You Can Wear Your Poppy With Pride: Followers Of Islam Will Not Be Offended

08/11/2019

Every year, around this time, there will be those who claim that Muslims object to people wearing the poppy.

Social media experiences an influx of memes and indignant posts spouting lies and myths

about the Poppy and, in particular, the Poppy and its relationship with the Islamic community.

Some of the most common myths that get pushed via social media include:

• Muslims do not wear poppies;

• Muslims are offended by poppies;

• Muslims want poppies banned; and

• Muslims assault people who wear poppies.

These are lies spread by the 'far right' (although, to be clear, many of the people who push these fake stories are not right wing in respect of their domestic politics) to spread hate and fear. These xenophobes use the myth that Muslims have a problem with poppies to increase the reach of their extremist Islamophobia. Millions see these lies on social media, believe what they are being told, and share the message.

However, Muslims do respect the Poppy. The massive majority certainly do not hate it or object to it. I have never been been exposed to resentment or hostility for wearing a poppy.

Never have I seen a Muslim walk up to a Poppy stand to say they are offended to see poppies on sale, or ever heard of such an incident.

Muslim soldiers fought in both World Wars, helping British forces and their allies to defeat the aggressors. In WWI, The Great War, 2.5 million Muslims travelled to Europe to fight for the allies; something the Islamaphobic haters who follow the likes of Paul Golding and Stephen Yaxley-Lennon won't want to admit.

Hatred of a religion and blaming members of a faith for the problems of a country is Fascism. When we wear our poppies, we remember those who fought against Fascism. With each passing year, there are less and less of those who experienced the two World Wars still with us. As the elderly pass away, they take with them the memories of the experience of fascism.

Thugs like Golding and Yaxley-Lennon use the very symbol of the fight against fascism to fuel their own personal agenda of hate and religious prejudice.

It is this prejudice that has caused these false claims, that Muslims hate poppies, to spread.

There may have been one or two incidents where poppies have been burned by Islamist extremists. However, these people are not typical of how Muslims view the poppy.

The Poppy Hijab was designed by Tabinda-Kauser Ishaq, a 25 year old British Muslim woman. She did this whilst studying at the London College of Fashion. She said. “The idea to do a headscarf came from knowing that many Muslims generally mark Remembrance Day. We felt it wasn’t that widely known. The number of Muslim soldiers who fought in World War One was even less known. We wanted to create something that illustrated this history.”

Remembering and honouring our war dead should not be used to exploit and divide our country. This is a time to unite us all together in thanks to those who stood proud against Fascism.

So, when you see one of these posts please either scroll on by or call it out for what it is; xenophobic nonsense.