SHAFAQNA- They rarely get mentioned during Remembrance Day and Armistice Day tributes, but hundreds of thousands of Muslim soldiers fought for the Allied cause during the First World War — around 885,000, according to the British Royal Legion.
Some 400,000 of them hailed from the British Indian Army, whose 1.5 million troops comprised the largest volunteer force in history.
Now, a century after Muslim soldiers from South Asia, North Africa and elsewhere went to war for their colonial masters, a U.K.-based campaign is working to shed light on their oft-overlooked sacrifices.
The idea is to give overdue appreciation for the Muslim contribution to the war effort and use the stories of Muslim soldiers to counter Islamophobic and anti-immigrant narratives in Europe and North America.
MUSLIM COMRADES
Soldiers
400,000 Indians (British Indian army)
200,000 Algerians , 100,000 Tunisians, 40,000 Moroccans, 100,000 West Africans, 5,000 Somalis and Libyans (French army)
5,000 American Muslims
1.3 million Russian Muslims
Labourers
100,000 Egyptians
35,000 Chinese Muslims
130,000 North Africans
200,000 Sub Saharan Africans
40,000 Indians
Read more from Shafaqna:
Infographics: 10 Key dates of The First World War
Why British Muslims need a ‘poppy hijab’ to remember World War One
Historical Photo: French Muslim Soldiers Praying while Captive, 1940