Cordoba was never anything but a sign of Islamic conquest. Since Islam is a “religion” that shuns learning and is anti-individual and anti-capitalistic, enforcing these things through its economic and political law (sharia), Muslims have always needed non-Muslims to actually work and produce income. Once they subdue or destroy the native population, they will then work out arrangements where certain productive groups (Christians and Jews) are allowed to remain simply so that they will have somebody educated and industrious enough to keep the tax revenue coming in.
Christians and Jews were never “equal” in Islamic Spain. If they were allowed to live and continue, it was only because this was more profitable to the Muslims, since we have all seen how well Islamic societies do once they exterminate their productive Christian and Jewish members. Look at the festering pits of poverty and ignorance that constitute Islamic lands.
It amazes me how Liberals can just gloss over the Islamic conquest of Constantinople and other Christian and Jewish sites of importance, but scream bloody murder if anyone dare suggest such Triumphalism is still in effect to this day.
The destruction of important archaeological material at the site of the Temple Mount/Dome of the Rock is a really good example of how Islam rolls even today.