The Role of the Righteous Muslims

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A new London exhibition will showcase the role Muslims played in saving Jews during the Holocaust, the BBC reported this week.The Righteous Muslim Exhibition, launched at the Board of Deputies of British Jews in Bloomsbury, will feature photographs of 70 Muslims who hid Jews from the Nazis, alongside their stories and detailing their acts of heroism.These 70 Muslims were recently added to Yad Vashem's list of "righteous among the nations" detailing those who risked their lives to protect Jews during Nazi Germany’s reign of terror.Among those listed in the Righteous Among the Nations are Muslims from Albania, Bosnia and Turkey.In Albania, Jews were not victims of the Nazis because of a national code of honor called “Besa,” a desire to help those in need, even those of another faith or origin.Fiyaz Mughal, director of the charity Faith Matters and co-author of the accompanying booklet told the BBC: "These communities were dispersed in the aftermath of the Second World War, and as the older generation passes away these stories will be lost."He said to the BBC: "One of the main drivers of the project is that there are some small sections in Jewish communities who are trying to rewrite history and say that Muslims overwhelmingly helped the Nazis."And on the other side, there is a small section of the Muslim community who do not want to talk about the Holocaust for the sake of not wanting to build up an empathy with Jewish communities."That is unacceptable, because factually it’s untrue."Rabbi Natan Levy, the exhibition co-ordinator, told the BBC that the program provides a "unique bridge between the two communities, so that they can celebrate together, remember together, and not be driven further apart."There was a lovely moment when Fiyaz and I came together and quoted the same line from our respective scriptures: ‘whosoever saves a single life saves the entire universe’," the BBC reported.