Spain Relives Its Ancient History with Islam

Ongoing reports indicate that Muslim migrants from North Africa are illegally entering and flooding Spanish territory. In just 2020, 23,000 migrants invaded Spain's Canary Islands, representing a 234-percent increase. Most recently, in just one day, some 6,000 North Africans invaded Ceuta "by sea, either swimming or with inflatables, all in a bid to eventually get to mainland Europe."

Once arriving on Spanish territory, such migrants invariably engage in unsavory and downright criminal behavior, such as gang rape, and create enclaves, or ribats, where police fear to tread.

In other words, North Africa's Muslim invaders are following the same strategy that led to the Islamic conquest of Christian Spain in the eighth century.

Recalling that history and how the Spaniards responded is instructive — particularly, as shall be seen, on today's date, May 28.

In 711, exactly 1,310 years ago, hordes of North African Muslims ("Moors") "godlessly invaded Spain to destroy it," to quote from the Chronicle of 754. They did not pass "a place without reducing it, and getting possession of its wealth," boasted al-Hakam, an early Muslim chronicler, "for Allah Almighty had struck with terror the hearts of the infidels."

Such terrorism was intentionally cultivated, in keeping with the Koran (e.g., 3:151, 8:12). In one instance, the invaders slaughtered, cooked, and ate or pretended to eat their Christian captives, prompting hysteria among "the people of Andalus [Spain] that the Muslims feed on human flesh" and thereby "contributing in no small degree to increase the panic of the infidels," wrote another Muslim chronicler.

From Daniel Pipes, http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2007/10/dreaming-of-al-andalus

Of late, proponents of recreating Al-Andalus have become more outspoken; “Despite the passage of over five hundred years, the memory of Islamic rule in Spain has become increasingly part of the discourse in radical Islamic circles,” Jonathan Dahoah-Halevi notes in a Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs publication,”Al-Qaeda: The Next Goal Is to Liberate Spain from the Infidels.” (In fact, his title is not quite accurate, for it’s not just Al-Qaeda that raises this topic.) He documents this phenomenon:

Osama bin Laden: “All in all, we request of Allah ... that the umma should regain its honor and prestige, should raise again the unique flag of Allah on all stolen Islamic land, from Palestine to Andalus.

Ayman al-Zawahiri: “The return of Andalus to Muslim hands is a duty for the umma in general and for you [North Africans] in particular.”

Safar al-Hawali, a prominent Saudi sheikh, in a letter to George W. Bush: “Imagine Mr. President, we still weep over Andalusia and remember what Ferdinand and Isabella did there to our religion, culture and honor! We dream of regaining it.”

Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, commander of the Algerian “Salafist Group for Prayer and Combat” (GSPC), calls Algerian Muslims the “grandchildren of Tariq bin Ziyad,” the Muslim general who lead the conquest of Iberia.

Ansar al-Islam in the Muslim Sahara, Land of the Veiled Ones: “Al-Andalus is before our eyes, and with Allah’s help we will take back the Land of Islam and what was plundered from our forefathers, no matter how long this takes.”

Muhammad Mahdi Akef, leader of the Muslim Brethren in Egypt, mentions the fall of Andalus in parallel with the loss of Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Hamas has called on Palestinian children to help restore the city of Seville in Spain to Muslim rule.

Comments: (1) This drive at re-reconquista cannot be appeased politically. Dahoah-Halevi, a former advisor to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, correctly points out that “Neither the Spanish withdrawal from the Coalition’s war against the Iraqi insurgency, nor proposals for a Spanish dialogue with Hamas, have abated in any way the anti-Spanish hostility coming out of radical Islamic movements in recent years.”

(2) That some Spaniards feel a certain sympathy for the Muslim claim will only encourage it.

(3) This dream could well grow to the point that, in some years, it inspires major terrorism and acquires security and political importance. (October 11, 2007)

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