The Woking Muslim Mission and the First World War, 1914–1918

See also: The Great War: From India to Woking (from Exploring Surrey’s Past website)

1. Start of the First World War, 1914

Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din, hard at work establishing the Woking Muslim Mission, was planning to return to India for a couple years when, suddenly and unexpectedly, the First World War broke out, Britain entering the war on 4th August.

In connection with the start of this war, we have compiled a 24-page booklet containing articles and news published at the time. The first article is an English translation of the report sent by Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din to the Lahore Ahmadiyya Urdu journal Paigham Sulh, in which reports of the Mission’s activities were regularly published. The rest of the material is taken from the Islamic Review, September and October 1914 issues.

Read booklet: Muslims in Britain and the Start of the First World War

For further information of our readers, we have extracted the pages from the September and October 1914 issues of the Islamic Review from where extracts in the booklet have been quoted and these are at the following links:

• September 1914
• October 1914

2. Burial of Indian Muslim soldiers of the First World War in England

• Compilation of contemporary historical reports
• History of the Muslim Burial Ground at Horsell Common founded in 1915
• Opening of the Muslim Peace Garden at the Horsell Common Muslim Burial Ground in November 2015
• Inaugural Commemoration Service at the Muslim Burial Ground, Horsell Common, 16 July 2017

3. ‘Id-ul-Fitr at Woking Mosque, 13th August 1915

See at this link details of this function, attended by some 50 Muslims soldiers of the British Indian Army of the First World War.