Our vision to honour Muslim soldiers

The mission of the World Wars Muslim Memorial Trust is to honour the many hundreds of thousands of Muslim soldiers from the Indian Subcontinent, the Middle East and North Africa, who served with Britain and its Allies in the two World Wars. It will also honour Muslim personnel from the United Kingdom who have died in combat in recent times.

The objective is to locate a memorial within the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire where it would be freely accessible to the public. Small boards close to the base of the Memorial will have a QR Code enabling visitors to access stories and exhibits relating to the history of both World Wars and after. These will serve to educate the wider public about the role played by Muslim soldiers and the sacrifices they made.

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The idea of the World Wars Muslim Memorial Trust was conceived in November 2015, on the initiative of Tazi Husain, a retired NHS consultant surgeon, and inspired by Dr Irfan Malik, a practising Nottingham GP. At that time they both felt that in the Centenary commemoration of World War 1, the contribution of the soldiers from the Indian Subcontinent, in particular Muslim soldiers, had been largely forgotten. They were quickly joined by other like-minded persons and in a meeting in January 2016 the vision expanded to include all Muslims soldiers from around the world.  The mission and objectives of the Trust were formulated and agreed.