In the year 711, the Islamic Empire invaded the Post-Roman Kingdom of Spain, then under a Visigothic Dynasty which was a vassal to the Eastern Roman Empire. For the next 700 years, the Spanish Resistance fought the Islamic invaders. The invaders called their occupied territories Al-Andaluz. As territory was liberated, Arab colonialists and Spanish collaborators were rightfully expelled. Finally in 1492, the last Islamic occupied city of Granada fell. Spain was finally free from Islam. However, the Arabs never forgot nor forgave their defeat.
Well, now many Moroccans claim they have discovered keys left to them by ancestors kicked out of Spain. If this sounds familiar, its should. The “Palestinians” are doing the same against Israel. In fact, they started it and now their North African cousins are copying it!
More than half a millennium Boabdil left Granada, putting an end to eight centuries of Muslim rule over parts of what is now Spain and Portugal, there is increasing interest in the legacy of the territory then known as al-Andalus. “After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the question of al-Andalus has risen to the fore,” Abdeluahed Akmir says.
The historian heads the Centre of al-Andalus Studies in Rabat, capital of Morocco, whose history is intertwined with that of Moorish Spain.
Leaders and websites of the extremist network al-Qaeda have called for a Muslim reconquest of al-Andalus, while Western advocates of the “clash of civilisations” theory point to the collapse of al-Andalus as proof that Christians and Muslims cannot live together. Proponents of multiculturalism, on the other hand, present al-Andalus as a model of harmony between Muslims, Christians and Jews.
The number of people descending from those refugees is hard to determine, but dozens of Moroccan families retain Spanish surnames.
“Some keep the keys to the houses where their ancestors allegedly lived in al-Andalus, the memory of which is filled with nostalgia,” Jedidi says.
Read the rest: Moroccans and Spaniards seek lost Andalus
When the Socialists are voted out in Spain, expect the media to bring this into focus. Spain has tensions with Morocco over possession of the cities of Ceuta and Mililla. Ceuta is an old Roman city founded in 42 AD. It is Latin territory and the Arabs have no claim. But as we see with Israel and other places, historical truths don’t matter.
(Hat Tip: Phillip Daniels)
