Abdul Aziz opens Andalusian study center in Rabat

Arabnews ^ | 7.15.02

[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.