• Target Keystage(s): Key Stage 3,
• Curriculum Subject(s): Citizenship, History,
• Who Do We Think We Are Theme(s): Britishness, national identity/values & 2012 Games, Relationships, belonging and faith,

Above: Poppies symbolizing remembrance (Image courtesy of the Royal British Legion)

This Year 9 unit of study focuses on the involvement in the First World War of Muslims from Britain and the Indian sub-continent. It follows the reaction of white British Muslim converts in Woking, Surrey to the declaration of a jihad against Britain by the Ottoman Sultan and Khalifa (Caliph), Mehmed V in 1914. By contrast it then traces the story of the treatment of Indian Muslim soldiers fighting for Britain in France and elsewhere, their subsequent hospitalisation at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton and burial according to Muslim rites at a specific burial ground in Woking. Finally, the module brings the story up to date by inviting pupils to design a restored Woking burial ground, according to the priorities of three different modern groups, including a fictional British Muslim body, Islamic Heritage. Throughout the module pupils explore what the historical evidence reveals about attitudes among Muslims at the time and how they were regarded by British people in the same period. Changing attitudes are followed into the present by study of the neglected Muslim burial ground, set against the backdrop of British Imperial decline and Muslim migration into the UK. The module assumes that pupils will have experienced some prior learning on the First World War and the British Empire and should have some awareness of Islam and its core beliefs through knowledge gained in Religious Education.

The key learning objectives for young people are:

• To speculate on the potential impact of an historical declaration on a range of contemporaries (in this case that of Ottoman Khalifa Mehmed V's declaration of jihad on the attitudes of Turkish Indian Muslim and British Muslim soldiers in 1914).
• To reach a reasoned conclusion from analysis of a range of original sources (in this case what sources from the 'Islamic Review' reveal about British Muslim attitudes during the First World War).
• To reach a reasoned conclusion from analysis of a range of original sources (in this case what Indian Muslim soldier's letters reveal about their attitudes during the First World War).
• To reach a reasoned, historical conclusion through structuring a narrative drawn from a range of sources and interpretations.
• To track a range of attitudes across time towards a historical site.
• To understand that a historic site can be interpreted and presented in different ways.

Some of the key questions covered during the lessons include:

• Why did the Muslim khalifa declare jihad against Britain in 1914?
• What does the 'Islamic Review' reveal about the attitudes of British Muslims during the First World War?
• What do Indian Muslim soldiers letters from the First World War reveal about their attitudes?
• What does the treatment of wounded Muslim soldiers in Britain reveal about British attitudes?
• What does the neglect of the Horsell Common Burial Ground reveal about changing attitudes since 1918?
• How might the Horsell Common Burial Ground be restored?

To download the module overview and lesson plans, please select the links to the attachments shown below. Please note that links to required worksheets are provided from within the PDF files provided.