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May 25, 2005

Bush and the history blanks

It was undoubtedly an intense moment when President George Bush visited the graves of US soldiers in the Dutch village of Margraten, to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of the second World War.
In his speech, Bush honored all those who sacrificed their lives for the value of freedom, of peace. The president said :"On this peaceful May morning, we commemorate a great victory for liberty". Bush was talking in the cemetery of Margaten, where more than 8000 Americans who lost their lives under the German assaults, are buried. "The thousands of white marble crosses and stars of David underscore the terrible price we paid for that victory," he added. But Laidi Parjou, columnist at Moroccan daily Le Matin, says: "maybe there are no Muslims burried in Margaten, but that doesn't mean that adepts of the religion of Muhammad were just spectators during that horrible war. Muslims, too, paid the price of a war that was not theirs".
In fact, hundreds of North Africans; Algerians, Tunisians and Moroccans, fought in the French army, often in the frontlines. They were deported from their countries to help the allies in battles in Africa and Europe. Other Muslims were brought from India by British forces. Laidi Parjou also reminds that no Muslim country stood by the Nazi regime's side. Even Turkey, that had close ties to Germany, was neutral. The Moroccan columnist concludes by saying that if Muslims are omitted in certain parts of history, their graves in different European cemeteries are still there to remind that they, too, fought to free Europe.

Read the original editorial: Bush ou le droit de mémoire

Posted May 25, 2005 12:45 AM

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