejected guest was leading the crowd with an allegation of blasphemy. The mob insisted that Talib Maseeh and his fellows had desecrated Quran. Before Korian residents could come out bare-footed with the Bible raised above their head to plead not guilty, a church and few houses were set on fire.
 
  Courtesy Samson Simon Sharaf
—Courtesy Samson Simon Sharaf
 
Two days later, the Imams of Gojra mosques demanded the federal government to force Christians out of the city. Rallies were called and Muslims worldwide were appealed to save the religion. The appeal was instantly answered by students of seminaries in Jhang. When the crowd swelled, a political leader further instigated the crowd and directed them towards the Christian colony. The leader, who was interested in a housing scheme next to Christian colony, was recently sworn in the parliament. Militants from Jhang drove their twin cabin vehicles to Gojra, brandishing their weapons. While all this happened, police chose to look the other way. More so, when the violence picked up, they fled the scene telling the Christians to run for their lives. By then, all the escape routes had been blocked.
The mob initially chanted the slogans and then pelted stones at Christian houses. With every passing minute, the slogans picked up in tone and rage. A little later, someone shouted Allah o Akbar and torched a house. When the neighboring residences caught fire, people started running for their lives, devastated by the dilemma of what to take and what to leave. The flickering flames burnt houses, securities, pledges and safeguards leaving debris that told miserable stories. In one of the vandalised quarter, a portrait of Jesus Christ had crashed on floor. The Biblical injunction could be read through scratched frame. 
“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.”(Romans 12:14)
Minhas Hameed, the sole survivor of his family which lost seven lives, clearly recalls that his father was shot in the forehead. He rushed to the hospital without any idea that this was the last he would see of his house and family. After he left, the violence picked up and his scared family gathered in one room to save their lives. When the house caught fire, they could not leave the room. Around 60 houses were burnt that day. These men took instructions from mobile phones and torched houses, which were built by the meager earnings of one generation or even two.
 
Though the miscreants had masked their faces but the victims also deflected identities. When I looked through caskets, the faces appeared strangely familiar. The burnt corpse of 50-year-old Hameed Maseeh bore striking resemblance with Lal Din Sharaf Sargodhavi, a Christian freedom fighter who had penned an anthem and blocked Jinnah’s entourage at Mission Hospital Quetta to secure guarantees for Pakistani minorities. Forty-year-old Ikhlas Maseeh looked a lot like Sepoy Murad Maseeh, who was martyred on May 17, 2013, while fighting miscreants in Mitni, Peshawar. The 20-year-old charred body was not Asia bibi but probably Sister Martha who never forgot to wish us on Eid and never expected our greetings on Christmas. The scorched remains of 22-year-old Imamia bibi reminded me of Safia, our Christian maid and a part of my childhood memories. While I always ridiculed her dark complexion and called her names, she wore a patient smile and did not leave until I had taken my meal.
Every mourning woman of Gojra looked so familiar. I had seen them moving in our houses every morning, placing their religion and their crockery, besides the electric meter boxes (normally out of the houses) and taking care of our faith that commanded cleanliness. The displaced men looked so much like A R Cornelius and the wounded resembled Cecil Choudhary. Sitting with the coffins, these dark men had managed our schools, ran our offices, maintained our libraries and trimmed our lawns. They were partners to every refinement and accomplishment in our lives.
When the world got the word after two days, police started with raids and arrests. An inquiry commission was ordered which awaits its report to-date. The initial investigations have ruled out any incident of defiling of Quran. The men who set ablaze the church and Christian houses are hinted from Sipah-e-Sahaba (the military of companions of Prophet (PBUH)). Little did they know that one of the companions appointed by the Prophet himself was Waraqa Ibn Naufil, a Christian who had endorsed prophet-hood before many of the faithful.
THE AUDIO
 URDU VERSION

اگست کی پہلی

سمندری سے آنے والی سڑک اور سر شمیر سے آنے والی ریل گوجرہ میں گلے ملتی ہے۔ یوں تو شہر کے کئی حوالے ہیں مگر ہر حوالہ تاسف سے ہو کر گزرتا ہے۔
تقسیم سے پہلے گوجرہ میں آنکھوں کا ایک بڑا ہسپتال ہوا کرتا تھا۔ یہ وہ دور تھا جب پورے ہندوستان میں آنکھوں کے بس تین ہی ڈاکٹر مشہور تھے۔ باقی دو تو بڑے شہروں میں آباد تھے مگر ڈاکٹر ہربھجن سنگھ گوجرہ میں رہتے اور دور پار سے آنے والوں کی بینائی کا سبب کیا کرتے تھے۔
تقسیم ہوئی تو ڈاکٹر صاحب نے بھی سامان باندھ لیا۔ لوگوں نے انہیں بہت روکا مگر اس وطن کی کشش جو لکیر کھینچنے سے بنا تھا، اس وطن سے زیادہ نکلی جس نے پال پوس کر بڑا کیا تھا۔
کچھ آنکھیں تو جانے والوں کی آزردگی میں رو رو کر اندھی ہو گئیں اور کچھ علاج نہ ملنے کے سبب۔ مگر شائد شہر کے مقدر میں روشنیاں باقی تھیں۔ اسی شہر کا ایک طالب علم نابینا ہونے کے باوجود انگلستان سے بیرسٹری اور کینیڈا سے ڈاکٹریٹ کی ڈگری لے کر تاریکیوں سے لڑ رہا ہے۔
ڈاکٹر عامر علی امجد نے بصارت چلے جانے کے بعد جس بصیرت سے اپنے خواب پورے کئے، اب اسی حوصلے سے اندھیری زندگیوں میں روشنیاں بانٹنے کے لئے گوجرہ میں آنکھوں کا بہت بڑا ہسپتال بنا رہے ہیں۔
شہر کی ایک اور شناخت ہاکی کا کھیل ہے۔ کوئی وقت تھا کہ ان گلیوں میں ہاکی کھیلنے والوں کو دنیا رشک کی نگاہ سے دیکھتی، مگر پھر لوگوں کو دلچسپی کے نئے سامان مل گئے اور یہ کھیل پس منظر میں چلا گیا۔ شہر کے کونوں کھدروں میں اب بھی خال خال بچے ٹوٹی کھپچیوں سے پھٹی گیند کا تعاقب کرتے نظر آ تے ہیں۔
 

فوٹو — سیمسن سائمن شرف –.
شہر کی آخری یاد اگست 2009 کی پہلی تاریخ ہے۔ یہ سیاہ دن جاتے جاتے اپنے ساتھ تین عورتوں اور ایک بچے سمیت نو لوگوں کی جان لے کر گیا۔ جب اگست کا پہلا سورج غروب ہوا تو اس کے ساتھ ہی امید کے ہزاروں چراغ اور تحفظ کے لاکھوں دئیے بھی بجھ گئے۔ گوجرہ کے مسیحیوں کو پہلی بار لگا کہ شہر کے مقدر میں روشنیاں تو ہیں مگر بینائی نہیں۔
بات کوریاں سے شروع ہوئی جو گوجرہ سے کچھ میل کے فاصلے پہ واقع ہے۔ گاؤں میں آباد عیسائیوں کے ہاں ایک شادی کا اہتمام تھا۔ تقریب کے دوران جب مسلمان مہمان نے تہذیب کی حد پار کی تو اسے محفل سے بھیج دیا گیا۔
تھوڑی دیر بعد گاؤں کے مختلف حصوں سے ایک ہجوم اکٹھا ہونے لگا۔ نکالا گیا مہمان، قران کی بے حرمتی کے الزام اور مشتعل افراد کے ساتھ اس ہجوم کی قیادت کر رہا تھا۔ مظاہرین بضد تھے کہ طالب مسیح نے اپنے ساتھیوں کے ساتھ مل کر مقدس اوراق کی بے حرمتی کی تھی۔
اس سے پہلے کہ کوریاں کے عیسائی انجیل سروں پہ بلند کئے، اپنی بے گناہی کا ثبوت دینے ننگے پاؤں گھروں سے باہر آتے، مشتعل افراد نے گھروں اور گرجا کو آگ لگانا شروع کر دی۔
 

فوٹو — سیمسن سائمن شرف –.
دو دن بعد مقامی مساجد میں امام صاحب نے جمعے کے خطبے کے ذریعے حکومت وقت سے مطالبہ کیا کہ گوجرہ سے مسیحی آبادی کو بے دخل کر دیا جائے۔ ریلیاں نکالنے کے اعلان کے ساتھ ساتھ، عالم اسلام سے بھی مدد کی اپیل کی گئی، جس پہ جھنگ کے مدرسے کے طلبا نے فوراً لبّیک کہا۔
جب مجمع کافی تعداد میں اکٹھا ہو گیا تو ایک سیاسی رہنما نے ہجوم کو مزید اشتعال دلایا اور اس کا رخ عیسائی آبادی کی طرف موڑ دیا۔ یہ سیاسی رہنما جو کرسچن کالونی سے ملحقہ زمین پہ ایک نئی ہاؤسنگ سکیم بنانا چاہتے تھے، اب پارلیمان کا حصہ ہیں۔
موقع پہ موجود پولیس دیر تک تماشا دیکھتی رہی اور آخر میں لوگوں کو جان بچا کر بھاگنے کا مشورہ دیتے ہوئے غائب ہو گئی۔ تب تک بھاگنے کے تمام راستے بھی مسدود ہو چکے تھے۔
پہلے کرسچن کالونی کے گھروں کے سامنے نعرے برسنا شروع ہوئے اور پھر پتھر۔ آہستہ آہستہ نعروں میں شدت اور ہجوم میں جوش بڑھنے لگا۔ پھر کسی نے تکبیر کا نعرہ لگایا اور آگے بڑھ کر ایک گھر کو آگ لگا دی۔ جب آگ پھیلنے لگی تو لوگ گھر چھوڑ کر جان بچانے کو بھاگ پڑے۔
مکان سے اٹھتے ہوئے شعلوں میں یوں تو بہت کچھ جلا مگر ایک ملبے سے حضرت عیسیٰ کی تصویر سیاہ حاشیوں سے چٹخ کر نیچے گر پڑی۔ دراڑ پڑے شیشوں کے نیچے سے تصویر پہ انجیل کی آئت صاف پڑھی جاتی تھی؛
“ان کی خیر مانگ جو تجھے اذیت دیں، خیر مانگ اور برا بھلا مت کہہ”۔
جس گھر سے سات جنازے اٹھے وہاں بچنے والے منہاس حمید کو بس اتنا یاد ہے کہ پہلی گولی اس کے والد کو ماتھے پہ لگی۔ وہ باپ کو لے کر اسپتال کی طرف بھاگا تو اس کے وہم و گمان میں بھی نہ تھا کہ اس کی واپسی کسی جلے ہوئے کھنڈر میں ہو گی۔
 

فوٹو — سیمسن سائمن شرف –.
منہاس کے جاتے ہی حملوں میں تیزی آ گئی ۔ گھر والوں کو کچھ سمجھ نہ آئ تو وہ ایک کمرے میں اکٹھے ہو گئے۔ آگ لگی تو جس کمرے میں ان لوگوں نے پناہ لے رکھی تھی وہی ان کا مرقد بن گیا۔
اس دن تقریبا ساٹھ گھر راکھ ہوئے۔ نقاب پوش افراد موبائل فون پہ ہدایات لیتے اور پٹرول سے ان گھروں کو آگ لگاتے جاتے تھے جنہیں بناتے بناتے ان مظلوموں کی ایک سے زیادہ نسلوں نے محنت کی تھی۔
جلانے والے تو خیر نامعلوم افراد تھے ہی، عجیب بات یہ ہے کہ بند گھروں کے جھلسے ہوئے چہروں پہ بھی کسی اور کا گمان ہوتا تھا۔ میں نے قریب سے دیکھا تو ان فریادی شکلوں میں عجیب عکس نظر آئے۔
مجھے لگا کہ یہ کملائی ہوئی لاش پچاس سالہ حمید مسیح کی نہیں بلکہ لال دین شرف سرگودھوی کی ہے جنہوں نے مشن اسپتال کوئٹہ کے سامنے قائد اعظم کی سواری روک کر اقلیتوں کے حقوق منوائے تھے۔
40 سالہ اخلاص مسیح کے مڑے تڑے وجود میں مجھے خانیوال کا سپاہی مراد مسیح نظر آیا جو 18 مئی 2013 کو متنیٰ میں شدت پسندوں سے لڑتا ہوا شہید ہوا تھا۔ بیس سالہ وہ لاش مجھے آسیہ بی بی کی نہیں بلکہ سسٹر مارتھا کی لگی جو ہمیں تو عیدی دیا کرتی مگر ہم سے کرسمس کی مبارکباد کی توقع نہ رکھتی تھی۔
22 سالہ امامیہ بی بی کی بجائے تابوت میں اس صفیہ کا جسم پڑا تھا، جو میرے بچپن کا حصہ تھی۔ میں ہمیشہ صفیہ کو اس کی سیاہ رنگت کا طعنہ دیتا مگر وہ خندہ پیشانی سے مسکراتی رہتی اور مجھے کھانا کھلا کر گھر جاتی۔
گوجرہ کی ماتم کرتی خواتین کا ہر چہرہ جانا پہچانا تھا، یہ وہ عورتیں تھیں، جو ہر روز اپنا مذہب، باہر بجلی کے میٹر والے خانے میں تام چینی کے برتنوں کے ساتھ رکھ کر ہمارے گھروں میں داخل ہوتیں اور ہمارے نصف ایمان کا بندوبست کرتیں۔
 

فوٹو — صدف اشرف –.
بے گھر ہونے والے افراد میں کوئی جسٹس اے آر کارنیلییس تھا تو ملبے میں سے صاف اینٹیں اکٹھی کرنے والا کوئی سیسل چوہدری۔ تابوتوں کے دامن میں ہاتھوں کی زنجیر باندھے یہ سب لوگ وہ تھے جنہوں نے اپنی محنت سے ہمارے سکولوں کی لائبریریاں بھی سنبھالی تھیں اور ہمارے گھر وں کے باغیچے بھی سنوارے تھے۔
دو دن بعد جب آگ کی تپش باہر کی دنیا سے گھوم کر اسلام آباد پہنچی تو پولیس نے چھاپے بھی مارے اور گرفتاریاں بھی کیں۔ ایک انکوائری تشکیل دی گئی جس کی رپورٹ ابھی تک نہیں آئی۔
ابتدائی تحقیقات کے مطابق مقدس اوراق کی بے حرمتی کا کوئی واقعہ سرے سے پیش ہی نہ آیا تھا۔ ان گھروں اور عبادت گاہوں کو آگ لگانے والے ان صحابہ کے سپاہی تھے جن میں حضرت محمد کی نبوّت کی تصدیق کرنے والے واحد عیسائی ورقہ بن نوفل کا نام بھی آتا ہے۔
Muhammad Hassan Miraj

 

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Muslims Who Fought Against the ‘Real’ Fascists & Nazis – And Besa: Muslims Who Saved Saved Jews During World War II

Muslims Who Fought Against the ‘Real’ Fascists & Nazis 

Sheila Musaji

Posted Nov 23, 2012     


Noor inayat khan

 

Muslims Who Fought Against the ‘Real’ Fascists & Nazis

by Sheila Musaji

With the recent increase in the use of the misleading term Islamic Fascists it is important to point out a few facts.  There may have been a few Muslims who cooperated with the Nazis/Fascists during the Second World War, but they were a small minority.  Most Muslims followed the Qur’anic injunction:

Oh you who believe, stand up firmly for justice, as witnesses to God, even if it be against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be against rich or poor; for God can best protect both. Do not follow any passion, lest you not be just. And if you distort or decline to do justice, verily God is well-acquainted with all that you do” (Quran 4:135).

As Mas’ood Cajee points out

A growing chorus of voices which exploits the Holocaust for political gain has been trying to smear Muslims — and Arabs in particular — with grand accusations of complicity in the Holocaust and support for the Nazis. These voices serve hawkish interests in Israel and the United States who wish to justify and legitimize continued war, violence, and yes — even genocide — against Muslims and Arabs. Identifying Muslims with and as Nazis eases the task of selling continued bloodshed to war-weary publics. Reading the books and op-eds of the smearers, one could almost conclude absurdly that the Nazi holocaust was an Arab Muslim and not a European Christian project. As evidence, the smearers usually trot out the pro-German Mufti of Jerusalem Amin Al-Husayni and the Bosnian Muslim SS “Handschar” division.

What these smearing Islamophobes don’t like to tell you: the “Mufti” was actually an appointee of the Jewish administrator of British Palestine who completed one measly year at Al-Azhar and betrayed the Ottoman Sultan to join the British. The much-vaunted “Hanschar” SS division — disbanded after a few months due to mass desertions — was the only SS division ever to mutiny.

There is a photo below of Bosnian Muslim anti-Fascist fighters. 

Here is a photo of Hitler conversing with the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Cesare Orsenigo.  Source

 

 

  Picture of Adolf Hitler conversing with the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Cesare Orsenigo, at a New Year's reception in Berlin in 1935.

 

 

 

As I said in an article about the current common usage of the term “Islamic Fascists” – Islamic Fascists?  Deceptive Labels & Propaganda are Counterproductive

In just the past few months there has been a rash of articles and blog entries that bring up and expand upon the sad fact that Amin el-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem collaborated with Hitler during WWII.  This comes at the same time as President Bush’s use of the term Islamic Fascists appearing to validate a term used over the last few years among those determined to provoke a clash of civilizations.  Whether the sudden proliferation in the use of this term (or its’ variants – Islamo-Nazi, Islamo-Fascist, etc.) and the articles attempting to find some connection with Islam and the Nazis and Fascists is simply a case of extremists feeding off of each other in our world of almost instantaneous communication, or is due to a calculated campaign is debatable, but the end result is an increase in Islamophobia and mutual distrust.  Such stereotyping all too often leads to a dehumanization of the “other” and has historically been the precursor to isolation, discrimination, and violence.  Such descriptions also blur distinctions and create an atmosphere in which the “enemy” becomes most or all Muslims.
  
Robert Duncan’s article “Islamic terrorism linked to Nazi fascists” on Renew America uses the Mufti/Hitler photo as justification for President Bush’s use of the term Islamic Fascists.  Others who have jumped on this bandwagon are Jonah Goldberg in “The Swastica and the Scimitar”, Gene Pinkam, Alan Dershowitz, Timothy Furnish (who is opposed to the use of the term, but whose ‘reasons’ for that opposition still play into the same mindset, Daniel Johnson, etc.  Little Green Footballs showed archival footage of Hitler and the Mufti, a number of blogs are referring to a photo of Hitler together with the Grand Mufti,  and Daveed Gartenstein-Ross even stretches the Mufti’s aberrational behavior to include a generalized “Muslim World’s sympathy with the axis alliance”.  And, the propoganda film “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West” is being shown across the U.S. and Canada and attempts to make this same connection.

Robert Spencer said “The misbegotten term “Islamo-fascism” is wholly redundant: Islam itself is a kind of fascism that achieves its full and proper form only when it assumes the powers of the state.”  Spencer also said “The term “Islamo-Fascists” no more blames the religion of Islam than the term “Italian Fascism” blames Italy for fascism. It merely refers to those Muslims—who obviously really exist—who invoke Islam to justify violence and supremacism, whether they are invoking Islamic doctrines correctly or not.” 

In fact, Spencer, and his partner Pamela Geller use the term “fascists” and “brownshirts” and “nazis” so often in relation to Muslims that it is for them commonplace.  Another associate of Spencer and Geller in the Islamophobia industry, David Horowitz, even holds an annual “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week” on college campuses.

This is a pointless attempt at justifying stereotyping and Islamophobia.  Certainly there were some Muslims who were Nazis or Fascists, but they were a small minority compared to all of those who fought against the Nazis and the Fascists.

…  The actual Nazi party originated in Germany, a predominantly Christian country.  The actual Facists came out of Italy, another predominantly Christian country.   The Nazis and Fascists were predominantly Christians.  Christianity had a role in the rise and fall of the Nazi’s. The Vatican signed a concordat with Hitler’s Reich.  The Catholic responses to Hitler were ambiguous at least.  There are numerous photographs of Hitler with various Christian clergy including Archbishop Cesare Orsenigo, the papal nuncio in Berlin, and with a Catholic Cardinal, Spanish and German Bishops giving Nazi and Fascist salutes, Cardinal Michael Faulhaber marching in a Nazi parade, the Reich Bishop Ludwig Muller, and many more that are still available.  There are also numerousphotographs of Christian symbols in Nazi artifacts.  And, photographs of Nazi soldiers praying in churches.  (One such photo at bottom of this page)

Hitler himself referred to Christianity as a foundation for his beliefs:  “The National Government will regard it as its first and foremost duty to revive in the nation the spirit of unity and cooperation. It will preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built. It regards Christianity as the foundation of our national morality, and the family as the basis of national life.” Source: My New World Order, Proclamation to the German Nation at Berlin, February 1, 1933

The Christian connection with the Nazis and Fascists was widespread and well-documented.  The Muslim connection was minimal.  And, just as there were Christians who resisted and fought against the Nazi and Fascist regimes there were also many Muslims who fought against this evil worldview. 

The holocaust was a terrible stain on humanity, and there were villains and heroes everywhere.  The Mufti of Jerusalem was one of the villains and will have to answer to God for his crimes.

The bottom line is that all of those who participate in, cooperate with, or do not speak out against evil (no matter what their religion) bring shame on the human race, and all of those who stand for justice and compassion give us all hope.

 

All too often the Muslim and Arab soldiers who fought with the Allies are the forgotten heroes.  In the U.S. alone, over 15,000 Arab Americans served in WWII.  You can see some photographs of Muslim soldiers buried in military cemeteries in Europe here.  And, there are crescents among the crosses at Arlington military cemetery.  In the French Military Cemetery in Rome, Italy, there are 1,888 burials.  It is a modest cemetery for 1,700 French Expeditotionary Corps soldiers, mainly Moroccans and Algerians. The cemetery is at the end of a small road, Via dei Casali di S. Spirito. Most of the grave markers bear a Muslim crescent while some have crosses. All, however, bear the inscription “Mort pour la France”.

Arabs and Jews once fought together under the British Flag against the Nazis in the Palestine Regiment.  Robert Fisk wrote about the Arabs in the Palestine regiment in an article that opens with this statement:  No one remembers the Palestine Regiment. Even this morning, on the actual day of remembrance, few will recall that Arab and Jew once fought together under the British flag against Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Even fewer will know the extraordinary story of an Arab and a Jew who fought side by side against Hitler, and then twice fought each other as enemy combatants – in 1948 and 1967 – and of how, in their declining years, they became friends. But in a Middle East in which “hawks” and “doves” and “terrorists” and “security forces” battle to the death, their story provides an extraordinary – and shaming – indictment of both Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat.   He also writes about other Arab and Muslim soldiers who fought for Britain in battles like El Alamein.  There was also an Arab Legion from what was then called Trans-Jordan. In May 1941, the Arab Legion Mechanized Regiment participated against pro-Nazi Rashid Ali who had seized power in Iraq and was attacking British forces located there.

There were many Muslim Merchant Seamen in WWII.  In fact, War History reports “If we look at just the ships sunk by U-boats in WW2, we see that over 3,300 Indian crewmembers died in these attacks, of which the overwhelming majority were Muslim.” 

Inayat Bunglawala reports in Honor our Muslim soldiers  “Inscribed in marble at the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in Ypres, Belgium, are the names of 54,896 soldiers of Britain and the Commonwealth who died in the Ypres Salient in the first world war and whose graves are unknown. The German army had surrounded Ypres on three sides and subjected it to bombardment throughout much of the war as it stood in the path of its plans to occupy the rest of Belgium. Among the dead recorded at the Menin Gate Memorial are Muhammad Aslam, Abdullah Khan, Ahmad Khan, Muhammad Usman and many others with recognisably Muslim names.”

The majority of Allied troops that landed on the beaches of Provence in August, 1944 were “Free French” Muslims from North and West Africa. Thousands of Moroccan and Indian Muslim troopsvoluntarily served in the liberation of Italy. They risked and gave their lives along with Polish freedom fighters and American GIs at Monte Cassino. Tens of thousands more Soviet Muslim troopsbravely served at hellish Stalingrad and Leningrad. All of us should honor and be thankful for their sacrifice in helping end the scourge of Nazism. 

Noor Inayat Khan fought against the Nazis and was killed at Dachau concentration camp.  See Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan, d. Dachow, Poland, 1944 In 2012 she was honored by Britain with a bronze bust memorializing her heroism.  Her photo is at the top of this page.  The photo below is from Chez Chiara

The stories of Muslim rescuers of Jews are largely unknown and unpublished. Only in the past fifteen years have Holocaust researchers brought a few to the public’s attention. Yad Vashem and other Holocaust memorial groups have honored several Muslims (whose courageous stories we have been able to confirm) as Righteous Gentiles.  70 Muslims are named by Yad Vashem as “Righteous Among the Nations” for aiding Jews in North Africa, Turkey and Albania during the Nazi era. 

Bulgarian Christians and Muslims protected Jews from the Nazis. 

Albania was the only Muslim majority country in Europe.  Albania not only saved Albanian Jews from the Nazis, but, in fact, Albania was the only country in Europe that had a larger Jewish population at the end of the war than before the war.  Not one Albanian Jew or any other Jew who came to Albania for protection was turned over to the Nazis.  There was a film called “The Optimists” which tells the virtually unknown story of how 50,000 Jews living in Bulgaria survived the Holocaust despite intensive Nazi efforts to deport them to death camps. Fifty thousand Jews didn’t die because Bulgarian Christians and Muslims found ways to protect Jews from their would-be murderers.  – – The Albanian Refik Vesili who — as a 16-year-old — saved eight Jews by hiding them in his family’s mountain home.  –  The English-Albanian plaque in the Jewish Corner of Tirana’s National Museum lists the names of 33 Muslim Albanians who have been honored by Yad Vashem, and leaves space for other people “whose names remain unrecorded.” 

The New Jew site notes “What made the Albanians refuse to comply with the Nazis when almost everyone else did? Their strong Muslim beliefs.  Here is one man’s explanation:  “Why did my father save a stranger at the risk of his life and the entire village?” asked Enver Alia Sheqer, son of Righteous Among the Nations Ali Sheqer Pashkaj, who is featured in the exhibition. “My father was a devout Muslim. He believed that to save one life is to enter paradise.” 

300,000 Moroccan Jews in Israel mourned the death of King Hassan of Morocco in 1999.

His father, Mohammed V, is widely credited with having saved Morocco’s Jews from deportation during World War II, and Hassan continued the philo-Semitic policies of his father. Although there was an outbreak of anti-Jewish incidents following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the Jewish community was generally safe under the protection of both Mohammed and Hassan, who proudly considered the Jews “Moroccans of Jewish origin.

The sons of World War II Jewish communal leaders, related stories of regional governors inMorocco who gave Jewish leaders matches and told them to burn the list of the names, addresses and assets of local Jews. Without lists, it was more difficult to deport the Jews and confiscate their assets.

Robert Satloff reported in a NYT article that Arabs welcomed Jews into their homes, guarded Jews’ valuables so Germans could not confiscate them, shared with Jews their meager rations and warned Jewish leaders of coming SS raids. The sultan of Morocco and the bey of Tunisprovided moral support and, at times, practical help to Jewish subjects. In Vichy-controlled Algiers, mosque preachers gave Friday sermons forbidding believers from serving as conservators of confiscated Jewish property. In the words of Yaacov Zrivy, from a small town near Sfax, Tunisia, “The Arabs watched over the Jews.”    I found remarkable stories of rescue, too. In the rolling hills west of Tunis, 60 Jewish internees escaped from an Axis labor camp and banged on the farm door of a man named Si Ali Sakkat, who courageously hid them until liberation by the Allies. In the Tunisian coastal town of Mahdia, a dashing local notable named Khaled Abdelwahhab scooped up several families in the middle of the night and whisked them to his countryside estate to protect one of the women from the predations of a German officer bent on rape.”  He also tells the story of Yehuda Chachmon, a Libyan Jew interned in an Italian camp in Giado. “The Arab camp guards opted out of the sadistic torture inflicted on Jews and other prisoners by the Italians. Of the 2,600 Jews in the Giado camp 562 died in less than a year. The Italian guards treated the Jews with brutality; the attitude of the Arab guards under the Italians was excellent. They even found secret ways to ease our discomfort.”

The Tunisian Khaled Abdul-Wahab was nominated as the first Arab to be declared a Righteous among the Nations at the Jewish Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem. But his efforts were rejected two years later on the grounds that Abdul-Wahab did not risk his life, as he did not act against Tunisian law while caring for two Jewish families when their house was confiscated during the German occupation. Whether or not he should be included is still in dispute.  Also in Tunisia, in Tunisia, the wartime rulers Ahmed Pasha Bey and his cousin Moncef Bey offered vital public support for Jews facing Vichy persecution. “They regularly warned Jewish leaders of German plans, helped Jews avoid arrest orders, intervened to prevent deportations, and even hid Jews so they could evade the Germans. Moncef Bey is remembered fondly by Tunisian Jews. “He gave the Jews equal treatment,” declared Shlomo Barad. “He did not allow them to be discriminated.”

– The Bosnians – Not only did Dervis and Servet Korkut hide many Jews from the local pro-Nazi regime, including a young Jewish woman resistance fighter named Mira Bakovic,  but Dervis Korkut saved the precious Sarajevo Haggadah, concealing it in his home and thus keeping the 14th-century volume, the best known illuminated Hebrew manuscript, intact.

Selahattin Ulkumen, the Turkish Consul at Rhodes, whose rescue of several dozen Jews from certain extermination at Auschwitz led to the death of his wife Mihrinissa when the Nazis retaliated against him.  One example is that of Bernard Turiel was born in 1934 in Rhodes, an island off the coast of Turkey. Turiel, his father and his brother were in prison, awaiting transport to Auschwitz. They were saved by the courageous efforts of Selahattin Ulkumen, a Muslim, who insisted that due to the treaty between Germany and Turkey, Turkish citizens, including Jews, could not be deported.  If not for the heroic measures of the Turks, none of this would have been possible. ”They were our saviors,” Turiel said. They met again in 1988, when the Anti-Defamation League of B’Nai Brith presented Ulkumen it’s ”Courage to Care” award.”

Stanford Shaw, professor of Turkish History at UCLA, has written about the thousands of Jews saved by the Turkish government. “Turkish diplomats in France spent a good deal of time organizing ‘train caravans’ to take Turkish Jews back to Turkey… In addition to providing material assistance to Turkish Jews persecuted in France and other countries occupied by the Nazis in Western Europe, Turkey also helped East European Jews persecuted in countries such as Greece, Lithuania, Romania, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. Right from the start of the war, the Turkish government permitted the Jewish Agency to maintain rescue offices at hotels in Istanbul.”

Republican Turkey due to its neutrality during most of World War II, and its unique geographical proximity to both Europe and the Middle East, Turkey and Turkish diplomats living abroad played an important role for European Jews in danger during World War II and the Holocaust, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Muslim-majority Turkey rescued over 15,000 Turkish Jews and over 100,000 European Jews.

The film tells the story of Benghabrit, the founder of the Grand Mosque of Paris, in rescuing Jews from the Nazis

  In France, the Central Mosque of Paris served as a shelter for hundreds of French Jewish children being rescued from deportation to death camps.  This mosque was built in the 1920s, as an expression of gratitude from France for the over half-million Muslims from its African possessions who fought alongside the French in WWI. About 100,000 of them died in the trenches.  A film has been made about the WWII Muslim rescuers called Their Children Are Like Our Own Children.  Another film “Free Man”, traces the heroism of the founder of the Grand Mosque of Paris in saving Jews from the Nazis.  It tells the story of Algerian-born Kaddour Benghabrit who rescued Jews in France from the Nazi brutality.  Benghabrit provided shelter and Muslim identification documents to scores of Jews to help them escape arrest by Nazi troops.  He also used the Grand Mosque of Paris to shelter more than 100 Jews from persecution. (Photo from Islamophobia Today)

Also in Paris, thousands of Iranian Jews and their descendants were saved by an Iranian Muslim diplomat called the Muslim Schindler. A new book. “In The Lion’s Shadow” tells how Abdol-Hossein Sardari risked everything to help fellow Iranians who were Jewish escape the Nazis.  Sardari used his influence and German contacts to gain exemptions from Nazi race laws for more than 2,000 Iranian Jews, and possibly others, arguing that they did not have blood ties to European Jewry.  He was also able to help many Iranians, including members of Jewish community, return to Tehran by issuing them with the new-style Iranian passports they needed to travel across Europe.

  Abdol-Hossein Sardari, Bern, 1931   

Sardari trained as a lawyer in Switzerland before becoming a diplomat 

In Algeria, pro-Jewish sympathy was led by religious scholars like Abdel Hamid Ben Badis, founder of the Algerian League of Muslims and Jews who was an “intensely devout man with a modern, open and tolerant view of the world.” Shaykh Taieb el Okbi was another leader who had close ties to the Jews. When French pro-fascist groups were urging Algerian Muslims to persecute the Jews, Shaykh Taieb issued a fatwa prohibiting that. And from pulpits of Algerian mosques imams issued instructions to their followers to defy the fascists and behave honourably towards the Jews.  The Jewish resistance leader in Algiers, Jose Aboulker, testified how when “Jewish goods were put up for public auction, an instruction went round the mosques, ‘Our brothers are suffering misfortune. Do not take their goods.’

Egyptian intellectuals like Ahmad Hasan Al-Zayyat who was the owner and editor of the most important intellectual weekly in 1930s Egypt and the Arab world, Al-Risala. He expressed standsagainst Nazi Germany and Hitler in a most lucid manner, particularly on the eve of the war and its outbreak.  Israel Gershoni, a professor of history at Tel Aviv University, has researched a number of Egyptian cultural magazines from the inter-war period, including al-Hillal (The Crescent) and al-Risala (The Message). According to Gershoni, here the persecution of Jews in Germany was a central theme early on, and it was mostly critically reviewed.

The bottom line is that all of those who participate in, cooperate with, or do not speak out against evil (no matter what their religion) bring shame on the human race.  As the Qur’an warns us all: “Oh you who believe, stand up firmly for justice, as witnesses to God, even if it be against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be against rich or poor; for God can best protect both. Do not follow any passion, lest you not be just. And if you distort or decline to do justice, verily God is well-acquainted with all that you do” (Quran 4:135).

HOLOCAUST DENIAL

It is also important to remember that after WWII, there have been some people who engage in a sick amnesia about history called “holocaust denial”.  Sadly, there have been some Muslims who engaged in this despicable denial.

King Mohammed VI of Morocco, has issued a proclamation on the Holocaust, a specific and deliberate refutation of Holocaust denial. He said: “Amnesia has no effect on my understanding of the Holocaust or that of my people.”  He proclaimed in 2009: “We must together endeavor to reassert reason and the values which underpin the legitimacy of a space of coexistence where the words of dignity, justice and freedom will express themselves in the same way and will coexist with the same requirements, regardless of our origins, cultures or spirituality. This is our interpretation in Morocco, of the duty of remembrance dictated by the Shoah.”

A Statement Of American Muslim Imams And Community Leaders On Holocaust Denial & anti-Semitism was issued in 2011.

UPDATE 1/30/2011

Illume reports that

An exhibit new to the Soho Photo Gallery retells the story of a tragic crime against humanity with a new eyewitness.

Acclaimed fine arts photographer Norman H. Gershman spent over six years documenting the Muslim families that helped rescue Jews during World War II.  His collection of photographs, taken throughout Albania and Kosovo, are on display and entitled ‘‘Besa: Muslims Who Saved Jews During World War II.’’ A documentary film is also currently in the works.

In an interview with NPR in August 2009, host Liane Hansen and Gershman discuss how 65 Muslims under Nazi occupation in Kosovo and Albania were able to save approximately 2,000 Jews during the war.  In that interview, Gershman tells Hansen that the foreign minister of Albania then was a Bektashi who sent an undercover message out to all of the Bektashi, telling them ‘‘that the Jewish children will sleep in the same bed as your children. The Jewish children will eat the same food as your children. The Jewish children will be your family.’‘

When Gershman learned this story, he had what he calls a ‘‘visceral’’ reaction.  ‘‘Muslims who saved Jews? I must record this forgotten event with my camera and tell the story through the various family histories I was to meet,’’ Gershman writes on his foundation’s website. ‘‘The rescue of Jews in Albania was a unique experience in Holocaust history as Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler were welcomed not as refugees but as guests.’‘

The word besa in the exhibit’s title comes from the Albanian code of honor.  ‘‘Besa is a message to the world of brotherhood and compassion for those in need and unique to the Albanian people. Equally important is the message, through my portraits and stories, of the compassion extended to Jews by Albanian Muslim families during the Holocaust,’’ writes Gershman.

Gershman is also the founder of The Eye Contact Foundation, which promotes all-encompassing, global tolerance through the use of portrait photography.  ’‘Besa: Muslims Who Saved Jews During World War II’‘ will be at the Soho Photo Gallery until January 28th. If you are not in New York and can’t wait until the documentary is completed, you can see check out the compilation of photographs in Gershman’s book.

UPDATE 2/8/2011

Pamela Geller has just published a truly vicious article defending Stalin’s attempt at genocide against Chechen Muslims.  In this article she falsely claims that the Chechens were allied with the Nazis.  Here is an article from Spencerwatch rebutting her false claims:

Recently Pamela Geller put up a post on her hate blog about the suicide bombing at  Moscow’s airport. Amidst her usual anti-Islam/Muslim diatribe Geller sided with Joseph Stalin’s genocidal policy after World War 2 in which he relocated the entire indigenous populations of Chechnya and Ingusethia to Siberia:

Islamic Terror Attack Homicide Bomber Kills At Least 31 Human Beings

UPDATE: Frank the Great:

“The Kremlin is struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency in the mainly Muslim North Caucasus, and rebels have repeatedly vowed they will take their battle to the Russian heartland.”-from the article

This region (North Caucasus) was a big source of the Muslim Waffen SS Divisions during World War II. The Waffen SS Divisions fought with the Nazis against the Russians on the eastern front during WW2. For that reason Stalin relocated most Muslims in the region to Siberia. Khrushchev brought them back in 1956. Khrushchev made a mistake in doing that.

Most people today don’t know that the Muslim world was allied with the Nazis, especially in the Middle East (Iraq e.g.-where the British invaded to overthrw a pro-Nazi govn’t) and the Caucasus. The Cold War hid all that till the collapse of the USSR in 1990.

As William Faulkner said: “The past is never really past.”

Geller updated her blog to include the above statement from someone named “Frank the Great” obviously she agrees with everything he says. Unfortunately what he says is a gross distortion of history, an approval of genocide and extremely disgusting.

It is true that Stalin blamed Chechens for aiding the Germans during the War and this is how he justified their transfer to Siberia. The real reason that Stalin transferred the Muslim populations of Chechnya and Ingusethia was due to a revolt led by Khasan Israilov from 1940-44 against the Soviet state for independence:

Khasan is regarded as the most influential Chechen guerrilla leader during the Second World War, and he is considered a national hero for many Chechens. He was infamous to the Soviets, and is to many Russians, for his 1940-1944 uprising, which many Russians connected to an abortive German plot to undermine Soviet control over the North Caucasus (in reality, however, relations between Israilov’s Chechen partisans and the Germans were tense at best, hostile at worse).

Khasan himself was a Communist, here is his letter to the Chechen Communist Party:

“I have decided to become the leader of a war of liberation of my own people. I understand all too well that not only in Checheno-Ingushetia, but in all nations of the Caucasus it will be difficult to win freedom from the heavy yoke of Red imperialism. But our fervent belief in justice and our faith in the support of the freedom-loving peoples of the Caucasus and of the entire world inspire me toward this deed, in your eyes impertinent and pointless, but in my conviction, the sole correct historical step. The valiant Finns are now proving that the Great Enslaver Empire is powerless against a small but freedom-loving people. In the Caucasus you will find your second Finland, and after us will follow other oppressed peoples.”

“For twenty years now, the Soviet authorities have been fighting my people, aiming to destroy them group by group: first the kulaks, then the mullahs and the ‘bandits’, then the bourgeois-nationalists. I am sure now that the real object of this war is the annihilation of our nation as a whole. That is why I have decided to assume the leadership of my people in their struggle for liberation.”

In reality the Chechens never fought for Hitler on the Eastern front, that is a BOLD-FACED LIE. Attempts at forming an alliance with Chechens floundered because of mutual distrusts, conflicting ideologies and Germany’s alliance with the Cossacks, who were the avowed enemies of Chechens.

In reality Chechens fought with the Red Army to liberate Russia and Eastern Europe but instead were treated like sub humans by the Soviets:

Stalin alleged that the peoples of the North Caucasus were responsible for mass collaboration with the Germans, despite the fact that an estimated 157,000 Chechen and Ingush conscripts had fought in the Red Army against Nazi Germany, and many had fought all the way to the liberation of Berlin. On the night of February 23, 1944 Lavrentiy Beria personally carried out the Chechevitsa, the forced deportation of the Chechens and Ingush to Central Asia. Beria went on to issue a verbal order that any Chechen or Ingush found ‘untransportable should be liquidated’ on the spot, and under this pretext thousands were summarily executed. Victims of typhus, which had reached epidemic proportions, were immediately executed, as were pregnant women and the elderly; another example of Soviet excesses came in the Chechen village of Khaibakh, where more than 700 Chechens were locked in a stable and burnt alive. Chechen literature and manuscripts were also burned by the Soviets, and food and water supplies were poisoned to eliminate any that stayed behind.

The tragedy of this transfer of Chechens from their ancestral home is mocked by Geller and her friends, and why should we be surprised as Geller supports the same thing for Palestinians. The transfer of Chechens led to over a quarter of the population dying. That Geller would side with Stalin only confirms her long list of not only anti-Freedom beliefs but also support for murder and genocide.

 

UPDATE 12/7/2011 – More on the Mufti of Jerusalem

Sadly, there are some who just can’t stop themselves from exploiting and focusing on the villains in order to incite the same sort of hatred that led to the holocaust.  Pamela Geller has just posted an article about a controversial statement by an American Ambassador and used this opportunity to once again bring up the Mufti of Jerusalem and what she calls the “vicious Islamic Antisemitism as commanded in the quran.”  She claims that “The role of the Mufti and the Muslim world in World War II has been whitewashed from history. Why? So that they might rise again to commit the same unspeakable, horrific crimes againt humanity?” 

Geller calls the Mufti “the leader of the Muslim world” which is nonsense.  He was not the leader of the Muslim world any more than Geller is the leader of the Jewish world.  The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem is the title for the the Sunni Muslim cleric in charge of Jerusalem’s Islamic holy places, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque.  There is a Grand Mufti of Jerusalem today, does anyone even know his name outside of Jerusalem? 

Additionally, in the case of the Mufti, some basic facts about how he even got the title are relevant.  He was appointed Mufti by the British **, and his “appointment as mufti was itself the subject of much controversy. The decision to grant al-Husseini the position was made by Herbert Samuel, the first high commissioner of Palestine. It was odd that Samuel, a British Jew, would appoint a man who would be responsible for so much unrest within the Mandatory area.”  Samuel pardoned al-Husseini and, in January 1922, appointed him” as the new Mufti, and even invented a new title of Grand Mufti. He was simultaneously made President of a newly created Supreme Muslim Council. Al-Husseini thereby became the religious and political leader of the Arabs.”  He was given this appointment against the local Muslim vote, as he “had come in a poor fourth place in the vote. The Muslim community rejected his candidacy because he had not received any credible Islamic education. He was neither a Sheikh (religiously accredited leader) nor an Alim (Islamic scholar), but he became the pre-eminent Arab power in Palestine.”  Samuel also created the Supreme Muslim Council in 1921. 

Geller cannot see that all of the Muslim heroes who fought against anti-Semitism and genocide were inspired by the Qur’an, and that the Mufti was not representative of the “Muslim world”.  This sort of hateful stereotyping of an entire religion is exactly what led to the holocaust during WWII, and which leads today to incidents such as the desecration of  the graves of Muslim WWII Soldiers Graves Vandalized in France.  Any time anyone talks about “all Muslims”, “all Jews”, “all any group”, we know we are dealing with bigotry.

As to the “Islamic Jew hatred” Geller claims is mandated by the Qur’an, I would remind her of the statement by American Muslim Imams and scholars which reads in part

We bear witness to the absolute horror and tragedy of the Holocaust where over twelve million human souls perished, including six million Jews.

We condemn any attempts to deny this historical reality and declare such denials or any justification of this tragedy as against the Islamic code of ethics.

We condemn anti-Semitism in any form. No creation of Almighty God should face discrimination based on his or her faith or religious conviction.

We stand united as Muslim American faith and community leaders and recognize that we have a shared responsibility to continue to work together with leaders of all faiths and their communities to fight the dehumanization of all peoples based on their religion, race or ethnicity. With the disturbing rise of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hatred, rhetoric and bigotry, now more than ever, people of faith must stand together for truth.

Geller (who is Jewish) should understand why it is important for all good people to say “never again!”

UPDATE 12/28/2011

An important article by Eva Weisel, a Holocaust survivor was just published in the NY Times,Honoring all who saved Jews.  She tells the story of Khaled Abdul Wahab of Tunisia who saved her family during the German occupation, and then says

During the horrors of the Holocaust, non-Jews saved many thousands of Jews from death and depravity at the hands of Germans and their allies. Yad Vashem, Israel’s official Holocaust memorial museum, has recognized more than 23,000 of these brave men and women as “The Righteous Among the Nations.” Our family’s rescuer deserves to be among that number. And in his case, the impact of recognition would have powerful reverberations, striking a blow against Holocaust denial in a part of the world where such denial is widespread.

That is because my hometown is Mahdia, on the eastern shore of Tunisia, and our rescuer, Khaled Abdul Wahab, was an Arab Muslim. (He passed away in 1997.)

So far, however, Abdul Wahab has been denied the recognition he deserves. Nearly five years ago, in January 2007, the Department of the Righteous at Yad Vashem nominated him to be a “righteous,” the first Arab ever to be formally considered for this honor. This nomination was based on witness testimony from my late sister, Anny Boukris. In March of that year, however, the official Commission for the Designation of the Righteous, a body presided over by a retired Israeli judge and created by Israeli law to decide who merits recognition as a “righteous,” voted to reject the nomination. That decision was kept secret for two years.

In 2010, that same jurist, Justice Jacob Tuerkel, sent the Abdul Wahab file back to the commission for a second review. This time, the case was bolstered by two fresh testimonies — a video interview of my cousin Edmee Masliah, who was with me at the farm and now lives outside Paris, and a notarized letter I wrote recounting my own experience. Yad Vashem now had three firsthand accounts of the story. But to my complete dismay, the Commission for the Designation of the Righteous once again voted to reject the nomination. Abdul Wahab was a noble man, I was told by Yad Vashem, but his actions did not rise to the statutory level required to merit the “righteous” designation — that is, he didn’t “risk his life” to save Jewish lives.

While that may be the wording of the law, I am told by experts that Abdul Wahab would not be the first rescuer of Jews not to have suffered physical harm, let alone life-threatening danger. Many in France who have won that designation were honored because they acted to save Jews without knowing for sure what fate would await them if they were caught. In addition, some of the famous diplomats honored as righteous were never arrested, injured or threatened with death for aiding Jews.

I refuse to believe that Yad Vashem has one standard for “righteous” in Europe and another for “righteous” who performed their sacred duty on the other side of the Mediterranean, in an Arab country.

Sixty-nine years after pinning a yellow star to my chest in my native land, I know that I was able to enjoy a long, full life because Abdul Wahab confronted evil and saved me, as he saved other fortunate members of my family. I hope that Yad Vashem reconsiders his case before no one is left to tell his story.

 

UPDATE 6/17/2012

TAM has just published Desecration of Cemeteries is An Act of Barbarism about the desecration of gravestones and graves in cemeteries which seems to have become more common in the past few years.  The articles lists and discusses a number of incidents, some anti-Semitic, some Islamohobic, and some political, including desecration of Muslim military graves in France, Britain, etc. (photo below of desecration of 500 graves of Muslim allied soldiers in France).  This year, a military cemetery in Libya was also desecrated.  The article discusses not only how wrong such behavior is, but the Islamophobic response to the Libyan incident only.

This brief list is very sad, as it shows that such behavior is carried out by members of many communities around the globe.  And, this barbarity continues.  In February, the graves of tombs at the British military cemetary in Benghazi, Libya were desecrated in protest of a Qur’an burning by U.S. soldiers, and this week another gravestone in that cemetery was desecrated.

Such acts can only be viewed as barbaric and cruel by decent people.  It doesn’t matter who carried out the desecration, or what their justification.  It is outside of the bounds of decency.

It is even more ghoulish and barbaric to focus selectively on one such act in an attempt to smear only one community, and to make it seem that they are the only ones capable of such barbarity.  According to hateful bigots like Pamela Geller, “under the Sharia this act of desecration is righteous”.  Her partner in hate, Robert Geller wrote “the Muslims who felt free to desecrate them were working from the same attitude of contempt for unbelievers and their works. …  As such, non-Muslim analysts would do well not to see these desecrations as isolated incidents. But given that willful blindness about the ways in which jihadists use the texts and teachings of Islam to justify violence and supremacism is now official dogma in Washington, never to be questioned, it is much more likely that these incidents will be brushed aside or ignored altogether in the continued quixotic and ever-fruitless effort by the leaders of the “worst of creatures” to win hearts and minds among those of the “best of nations.”

As usual, Geller and Spencer are WRONG.  Such behavior is not “righteous” under the Sharia, under Halakha, or according to any religion.  The desecration of graves (or the desecration of human bodies) is an act of absolute contempt for humanity.  Sadly such criminal acts are carried out by extremist and bigoted members of all communities. Muslims are no more likely than anyone else to carry out such acts.  The only individuals who actually promote or carry out such acts proudly, are individuals like those connected with groups like Infidels United and other Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, or extremist groups.

UPDATE 8/21/2012

The Islamophobes, particularly Pamela Geller, continue to use the phrases “Islamic Jew hatred”, and “Islamic anti-Semitism” and claim that such bigotry is mandated by Islam.  TAM has publishedPamela Geller Is Wrong About “Islamic Jew Hatred Commanded by the Qur’an” which refutes this false claim in detail.  We had previously published Pamela Geller’s False Claim that Muslims Curse Christians and Jews in Their Daily Prayers refuting that claim about Sura Fatiha. 

UPDATE 11/23/2012

Using every opportunity to advance her propaganda, Pamela Geller has used the current Israeli attack on Gaza as an opportunity to once again attempt to connect Islam and Muslims with the Nazis.  She published a photo of some Muslim Nazi soldiers praying, and titled her short screed “Nazi redux”.  She is insinuating that the Palestinians are Nazis.  Actually she doesn’t just insinuate this, she states it pretty directly, saying Yes, that’s the ticket. Jihadists fire thousands of rockets at Jewish civilians and get rewarded with booty. Why stop? How much more will be pledged to these savages for firing rockets at Jews whose only objective (and crime) is to live?  The issues of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict are not the issues of the European Nazis.  See Must Read Articles on Israel’s Savage Attacks on Gaza for a background on this current crisis from a different point of view than that of the Islamophobes.  Other Islamophobes have also used this crisis to make a Muslim/Palestinian/Nazi comparison. 

Perhaps this photo of Muslim soldiers at prayer in a large tent which was set up outside the Woking Mosque in England as part of the Eid ul Fitr celebrations in 1941 should be considered by Geller, as well as the many other examples already given in this article.  (A copy of that Eid photo is below).

SEE ALSO:

A Day of Deep Sorrow: An Imam’s Reflections on Yom Hashoah, Imam Abdullah Anteplihttp://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/a_day_of_deep_sorrow_an_imams_reflections_on_yom_hashoah

Albanian Muslims risk their own lives to save Jews from Nazis during World War IIhttp://www.ksdk.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=222601&catid=3

Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust’s Long Reach into Arab Lands, by Robert Satloff – Photo book: http://www.eyecontactfoundation.org/BESA 
– Documentary: http://www.godshousefilm.com

The Arabs and Nazi Germany: Collaborators and Antagonists, Sonja Hegasyhttp://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/the_arabs_and_nazi_germany_collaborators_and_antagonists

THE BIG LIE ABOUT `ISLAMIC FASCISM’, Eric S. Margolishttp://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/the_big_lie_about_islamic_fascism/

Blowback from the GOP’s holy war http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/02/01/islamophobia/

BOOK REVIEW:  American Fascism: The Christian Right and the War on America (Chris Hedges), Carolyn Bakerhttp://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/book_review_american_fascism_the_christian_right_and_the_war_on_america_chr/

Book:  Besa Muslims Who Saved Jews in World War II: the Photographs of Norman H. Gershmanhttp://www.hmh.org/la_Besa_Research.shtml

Book Review:  Turkey and The Holocaust:Turkey’s Role in Rescuing Turkish and European Jewry from Nazi Persecution, 1933-1945, Irem Guney http://www.turkishweekly.net/book/17/turkey-and-the-holocaust-turkey%E2%80%99s-role-in-rescuing-turkish-and-european-jewry-from-nazi-persecution-1933-1945.html

Book:  Turkey and the Holocaust: Turkey’s Role in Rescuing Turkish and European Jewry From Nazi Persecution, 1933-1945, Stanford Shaw   http://www.amazon.com/Turkey-Holocaust-Rescuing-Persecution-1933-1945/dp/0814779603

Britain’s Muslim soldiers http://britainsmuslimsoldiers.com/#/ww-ii/4554736071

British Muslims, Europe and the Holocaust, Yahya Birthttp://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/british_muslims_europe_and_the_holocaust

Christian Right and `Islamo-Facism`, by Dan Jennejohn http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20060814&articleId=2955

Counterproductive Counterterrorism: How Anti-Islamic Rhetoric is Impeding America’s Homeland Security http://www.mpac.org/article.php?id=354

Collaborators and Antagonists, Sonja Hegasy http://www.qantara.de/webcom/show_article.php?wc_c=476&wc_id=1423

Danger lurks in use of term ‘Islamofascism’http://www.mlive.com/columns/aanews/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1194536593267670.xml&coll=2

Documentary Review: Uncovering the Obsessions of “Obsession”, David Shashahttp://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/documentary_review_uncovering_the_obsessions_of_obsession/

The Disgrace of Holocaust Denial, Hasan Zillur Rahimhttp://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/the_disgrace_of_holocaust_denial

“Fascist-Islamophobia”: A Case Study in Totalitarian Demonization – 5 parts, Dr. Robert Dickson Cranehttp://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/fascist_islamophobia_a_case_study_in_totalitarian_demonization/

Fascists? Look who’s talking, By Jim Lobe http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HI02Ak04.html

Fighting Words: The Abuse of Islam in Political Rhetoric, L. Ali Khanhttp://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/fighting_words_the_abuse_of_islam_in_political_rhetoric/

The forgotten heroes, Muslim soldiers in WWI and WWII http://www.emel.com/article?id=65&a_id=1699

“Free Men” Film Tribute to Paris Muslims who saved Jewshttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2011/1005/1224305256285.html

“God’s House,” a documentary that chronicles the mission of photographer Norman H. Gershman to bring to light the story of Muslims who saved Jews during World War II  http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2009/11/07/my-grandma-fritzi-movie-star-or-how-a-muslim-king-saved-jews-in-world-war-ii-essay/tab/article/

Holocaust Denial Undermines Islam, Shaykh Hamza Yusufhttp://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/holocaust_denial_undermines_islam

Holocaust truth is told on Muslim soil,  Michael Berenbaumhttp://www.jewishjournal.com/world/article/holocaust_truth_is_told_on_muslim_soil_20110927/

Holocaust’s untold heroes: Their story is rarely told, but Albanian Muslims took in fleeing Jews during World War II, saving thousands of lives, SHAHZADA IRFANhttp://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6592238.html

Holocaust exhibit in Israel remembers Muslim “righteous gentiles”http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1059416.html

David Horowitz’ Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, An Idea Whose Time Has Passed, Sheila Musajihttp://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/david_horowitz_islamo_fascism_awareness_week_an_idea_whose_time_has_pa

Hostilities Escalate In a War Of Words http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060819/COLUMNISTS0402/608190318/1326

How the right played the fascism card against Islam, Albert Scardinohttp://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1405605,00.html

Interview with Norman Gershman: The Muslims who saved Jewshttp://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112384539

Is it a war with Islamic terrorists? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/22/AR2007122201492.html

Is the Christian Right a Fascist Movement?, John W. Whiteheadhttp://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/is_the_christian_right_a_fascist_movement/

Islam and Fascism? What Next?, Dr. S. Khurshidhttp://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/islam_and_fascism_what_next/

Islamic Fascists?  Deceptive Labels & Propaganda are Counterproductive, Sheila Musajihttp://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/islamic_fascists1

Islamic Fascism The New Hysteria,  Alan Maass http://www.counterpunch.org/maass09122006.html

Islamic Fascism the Enemy, Not Terror, Says Santorum http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=/Politics/archive/200607/POL20060721a.html

Islamic Fascism: The Propaganda of Our Times, by Paul R. Dunnhttp://www.twf.org/News/Y2006/0906-Fascism.html

Islamic Fascisms?, By ISMAEL HOSSEIN-ZADEH http://www.counterpunch.org/hossein10262006.html

Islamic fascist terminology causing racist reaction, Dave Johnsonhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-johnson/terror-alerts-causing-gen_b_27630.html

Islamic or Muslim Terrorism and Extremism:  Are they all Contradictions in Terms?, Jeremy Henzell-Thomashttp://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/islamic_or_muslim_terrorism_and_extremism_are_they_all_contradictions_in_te/

‘Islamic terrorism’ an insult that distorts reality, Jimmy E. Joneshttp://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/islamic_terrorism_an_insult_that_distorts_reality/

‘Islamo-fascism’ is an Oxymoron, Enver Masud http://www.twf.org/News/Y2005/1025-Oxymorons.html

Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week III – “Annual” 6 month event bombs again, Sheila Musajihttp://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/islamo_fascism_awareness_week_iii_annual_6_month_event_bombs_again

Islamofascism’s ill political wind,  James Carrollhttp://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/01/21/islamofascisms_ill_political_wind/

The Islamo-Fascist Rationale for Abandoning Liberty, by Jacob G. Hornbergerhttp://www.informationliberation.com/?id=20973

Islamophobia in the Presidential Elections, Malik Mujahidhttp://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/islamophobia_in_the_presidential_elections

Judeo-Christo-Fascism Awareness Week Comes to American Campuses!, Rabbi Arthur Waskowhttp://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/judeo_christo_fascism_awareness_week_comes_to_american_campuses/

Moral Superiority, 9/11, Islamic-Fascism – The Smokescreens of War, Imraan Siddiqihttp://www.counterpunch.org/siddiqi08052006.html

Muslim Violence, Christian Non-Violence:  People in Glass Houses Should Not Throw Words, Sheila Musajihttp://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/muslim_violence_christian_non_violence_people_in_glass_houses_should_not_th/

Muslim savior of holocaust Jews http://www.islamophobiatoday.com/2011/10/14/muslim-savior-of-holocaust-jews/

Muslims and Arabs in the U.S. militaryhttp://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/muslims_in_the_military

Muslims are a part of our American heritage, Sheila Musajihttp://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/dear_mr_sheldon_your_facts_regarding_muslim_americans_are_incorrect_he

Muslims Who Saved Jews During the Holocaust, Rebecca Schischa   http://blogs.forward.com/the-arty-semite/134920/#ixzz1fqugeWhe

Neo-Kharijite’s Not Islamic Fascists, Dr. Hesham A. Hassaballahttp://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/neo_kharijites_not_islamic_fascists/

Obama/Kerry Incident Proves “Muslim” Is the New “N” Word, Sheila Musajihttp://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/obama_kerry_incident_proves_muslim_is_the_new_n_word/

On Holocaust exploiters, deniers, and heroes, Mas’ood Cajeehttp://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/on_holocaust_exploiters_deniers_and_heroes

Oxymorons in the News Media, Enver Masudhttp://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/oxymorons_in_the_news_media/

Religio-Fascists in Our Midst (4 parts), Farish A. Noorhttp://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/religious_extremism_religio_fascists_in_our_midst_part_i/

Resources for Responding to Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, Sheila Musajihttp://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/islamo_fascism_awareness_week/

Remembrance Day: Muslim soldiers in Western Cemeteries with photographshttp://www.chezchiara.com/2010/11/remembrance-day-muslim-soldiers-in.html

Righteous Among the Nations: Muslims Who Saved Jews from Holocaust, Tim Townsendhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/01/project-explores-muslims-_n_777257.html

Saying ‘Islamic Fascists’ May Defeat Bush’s Purpose, Parvez Ahmed http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=77812&d=13&m=8&y=2006

“Terrorism” & “Islamo-Fascism” Propaganda Campaignshttp://www.ccun.org/Editorials/2007/October%20articles/Terrorism%20&%20Islamo-Fascism%20Propaganda%20Campaigns%20A%20Lecture%20By%20Dr.%20Hassan%20Ali%20El-Najjar.htm

Turkey Served As Safe Haven For Jews During The Holocaust, Margie Burnshttp://www.raoulwallenberg.net/saviors/diplomats/turkey-served-safe-haven-jews/

This is how Fascism comes: Reflections on the cost of silence, Tim Wisehttp://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/this_is_how_fascism_comes_reflections_on_the_cost_of_silence

US primaries anti-Islam terminology due to Muslims’ inaction, absencehttp://www.khabrein.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11675&Itemid=88

War and Words, by Hendrik Hertzberghttp://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/02/13/060213ta_talk_hertzberg

The War of Jesus and Allah, By Neal AbuNabhttp://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/the_war_of_jesus_and_allah/

‘War on Terror’ Rhetoric Sounds Like War on Islam, Parvez Ahmedhttp://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/war_on_terror_rhetoric_sounds_like_war_on_islam/

War on Terror Produces War of Words, By Mohamed Elshinnawihttp://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2006-08/2006-08-17-voa70.cfm

What exactly is fascism? http://people.howstuffworks.com/fascism.htm

What is Islamofascism?, Jack Hunter http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A38540

When Language Grows Darker and Darker, Joan Chittisterhttp://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/when_language_grows_darker_and_darker/

When Muslims Saved Jews, Eboo Patelhttp://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2009/06/besa_world_war_ii_re-told.html

Whitehall draws up new rules on language of terrorhttp://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,2251965,00.html

Who is the Fascist Here?, Charles Evanshttp://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_charles__060824_who_is_the_fascist_h.htm

Wrong War, Wrong Word http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060911/pollitt

Yad Vashem Honors Albanian Muslims Among Righteous Gentileshttp://thenewjew.wordpress.com/2007/10/30/yad-vashem-honors-albanian-muslims-among-righteous-gentiles/

Yad Vashem: the righteous among the nationshttp://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/righteous/stories/muslim_rescuers.asp

Originally posted 9/4/2006

Noor inayat khan Wwi and ii military cemetery besancon, france Nazi soldiers praying in church in germany Muslim graves 2 Ww ii military eid britain Wwii bosnian anti-fascist forces

 


 

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