Far from ‘outsiders,’ Europe and Islam have long been intertwined

In the wake of the most recent attacks in Paris, the airwaves have been full of myths about Muslim communities in Europe.

However, history tells a rather different tale: Muslims are far from alien from European culture; in fact, they are central to it. The links between Europe and Islam date back to the very first generation of Muslims.

We know of the famed rule of Muslim Iberia (now known as Spain and Portugal), which created a thriving multi-religious society, something that was then a novelty in Europe.

Several hundred years earlier, after Muslim Spain had begun, you might have encountered Roger of Sicily, who ruled an island where Muslims lived as subjects of a Christian king, as far back as the 11th century.

The notion of the modern university, for example, is based on the Muslim madrasah.

There is also the domain of law to consider. While British media figures often recoil at the prospect of any influence on society from Islamic law, the English legal system actually owes a great deal to Islamic law. English common law, by many accounts, took from Islamic law the concept of trial by jury and the power of a contract or deed to prove ownership, for example.

In the midst of strife and conflict, it is far easier to adhere to histories that claim clear divisions and divides. They are more comfortable, and simpler to deal with. But Europe and Islam do not have that luxury, or would it be to anyone’s benefit if they did. Rather, their histories are intertwined – and have been for a more than a thousand years.

H.A. Hellyer is a non-resident fellow at the Centre for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., and in International Security Studies at the Royal United Services Institute in London. He is the author of Muslims of Europe: the ‘Other’ Europeans, published by Edinburgh University Press.

Bullsh!t!!!

That “thriving Iberian culture” fairy tale has long since been debunked.
I quit reading after that.

“We know of the famed rule of Muslim Iberia (now known as Spain and Portugal), which created a thriving multi-religious society,”

Oh, you mean the invasion and muslim’s killing unbelievers and forcing their pig scat cult on Europeans. . .of course, you could reject the death cult but to do so means you were not a full citizen and had no rights whatsoever. . .

I’m open to the idea that, back in the Dark Ages, some of the Muslim rulers may have had wise polices or shown some degree of tolerance. However, there is no way in Hades I expect the current generation of Jihadis to engage in anything but mass murder and religious cleansing. Once we surrender our civilization to these people, we will never get it back.

We know of the famed rule of Muslim Iberia...

Famed???

Brookings. All you need to know.

Well, that and how to say, "Hands up. Don't behead".

Apparently, surrender is an option. NOT!!!

I've never heard of Muslim jury trials, have you. Deeds were invented by Muslims. Really?

This is really a stretch. The Egyptians (pre-Muslim by several millenia) invented paper. The Chinese invented paper money. That means the Egyptians influenced the Declaration of Independence.

We surrencered our civilization to our own fifth column; this is no longer a Judeo-Christian society against Islam, but secular people against those dedicted to a (erroneous, in my opinion) religious ideal.

We are now watching war unfold between Muslims who tolerate no one else against secularists who tolerate no religious belief of any kind but those in line with their anti-family, pro-homosexual agenda.

The Muslims took millions of white Europeans as slaves. Muslims took many more from Africa.
Muslims waged hundreds of battles across Portugal and Spain, killing hundreds of thousands of Europeans.

This guy needs to read and comprehend Mo’s playbook for domination, the Koran

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