They destroy our graves, they trample our history

EuroIslam.pl 12 March 2012
By Jan Wójcik

This week we were outraged: World War II graves of British soldiers in Libya had been destroyed. Among them there was also a grave of a Polish Soldier from Carpathian Rifle Brigade. I do not know what the stories of your families are, but my grand grand fathers were fighting there. Maybe it was their comrade?

Reaction of the Polish government, merely a protest of the embassy, could be seen as insufficient. But what can we expect from distant Libya, where there is no clear rules, no authorities controlling its territory, no partner to talk with? And what else can we expect from our authorities which are not even able to take care of our memories and history in our own country?

Every Polish child in our schools’ curriculum is taught:

"We were not allowed to shoot – I went to the gun
and I looked at the field; two hundred guns thundered.”

This is how "Ordon’s Redoubt”, Adam Mickiewicz’s poem about XIX century heroic defense of Warsaw starts; it ends with the slaughter of civilians by Russian soldiers.

There was a long-lasting debate in Poland about the actual whereabouts of the Ordon’s Redoubt. Recently the debate has come to an end and the place is now identified to be lying close to Na Bateryjce street. The problem is that at the present time a mosque belonging to a Polish Muslim organization called the Muslim League in Republic of Poland (LM) is being built there. LM is a member of FIOE, which in turn is believed to be a Muslim Brotherhood umbrella organization for Europe. The construction of the mosque is financed by Saudi Arabian sponsors and, as investors claim, it will be ready before the coming Ramadan.

According to a recent report from Polish historians there was no archeological research carried out before the beginning of the construction, although in its early stages there were suspicions that it is the Ordon’s Redoubt. A few amateur enthusiasts were doing some research there at night and a lot of interesting things were discovered.

Yet the authorities joined the process when most of the area had been already dug up by construction works and there was not so much left to research then. Probably, this historic Polish place, comparable to sanctuaries like Verdun, Pearl Harbour and others is gone forever now.

So why should we be outraged by the destruction of historic Polish places in some distant countries, where there is no government structures, no rule of law, when we are not even able to take care of them in our own country?