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India-Pakistan
1857: not a jihadi uprising
2008-01-27
By Hassan Jafar Zaidi

The documentary, Clash Of The Worlds: Mutiny, telecast by BBC-1 on January 7, carried some distortions of historical facts. It suggested that the 1857 uprising against the British was motivated, organised and fought by the jihadi Muslims of India. The background of jihad was linked to 1830-31 Wahabi movement led by Syed Ahmed Brelvi who was a disciple of Mohammad Bin Abdul Wahab of Arabia (1704-92).

The documentary traced the roots of Wahabism as an anti-British movement, leading finally to an armed struggle against the British in India; establishing a jihadi camp in Peshawar “against the British” under the command of Syed Ahmed who was killed in 1831 without telling ‘who he was fighting against’ and who really killed him. Some important facts have been ignored or misrepresented because they did not fit into what the documentary was trying to impress upon i.e. the Islamic Jihad always targeted the British, irrespective of time and space in the history of mankind.
Posted by:john frum

#4  It was Kim Philby who intoxicated the British into supporting Tito instead of Mihailovic. At nthis time it was the Chetniks not the Communists who were the more dangerous enemies of the Germans. It was only after teh cutting of British aid that the Chetniks who were being harrassed from both sides (Communists and Germans) that they ended collaborating. Another factor was that the Communist moved faster that the Chetniks to seize Italian weapons after Italy's surrender. I don't discard they weren't tipped by Philby or one of the guys of his cell (Mc Lean, Burgess).

Posted by: JFM   2008-01-27 18:09  

#3  Yep, evil ran in the family.
Posted by: Thomas Woof   2008-01-27 10:44  

#2   Philby served as a minister in the government of Al-Saud. He changed his name as Abdullah apparently after embracing Islam but still served the British Intelligence. He was exiled by King Saud in 1955.

Yep, Kim's dad, according to Wikipedia.
Posted by: mrp   2008-01-27 09:22  

#1  Quite a lot of reworking of history here. While the Indian Mutiny started due to British disregrard for Hindu ritual sensitivities, Wahabi jihadists played a major role later in the rebellion.

Subsequent to the Mutiny, British policy toward the Arabs was largely shaped by their impact on Indian muslims. The British supported the Arabs, because they thought it would help avoid a rerun of the Mutiny.

The Wahabists were anti-christian much more than the British were anti-moslem.
Posted by: phil_b   2008-01-27 06:29  

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