In a public Facebook post, an independent Islamist activist said that Muslims should not celebrate Remembrance Day because it honours dead “colonialist capitalists” and non-Muslims.
Mazin Abdul-Adhim, who promotes radical Islamist views, made the claims in a post where he discusses teaching his daughters to boycott Remembrance Day.
“We cannot allow our children to be raised to look fondly on the crimes of the colonialist Capitalist West, or be taught to feel that this is their own history. We have our own history, and we must teach our children to look at the world from our own perspective,” wrote Abdul-adhim.
During World War I, the Allies fought against the Central Powers, including Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire based in modern-day Turkey and parts of the Middle East.
The Ottoman Empire was considered by some to be the last Islamic Caliphate prior to the 2014 creation of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the world learned that it had perpetrated genocide against the Armenian people. Government forces committed grisly war crimes, including the mass murder and ethnic cleansing of innocent civilians because of their Christian faith and Armenian heritage.
In his post, Abdul-Adhim continues to speak about how Remembrance Day isn’t about remembering “the fallen among the Nazis” but only to remember “those who died from among the British, French, and so on.”
According to estimates, as many as half a million or more Muslims fought for Britain during World War I. In a follow-up comment, Abdul-Adhim refers to Muslim soldiers who fought on the side of the Allies as “traitors” who burn in hell.
“They fought against our side, which makes them traitors and bad men to us. According to Islam, they are fuel for the Hellfire,” wrote Abdul-Adhim.
In 2016, Abdul-Adhim was banned from Mohawk College after giving a lecture where he says that Sharia law is “the best system that exists on earth” and argued for an Islamic Caliphate to be established.
Abdul-Adhim has numerous videos on his Youtube channel discussing and advocating for Sharia law. In one video, he explains how “democracy completely, fundamentally contradicts with Islam.”
“In Islam, man has no right to legislate his own laws,” said Abdul-Adhim.
