Posted on 01/30/2010 6:11:44 AM PST by reaganaut1
Who remembers the last survivors of Muslim Spain, whom Spaniards contemptuously called Moriscos (“little Moors”)? Impressive research on them has appeared in the last 30 years, yet until now, none of it has escaped beyond the walls of the academic ghetto. Matthew Carr’s well-balanced and comprehensive book brings the story of their tragic fate to a wider public.
“Blood and Faith” is a splendid work of synthesis. The story begins with the 10-year war — a crusade — to conquer the Moorish Kingdom of Granada. The Christian victory in 1492 signaled the beginning of the long ethnic cleansing of Holy Spain. Spanish Jews were the first victims; they were quickly forced into exile.
...
Over the next four decades, Spanish officials planned the purgation of the Muslim threat. Every remote possibility was canvassed — drowning, castration, exposure on the icy shores of Newfoundland. As time passed, the government’s resolution hardened: it was no longer a matter of if but of when and how. Finally, from 1609 to 1614, an estimated 300,000 Muslims were marched to the coasts and put on ships for North Africa.
Carr, the author of “A History of Terrorism,” charts this steady breakdown, though without demonizing either Christian or Muslim. He suggests that the growth of mutual mistrust and the spiral of increasing violence were the igniting spark of the final expulsion. Yet it is impossible to read this book without sensing its resonance in our own time.
In his epilogue, “A Warning From History?,” Carr’s message is stark. The current language of outrage in Europe — indulging prophecies of imminent demographic doom brought on by fertile Muslims — is heading toward the idea of an “agreeable holocaust,” which is what a 17th-century Dominican friar called Spain’s final solution to its insoluble problem. We should know better.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Let’s have a pity prom.
We can whip up sympathy by throwing in terms like “drowning, castration, exposure on the icy shores.”
What meanies these Christians are!
Everybody knows that Spain really belongs to the muslims! They were purged in one of those evil ethnic cleansings that white people are always committing against “peaceable” folks.
Keywords: unceasing savagery, bloodily suppressed, impure, corrupting, malign, abomination, tragic fate, forced conversion.
Pigslop. From the NY Times/Pigslop.
We should have known better than to allow the situation to arise to start with.
“a crusade — to conquer the Moorish Kingdom of Granada.”
No mention of how it got to be a Moorish Kingdom (of Muslims). The conclusion must be that it was peacefully established as such from time immemorial.
In case anyone missed it, Washington Irving's classic Tales of the Alhambra is an excellent book, full of beautiful stories that were legends he gleaned while living in the Alhambra.
It also provides poignant views of Spanish history.
And, most interesting of all, it reveals beautifully how cultural and even genetic exchange goes on between groups of vastly different people, even mortal enimies, in spite of themselves.
For example:
In one beautiful tale, a Christian woman was captured by Muslims and became a wife of one of the great leaders.
She had three daughters by him.
The father kept the daughters imprisoned in a tower, but young Christian men discovered them and persuaded them to climb down from the tower and run away with them.
Two of the sisters did.
They were taken into Christian Spain, where they married the young men and had children of their own.
Sadly, the youngest sister was overcome by fear at the last minute and didn't go. Thereafter, she remained imprisoned, with tighter security, for the rest of the life, but lonely without her sisters.
Many of the tales are quite beautiful and beautifully told.
... not to be confused with the "little Moops."
“...crusade to conquer.....”
Wonder how the muslim disease got there in the first place?
was her name Rapunzel?
Where to start? With the conclusion, I guess. The reviewer uses the “holocaust” to imply that the West is getting ready to murder the millions of Muslims that are living here and send them to the ovens, when the “agreeable holocaust” described in the book was their exile from Spain. They were forced to leave by Christendom, and we would do well to follow that example. And why were they there in Spain in the first place? That little matter was overlooked entirely. Beginning in 711, Spain was repeatedly invaded and occupied by armies of Moors (Muslims) as part of Islam’s stated goal of taking over the known world and making it Islamic. They already had taken over and subjugated most of the Middle East, Egypt and North Africa, and, in the East, were headed toward China. Once in Spain, the imposition of their rule was ruthless and bloody, and they turned the original occupants into second-class citizens. They were headed toward conquering France as well when turned back by Charles Martel at Tours. Isabela and Ferdinand are revered in Spain not for the fact that they funded Christopher Columbus’ voyages, but because they finally retook Andalusia (Granada) and drove out of the last of the Muslim “kings.” I have visited their tombs. No one is talking about purging Muslims, THEY ARE PLANNING TO PURGE US. This book review is the equivalent of telling a rape victim to lie back and enjoy it. Just when you think the NY Times can’t get more politically correct, it does, and publishes a book review that argues we would be wrong to resist and defend ourselves from this 21st century invasion.
I totally agree!
To hell with the ragheads - that includes 0bama!
Just one more book to brainwash the sheeple. Another way to cause “self hate” among Americans. We are so “hateful” that we want to protect our culture and way of life.
The biggest mistake ever made was not killing every last one of the Muzlems as soon as Muhammad pissbeuponhim died.
When I posted the book review I hoped to learn some history from Freepers, and I was not disappointed. Thanks.
Islamic Europe, Middle East and North Africa 700 AD (Dark Blue) 
Play by play here
As you can see the Muslims just about wiped the Christians off the map in all but the heart of Europe. A classic pincer movement. And how many Christians are left in the once Christian Middle East, North Africa? Just about Zero.
A wonderful visual example of how the Spanish and other Europeans felt about throwing off the yoke of Islam can be seen at Cordoba, specifically the great mosque of Cordoba which is now a Roman Catholic cathedral. The Great Mosque was built on the site of a Visigothic Christian Church by the conquering Moors. When the Spanish retook Cordoba, they re-established a Christian church there, but without destroying the mosque, which is an amazing piece of architecture. The visual punch in the gut was delivered by Charles V, who ordered the construction of a soaring, gigantic cathedral nave right in the middle of the mosque, in high Renaissance style. You are walking through a mosque and all of a sudden, there is a huge and ornate Christian church. Seeing that structure imposed on the already impressive mosque tells the story of the re-conquest better any historian. Pictures here, including an aerial shot that shows the cathedral squatting on top of the mosque.
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=678264&page=6
I still believe that if a severe enough atrocity happens, which is Muslim Jihadist caused, or even thought to be, there will be a bloodbath here. Mosques will be burned and Muslims (peace loving or not) will have to hide out until tensions simmer down, and possibly have to rethink living in the U.S. I feel the government is well aware of underlying tension and is downplaying the terrorist activity, and in some instances deliberately lying about the causes of some events here in the U.S. to try to cool tempers.
Oh come on! What a piece of manipulation!
The kingdom of Granada was conquered in 1492 and the Moriscos were expelled in 1609. Those are 120 years in which they did not accept the Christian religion or Spanish culture.
I think enough was done to absorb them.
Oh come on! What a piece of manipulation!
The kingdom of Granada was conquered in 1492 and the Moriscos were expelled in 1609. Those are 120 years in which they did not accept the Christian religion or Spanish culture.
I think enough was done to absorb them.
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