Dulce et Decorum Est
The announcement in the budget of £1m for a Muslim war memorial has raised complicated issues. Not least whether the Act of Remembrance whether in Somerset or elsewhere should be a religious one.....
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Dulce et Decorum Est
While Britain may be a multi-cultural society, with all the conflicts and benefits that come with that, Somerset remains stubbornly and predominantly a mono-culture. If not entirely made up of White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, then at least we can say white Europeans. In the 2011 census only 5% of the Somerset population identified itself as anything other than White British. And of the others, a number identified themselves as White European or White Travellers.
Data shows that a decade later, by the time of the 2021 census not much had changed. 95.4% of the population still identified themselves as “White” with 2% as Asian and only half a percent as Afro/Caribbean.
As to religion, it may perhaps not come as a surprise to learn that 47% identified themselves as having no religion.
Whether this homogenous population is a blessing or a curse we may debate. Because race has been very much in the news of late. Not least the allegation against Conservative donor Frank Hester of making a racial slue about Diane Abbott, the Independent (former Labour) MP for Hackney North & Stoke Newington.
The irony being that Diane Abbott was herself castigated by the Labour Party for making anti-semitic remarks.
We are quick to condemn racial slurs and that is a good thing. A distinct mark of progress from the country I grew up in during the 1960s and 1970s. That said we are sometimes too quick to throw money at racial projects with political correctness to the fore and deeper thought left behind.
With Gaza in the news and anti Semitism and anti Muslim sentiment on the rise, now may not have been the very best moment to introduce the idea of a war memorial for Muslims who died fighting for the allies in the two world wars. Especially given the proposition that it should be funded by the state. In his budget a couple of weeks agoJeremy Hunt announced £1m would be given to the project.
“Whatever your faith or colour or class, this country will never forget the sacrifices made for our future,” the chancellor said.
Right or wrong as the concept may be, and more of that later, it is introducing religion and racial identity into an arena where it’s presence has always been controversial. These days Acts of Remembrance by and large follow an unchallenged pattern. What was done last year is done this, without always thinking too hard about why it is a done in a particular way.
But when the First World War ended and the idea of an Act of Remembrance was first mooted, keeping religion out of it, or not, was the hot topic of the day.
Of course, Somerset having a predominantly white population and one that was, in ages past at least, predominantly Christian, some (but by no means all) of the war memorials across our county are adorned with Christian insignia. Religion has crept in to monuments whose primary purpose was never, first and foremost, religious.