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More whitewashing of Muslim Spain. "In Granada, once the center of a rich Muslim culture, adherents are trying to reassert their historic role amid a climate of suspicion." From the LA Times, with thanks to Greg B. Grabinski:
GRANADA, Spain — Across a valley of fragrant cedars and orange trees, worshipers at the pristine Great Mosque of Granada look out at the Alhambra, the 700-year-old citadel and monument to the heyday of Islamic glory.Granada's Muslims chose the hilltop location precisely with the view, and its unmistakable symbolism, in mind.
It took them more than 20 years to build the mosque, the first erected here in half a millennium, after they conquered the objections of city leaders and agreed, ultimately, to keep the minaret shorter than the steeple on the Catholic Iglesia de San Nicolas next door.Cloistered nuns on the other side of the mosque added a few feet to the wall enclosing their convent, as if to say they wanted neither to be seen nor to see.
Many of Spain's Muslims long for an Islamic revival to reclaim their legendary history, and inaugurating the Great Mosque last year was the most visible gesture. But horrific bombings by Muslim extremists that killed nearly 200 people in Madrid on March 11 have forced Spain's Muslims and non-Muslims to reassess their relationship, and turned historical assumptions on their head.
"We are a people trying to return to our roots," said Anwar Gonzalez, 34, a Granada native who converted to Islam 17 years ago. "But it's a bad time to be a Muslim."
Spain has a long, rich and complex history interwoven with the Muslim and Arab world, from its position as the center of Islamic Europe in the last millennium to today's confrontation with a vast influx of Muslim immigrants.
For more than seven centuries of Moorish rule, "Al Andalus," or Andalusia, was governed by Muslim caliphs who oversaw a splendid flourishing of art, architecture and learning that ended when Granada fell to Christian monarchs Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand in 1492.
Muslims were expelled or exterminated in the Inquisition that followed, but the legacy of the Moors is seen throughout Andalusia, Spain's southern tier, in its language, palaces like the Alhambra, and food.
Yes, Isabella and Ferdinand ended all that flourishing of art, architecture, and learning. Sure. Aside from the dubious nature of that "flourishing" in itself, Muslim Spain was hardly a paradise for non-Muslims. Even Maria Rosa Menocal, in her extended whitewash of Muslim Spain called The Ornament of the World, admits that at the laws of dhimmitude were very much in force in the great Al-Andalus:
The dhimmi, as these covenanted peoples were called, were granted religious freedom, not forced to convert to Islam. They could continue to be Jews and Christians, and, as it turned out, they could share in much of Muslim social and economic life. In return for this freedom of religious conscience the Peoples of the Book (pagans had no such privilege) were required to pay a special tax — no Muslims paid taxes — and to observe a number of restrictive regulations: Christians and Jews were prohibited from attempting to proselytize Muslims, from building new places of worship, from displaying crosses or ringing bells. In sum, they were forbidden most public displays of their religious rituals.
So much for paradise. Also, historian Kenneth Baxter Wolf observes that “much of this new legislation aimed at limiting those aspects of the Christian cult which seemed to compromise the dominant position of Islam.” After enumerating a list of laws much like Menocal’s, he adds: “Aside from such cultic restrictions most of the laws were simply designed to underscore the position of the dimmîs as second-class citizens.” These laws were not uniformly or strictly enforced; Christians were forbidden public funeral processions, but one contemporary account tells of priests merely “pelted with rocks and dung” rather than being arrested while on the way to a cemetery.
If Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived together peaceably and productively only with Christians and Jews relegated by law to second-class citizen status, then al-Andalus has absolutely no reason to be lionized in our age. The laws of dhimmitude give all of Menocal’s accounts of Jewish viziers and Christian diplomats the same hollow ring as the stories of prominent American blacks from the slavery and Jim Crow eras: yes, Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington were great men, but their accomplishments not only do not erase or contradict the records of the oppression of their people, but render them all the more poignant and haunting. Whatever the Christians and Jews of al-Andalus accomplished, they were still dhimmis. They enjoyed whatever rights and privileges they had not out of any sense of the dignity of all people before God, or the equality of all before the law, but at the sufferance of their Muslim overlords.
There is more on this in Onward Muslim Soldiers.
At least the article is honest enough to acknowledge the traditionalist basis of the jihadist claims to Spain:
Unfortunately for Spain's Muslims, the militants who swear loyalty to Osama bin Laden are history buffs too. In claiming responsibility for the March bombings, they cited the loss of "Al Andalus" as motivation."We will continue our jihad until martyrdom in the land of Tarik Ben Ziyad," they said in a communique issued after the massacre, alluding to the Moorish warrior and original Islamic conqueror of the Iberian peninsula.
Posted by Robert at January 18, 2005 8:28 AM
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"Yes, Isabella and Ferdinand ended all that flourishing of art, architecture, and learning. Sure. Aside from the dubious nature of that "flourishing" in itself, Muslim Spain was hardly a paradise for non-Muslims."
The reason there was any "flourishing" (what flourishing? A few mosques built, after learning how to built from the Christians, with money unjustly taxed from Christians?), if there was really any, must have been due to the Christians and Jews.
For evidence compare the Muslim "Morocco" with the occupied Christian Spain. Morroco was a land of desert barbarism while Christians still managed to do some good even under barbaric Muslim oppression.
And of course under Isabella and Ferdinand, Spain flourished a billion times more than it ever did (if it ever really did flourish at all) under the Muslim oppressors.
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at January 18, 2005 9:40 AM
"We are a people trying to return to our roots," said Anwar Gonzalez, 34, a Granada native who converted to Islam 17 years ago.
This insane person should be deported back to his "roots" back in Mooroco first then back to the Arabian desert.
Mooroco and the whole of North Africa, the Middle East and Turkey and so on are all dur ul-Christianity (the house of Christianity, i.e. Christian lands). It was conquered by the barbarian jihadist terrorists and are under occupation by the invading Muslim oppressors even to this day. We need to reconquer and liberate these lands frome under the Muslim oppresion and send the savages back into the Arabian desert where they belong.
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at January 18, 2005 9:58 AM
When you visit Rome, you see the grandeur of the Roman empire in its very capital. The crowning jewel of the Greek empire and civilization is Greece itself. All of its ruins attest to that. So too with the British Empire and all the other empires and civilizations (Aztec, Mayan, Inca, the many Chinese dynasties). The greatest manifestation of their culture and civilization is on their native soil.
But then you look at the wonderful, mythical islamic paradise where islam was at its best and harmony and peace reigned on earth. Where was it? Mecca? Medina? Anywhere in Arabia? No, in Spain, as far away as it was possible to get from Arabia! It says a lot about a civilization that claims to be at its height when rather than being 100% of its own kind, it relies on Christians and Jews for its fabricated and self-deluded "grandeur."
Posted by: 3812Michelle at January 18, 2005 10:20 AM
Two words:
"Rodrigo Diaz."
Or, as the Moorish invaders of Spain named him:
"El Cid."
Is Islam built on the understanding that whatever a Muslim steals, even if it is wrested back by its original owners, is still the property of Islam, forever?
Sounds more like the Mafia than a religion.
Or have I given its core truth away?
MESSAGE TO MY SPANISH FRIENDS:
"La diligencia es madre de la buena ventura."
(Diligence is the mother of good fortune.)
-Cervantes.
at January 18, 2005 10:39 AM
El Cid fought against both Christians and Muslims, often allying himself with one against the other, so I don't think he is a particularly good choice.
A better choice would be to quote objective history:
http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/mil/html/mh_028500_lasnavasdeto.htm
Las Navas de Tolosa, Battle of
July 16, 1212
As a consequence of the Christian victory at Las Navas de Tolosa, the power of the Almohads, the Berber regime that had dominated Muslim Spain (Al-Andalus) from the mid-twelfth century, was shattered, enabling the Christians to take over almost all of southern Spain in the ensuing forty years.
The battle was the result of a crusade against the Muslim infidel in Spain organized by Alfonso VIII of Castile, Rodrigo Ximénez de Rada, archbishop of Toledo (d. 1247), and Pope Innocent III (1198-1216). French, Provençal, and Italian knights and soldiers eventually arrived at Toledo to join up with crusaders brought by the kings of Aragón and Navarre, as well as the army assembled by Alfonso VIII of Castile.
Once the combined armies left Toledo and headed south, however, most of the "foreign" crusaders deserted, finding the heat and outbreaks of disease unbearable.
The Christian armies arrived at Las Navas de Tolosa, which lies to the northeast of Córdoba and Jaén, on Friday, July 13. During the ensuing Saturday and Sunday, only small skirmishes took place, but on the morning of Monday, July 16, the Christian armies attacked the Almohads. The Castilians and the Military Orders were flanked on the right by Sancho VII of Navarre with the Navarrese troops and urban militias from Ávila, Segovia, and Medina, and on the left by the king of Aragón and his army. Initially the Almohad vanguard had to retreat, but when the bulk of its army entered the battle, it seemed as if the Christians would be defeated. It was at this point that Alfonso VIII advanced and the kings of Aragón and Navarre converged from the flanks. The combined Christian attack was decisive, even reaching the chains and the guards defending the headquarters tent of the Almohad leader. A Muslim retreat quickly became a rout, and the Almohad leader, Muhammad an-Nasir, fled toward Jaén that same night. Among the enormous booty collected was the so-called Muslim "flag of Las Navas," which survives in the monastery of Las Huelgas in Burgos.
After this battle, Islam was doomed in the Iberian Peninsula.
Posted by: alex221166 at January 18, 2005 11:07 AM
There is also an excellent Brazilian page (written in Portuguese, I am afraid) that is quite apropriate
http://educaterra.terra.com.br/voltaire/mundo/navastolosa.htm
Posted by: alex221166 at January 18, 2005 11:11 AM
"We are a people trying to return to our roots," said Anwar Gonzalez, 34, a Granada native who converted to Islam 17 years ago. "But it's a bad time to be a Muslim."
Andrew:
Chances are at least 50:50 that the "Anwar" was merely adopted when Gonzalez converted (a la Ibrahim Hooper of CAIR)and not the result of a Spanish male wedding a Muslim female.
To speak of Islam as Spain's "roots" when it was such a johnny-come-lately "religion" to begin with is in itself laughable. Spain -- and the rest of the old world -- had accumulated a lot of human history and culture long, long, long before Mohammed launched his career in the 6th century AD.
Posted by: waterdragon52 at January 18, 2005 12:41 PM
Islamic supercessionism knows no bounds...
Posted by: Mike at January 18, 2005 12:43 PM
From the article,
"We are a people trying to return to our roots," said Anwar Gonzalez, 34, a Granada native who converted to Islam 17 years ago.
Just as the ex-smoker or former alcoholic proclaims their self-righteousness, it is always the convert who is most fervent to affirm their desire for the retrograde.
"Return to OUR roots?" Why not return to the dawn of man? Grunt at the moon, stone your neighbor and take his wife?
Oh yeah, I almost forgot that that is what Islam is all about.
Posted by: Moe's Foe at January 18, 2005 1:30 PM
LOL - "Grunt at the Moon".
Moe - I can see that on the banner of the Counter-Jihad site:
GRUNT AT THE MOON (insert picture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2811855.stm here)
Posted by: Mike at January 18, 2005 4:46 PM
alex-
But they didn't make a rousing movie about the later warfare worth seeing.
Hollywood, in the 1960's, pared the mixed-message true story of "El Cid" down to its mythic essence , which is all I meant for the argument here:
resistance to Islamic invasion.
Nowadays the La-La set would make it more p.c., and have the 'evil native Christians' losing to the 'poor misunderstood Muslim immigrants' in the 'gotterdammerung' battle.
(At least until 1492.)
Not looking for a history medal but a simple model.
(Great musical score by Miklos Rosza, as well.
And Sophia Loren never looked better.)
at January 18, 2005 8:44 PM
“Andalusia, was governed by Muslim caliphs who oversaw a splendid flourishing of art, architecture and learning that ended when Granada fell to Christian monarchs Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand in 1492.”
Who writes this crap!
Yeah… then Spain (along with Andalusia) opened up the Americas and for 100 years became a world superpower, who advanced humanity’s knowledge of seafaring and geography, whilst the Muslim world gave us nothing. For the last 250 years, Spain has been the artistic powerhouse of Europe, giving us Goya, Picasso, Dali, Miro, Gaudi, etc.
“Architecture”? Check this out…
http://www.archdirect.com/barcellona_spain-sagrada_familia%20.htm
Spain (with Andalusia) owes Muslim culture very little, if anything.
.....
Es simpatico pescar a algn en una mentira
(It's great to catch somebody out in a lie)
at January 18, 2005 9:14 PM
But they didn't make a rousing movie about the later warfare worth seeing.
Indeed, but two wrongs do not make one right.
As someone who has often criticized Hollywood for her lack of historical accuracy, I can't accept the distortion of the truth in order to get a good role model.
The truth has to be enough, which is why sites like this one (or FaithFreedom) are so important: they show the truth and they force regular people to open their eyes to reality.
Using epic symbols or emotions only gets in the way, and that is largely why some of the comments that are routinely written in the comment box, while understandable due to the level of frustration that comes with this "job", ends up damaging the ultimate objective which is to show the truth.
If you open exceptions, you end up making an iron giant with feet of clay.
Regards.
at January 18, 2005 9:21 PM
Of course the article fails to mention the slaughter of over 3000 Jews in Granada in the year 1066, at the height of the "Golden Age of Spain," by Muslim mobs.
Posted by: MrsEener at January 18, 2005 9:50 PM
Very interesting. Not bad history, but very, very overly condensed...
Posted by: Casual Observer at January 23, 2005 10:05 AM
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