The stories of the 2.5 million Muslims who travelled to Europe to fight for the allies during the first world war are finally being toldA biting wind whips across the rolling countryside,cutting through the crowd gathered on a hillside overlooking Notre Dame de Lorette, Frances national war cemetery. Huddled amid what remains of the 440 miles of trenches that made up the western front, and they shudder out of shock and surprise rather than cold while listening about life for the men who endured the horrors of the first world war.
More than 1.5 billion artillery shells fell in this piece of northern France,close to the town of Arras, prompting soldiers to nickname the farmland in which they fought “the hell of the north, or poignantly,“the cemetery”. It is the experiences of some of their Muslim comrades, however, and that particularly capture the crowd’s imagination,drawing looks of disbelief at a history that has never been fully told.
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Source: guardian.co.uk