Abdul Aziz opens Andalusian study center in Rabat

Arabnews ^ | 7.15.02

[swarthyguy]

RABAT, 15 July — Prince Abdul Aziz ibn Fahd, state minister and chief of the court for the Presidency of Cabinet affairs, yesterday inaugurated here the Center for Andalusian Studies and Dialogue between Civilizations.

At the opening ceremony, he announced the center’s plan to institute an international annual prize for best research on Andalus. He also stressed the importance of bringing out an encyclopedia on Andalus.

Prince Abdul Aziz commended the center’s efforts to organize seminars and studies on Andalusian culture and translate books and documents related to Islamic culture in the Spanish city.

"The main objectives of the center are to promote cultural dialogue between Muslims and other communities and highlight the message of Islam, which is a religion of peace, justice and mercy," the prince said.

He said that those who link Islam with terrorism are totally ignorant of the divine religion. He hoped that the Rabat center would realize the hopes and aspirations of the Muslim nation.

Dr. Abbas Al-Jerary, secretary-general of the center and special adviser to Morocco’s King Muhammad V1, commended Prince Abdul Aziz’s support for the center.

He emphasized the importance of imbibing the Andalusian culture of tolerance in modern times.

The center for Andalusian studies is a non-governmental organization which has received support from both Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd and King Muhammad VI.

Dr. Khaled Al-Anqari, Saudi minister of higher education, is the chairman of the center’s executive council.

The center promotes studies on Islamic and Arab culture in Andalus and publishes books related to Andalusian studies. It plans to establish a specialized library on Andalus.

[swarthyguy]

[keithtoo]

Street lighting and running water huh?

I've heard they also had flying cars and robot butlers.

Or was that the Jetsons?

[livius]

At the time that Islamic forces conquered Spain, Islam was a very young religion. Many of the newly Islamic peoples had been, until only decades before, Christians or members of very developed Near Eastern pagan societies. Islam coasted along on this for a while, and the religion itself had nothing to do with the cultural developments in al Andalus. The fact that the conquerors were from Baghdad and other places with very highly developed cultures was actually what was responsible for this. Islam itself was at taht point so unconsolidated that it was moderately liberal; figurative art is found in the Islamic Spain of that time, for example.

The Caliphates brought their highly developed urban life into a place that had been disrupted by the fall of the Roman Emprire and the attacks of the barbarians. It was a region sunk in wars between local kings. Arianism had also made a great impact on Spain, and the Spanish kings had only recently begun to return to orthodox Catholicism.

The liberal regimes were soon subject to attacks from more radical North African warrior tribes (actually, more like Mohammed himself). Several times during Spain's Islamic captivity, moderate and sophisticated Near Eastern rulers were replaced by primitive and savage Muslims from North Africa.

This seems to be a pattern in Islam, and I think, personally, that the reason for this is that Islam actually is a blood thirsty totalitarian cult. Christianity has certainly caused its share of bloodshed; but only when its teachings are distorted or ignored. Islam, on the other hand, is bloodiest when it is really practiced. So the North Africans were actually a truer reflection of Islam than were the sophisticated and tolerant rulers of Baghdad.