Graham Keeley, Times (London), April 9, 2009
It was the start of one of the earliest and most brutal episodes of ethnic cleansing in Europe, so Spain is, understandably perhaps, a little reluctant to mark the occasion.
Four hundred years ago today King Philip III signed an order to expel 300,000 Moriscos—or part-Muslims—who had converted from Islam to Christianity.
Over the next five years hundreds of the exiles died as they were forced from their homes in Spain to North Africa at the height of the Spanish Inquisition.
There are no plans to mark the date officially, although the occasion is being remembered in a series of exhibitions, conferences and public debates.
The anniversary comes days after José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Spanish Prime Minister, met Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, in Istanbul to celebrate the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations, which is intended to foster friendship between the West and the Islamic world.
Some Muslim writers and Spanish and Moroccan campaigners believe that Madrid should apologise for the wrongs committed during the 17th century. Juan Goytisolo, a Spanish novelist, said:
“Official and academic Spain retires into the fortress of cautious silence, which reveals obvious discomfort. The expulsion was the first European precedent … of the European ethnic cleansings of the last century.”
The anniversary highlights once again the uneasy relationship which exists between modern-day Spain and its Moorish, or Muslim, past. Muslims conquered much of the Iberian Peninsula in the 8th century after arriving from North Africa but, centuries later, their armies were finally expelled in 1492 after the victory of the Catholic monarchs King Ferdinand of Castile and Queen Isabella of Aragon.
Hundreds of thousands of Muslims who remained in Spain were forced to convert to Christianity, but many continued with their Muslim names and ways of life, defying all attempts to create a Catholic state.
After military losses to the Protestant Dutch, King Philip signed a decree on April 9, 1609, to expel these reluctant converts, in a move he hoped would strengthen his kingdom.
Historians record the brutal conditions in which many hundreds were killed during the forced resettlement in North Africa over the next five years and Spanish society was, in fact, weakened economically and politically as a result—particularly in areas such as Valencia and Aragon, where the majority of the Muslim converts had lived.
Historians and writers have urged the Government to use the anniversary of the event to make overtures to the Islamic world. José Manuel Fajardo, a Spanish writer, said: “Mr Zapatero has an opportunity to transform one of the most tragic episodes in the history of Spain into an opportunity for a re-encounter between the West and Islam.”
However, a spokesman for the Government said: “There are no plans to mark the anniversary.”
The defeat of the Moors in 1492 and the expulsion of the Moriscos from 17th-century Spain has become a politically sensitive subject, with Osama bin Laden referring to it in repeated calls for the restoration of al-Andalus, the former Muslim kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula.
Original article
(Posted on April 10, 2009)
Comments
Typical Islam!
The Moors should apologize for 800 years of killings, raping, plunder and slavery.
If Spain has to apologize then the Muslim countries of the world need to immediatly stop all efforts to dhimmitize the rest of the world and impliment Sharia law.
Why is it so wrong for Spain to be Spanish and Catholic? And while we’re speaking about brutality, how would they like it if we took over a Muslim country and forcibly converted its people to Christianity? Wouldn’t their expelling the Christian occupiers (if they got the chance) be brutal? As it is, an American Air Force base in Saudi Arabia, and the relatively benign occupation of Iraq are making them mad enough as it is.
Well if the muslims had not invaded spain in the first place such an atrocity would not have happened.But what if Spain had not expelled the Moriscos. The nation of Spain would not even exist as it is. BTW I wonder what would happen if France decided to have as a national holiday the defeat of the invadeing Muslims by Charles Martel at the battle of Tours. Or if the Viennese decided to celebrate the defeat of the muslims at the Gates of Vienna. But I forget according to Obama europe has never been at war against muslims.
After military losses to the Protestant Dutch, King Philip signed a decree on April 9, 1609, to expel these reluctant converts, in a move he hoped would strengthen his kingdom.
Yes, it wasn’t like said Moriscoes were an Islamic “fifth column” right?
Historians and writers have urged the Government to use the anniversary of the event to make overtures to the Islamic world. José Manuel Fajardo, a Spanish writer, said: “Mr Zapatero has an opportunity to transform one of the most tragic episodes in the history of Spain into an opportunity for a re-encounter between the West and Islam.”
Too bad they can’t celebrate the years when the Visigoths invited the Muslims to Spain , or the
Some Muslim writers and Spanish and Moroccan campaigners believe that Madrid should apologise for the wrongs committed during the 17th century. Juan Goytisolo, a Spanish novelist, said:
Except the only thing these fools (excuse the language) forget is that this was common both to medieval Europe and the wider world :
Whether it was Ireland or the the Baltics , European rulers - as with their Asian, African and Native American counterparts - did whatever they wanted to secure their kingdom and extend their power.
I’m not justifying this - just merely pointing out that applying 21st Century values to 17th Century society is ridiculous and naive.
Will Mongolia apologise for razing Baghdad to the ground? Will the inhabitants of the Middle East apologise for a slave trade larger and longer than the trans-Atlantic one?
Of course not - so why expect the Spaniards to apologise?
Maybe when they apologize for invading Spain - and Europe - in the first place, right?
Perhaps Señor Zapatero can read Chesterton’s poem Lepanto to the arrogant Jerk, oops, I mean Turk, next time around.
http://southernandcatholic.blogspot.com/2008/10/don-john-of-
It’s interesting to compare the headline with the story — it mentions that “Moors” are behind this, yet the two persons directly quoted are (no doubt leftist) Spanish writers. So it’s not about the Moors, it’s yet another white country with left-wing elements attempting to smear its national past for political gain. The same tactic that has been used in numerous white nations since 1965 — nothing new here.
Well, I think the Arabs should apologize to the descendants of the Crusaders who had hot oil poured on them when they were attempting to scale a fortification, because that was inhumane warfare.
If they apologize for that, then we’ll apologize for cooking and eating their war casualties, because it was either that or starve.
Conveniently ignored by those demanding that Spain “apologize” is the fact that the Moriscos wouldn’t have been there if the Moors had not conquered Spain in the 8th Century. Is conquest and empire only wrong if it is committed by Western, Christian, Caucasian nations?
One could argue that after 1492, the various rulers of Spain gave the Moriscos more than 100 years to convert and thus become more or less acceptable as Spaniards who could remain in the country with their families. It seems to me that King Philip may have only reluctantly, and with an eye toward what he viewed as best for his kingdom, signed the decree of April 9, 1609, ordering the expulsion. An apology? Speaking as an outside observer, I don’t think so.
Why doesnt’ Islam owe an apology for fourteen centuries of muslim savagery? They invaded Spain in the first place, after all.
Despite muslims’ hatred of our civilization, they have seized upon one of its most potent anti-white elements: the absurd, abject “historical” apology.
News flash to Graham Keeley: “ethnic cleansing” has been going on in one form or another in Europe, and throughout the world, for thousands of years. It is nothing more than a manifestation of the logical imperative of competition for living organisms.
I might add the Islamic conquest of the Visigothic Kingdom in Iberia (711-718 A.D.) and the subsequent eradication by the Moslems of the Visigoths as a distinct people (through assimilation or exodus to the Frankish domaains) from that area was a much earlier example of “ethnic cleansing.” Of course, that’s never mentioned.
“The defeat of the Moors in 1492 and the expulsion of the Moriscos from 17th-century Spain has become a politically sensitive subject, with Osama bin Laden referring to it in repeated calls for the restoration of al-Andalus, the former Muslim kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula.”
The handwriting is on the wall. What the Spaniards do in the next few years will determine whether or not the “Reconquista” was in vain.
Was Spain really a Christian country when the Moors invaded it in 711? At that time it was under the rule of Visigoths (A Germanic tribe) and was probably still partly pagan. Jews were living there since ancient times and probably even before the first Christians set foot there. So, at least from a religious viewpoint, it is debatable that historic scrutiny would support the simplistic view that Muslims invaded a Christian land and that land was later reconquered by the Christians. It’s not as black and white as that. Furthermore, racially speaking, it is possible that the original Spaniards had as much in common with North Africans as with other Europeans - but later Germanic invasions diluted their Mediterranean roots. In any case, the above possibilities/views should be fodder for further research and discussion.
Wait a minute here. I thought that we are constantly taught that the Moors at that time were so much more advanced than Europe and that they saved Europe from it’s barbarism. But then we are also taught that the Moors were victims at the hands of Europeans. Either accept one fib over the other (they are both fibs), or do away with both of them completely. But it is NOT rationaly sound to have both fibs existing at the same time. You can’t have it both ways. Pick one, or drop both of them, and let Europeans get on with their lives.
After military losses to the Protestant Dutch, King Philip signed a decree on April 9, 1609, to expel these reluctant converts, in a move he hoped would strengthen his kingdom.
Yes, it wasn’t like said Moriscoes were an Islamic “fifth column” right?
Exactly. Spain was at that time under heavy pressure in the Mediterranean from an expansionist and warlike Ottoman Turkey, and it was feared that the Moriscos would be willing collaborators in the event of a Turkish iunvasion.
But this little fact was conveniently ignored, of course.
Historians and writers have urged the Government to use the anniversary of the event to make overtures to the Islamic world. José Manuel Fajardo, a Spanish writer, said: “Mr Zapatero has an opportunity to transform one of the most tragic episodes in the history of Spain into an opportunity for a re-encounter between the West and Islam.”
By far “the MOST tragic episode in the history of Spain” was the arrival of the Moslems from North Africa, an event resulting in nearly a thousand years of warfare, bloodshed, and turmoil. In fact, the problems resulting from that incomparable disaster are still resounding and festering in Spain today, 1300 years later, as we can see in this article.
White European culture will never really have a Renaissance until white people, especially those in power, learn to stop apologizing. Muslims have done more than their fair share of conquering other countries and subjugating their people, so I can’t get too worked up over their occasional reversals.
In any case, the above possibilities/views should be fodder for further research and discussion.
Here’s what I found from a wonderfully politically incorrect history text from 1888: “There is some reason for supposing that at the time of the Gothic invasion Spain was still in great part Pagan, and that it continued to be so during the whole period of Gothic domination. Some Pagans undoubtedly lingered on even as late as the end of the sixth century, but that there were any large numbers of them as late as the eighth century is improbable.” The Goths, by the way, were evidently Arian Christians.
It also contains this passage about the fate of post-Roman Spain which may be of interest to Amren readers: “Just about the time when the Romans withdrew from Britain, leaving so many of their possessions behind them, the Suevi, Alani, and Vandals, at the invitation of Gerontius, the Roman governor of Spain, burst into that province over the unguarded passes of the Pyrenees. Close on their steps followed the Visigoths… The effeminate and luxurious provincials offered practically no resistance to the fierce Teutons. … Mariana, the Spanish historian, asserts that they preferred the rule of the barbarians. However this may be, the various tribes that invaded the country found no serious opposition among the Spaniards: the only fighting was between themselves—for the spoil. Many years of warfare were necessary to decide this important question of supremacy.”
They don’t write history like this anymore!
In the first place those Muslims were NOT indigenous to Spain. They were muslim conquerors and colonizers from North Africa. Secondly what would have become of Spain if it HADN’T expelled them? Spain would have become another Lebanon or Bosnia.
To jewamongyou, there may well have been a good many non-Christians, including Jews in Spain at the time of the Moorish conquest, but Constantine and his successors had implemented a determined policy of Christianisation which the last pagan Emperor Julian had tried to overturn in the 350s. He was unsuccessful. By the time of the Roman collapse in the West, Christianity, whether Arian, Monphysite, Nestorian or Orthodox was established in all the Empire’s provinces, including North Africa, notably Mauretania, which became the centre of Moorish expansion. The Muslim armies had first invaded the North African provinces and forced them to submit to Islam, or pay discriminatory taxes and suffer other forms of discrimination. When the Muslims invaded the Iberian Peninsula, they did oppress a largely Christian population. The population did not become Christian under the Moors and then set about the Reconquista. Ferdinand and Isabella were successful because their religious zeal was more acceptable to the southern populations than Islamic oppression in Andalusia.
As for your remark that the Visigoths and other Germanic tribes invaded a population similar to the North Africans, many Spanish tribes were Celts, or Celtiberians. These people also had colonies in North Africa, as well as did other non-Semitic peoples, including Greeks.
There is no need to go to lengths to study these things. They are a matter of historic record. There is also no need to equivocate over who was the primary aggressor in Spain in the Middle Ages. It was the Moors.
Ethnic cleansing in Europe has tradition. The practice goes way back in history. 400 years is not bad but England was expelling Jews back in 1290 for instance. The worst case of ethnic cleansing took place just after WW2 when 17 million Germans had to leave their homes, farms and property in the greatest forced mass expulsion/ethnic cleansing of all time, with millions dying in the process.
“Was Spain really a Christian country when the Moors invaded it in 711?”
At the Third Council of Toledo, the Visigoths, under King Reccared (reigned 586– 601), converted from Arian Christianity to Catholic Christianity.
A new study suggests that a million or more European Christians were enslaved by Muslims in North Africa between 1530 and 1780. In Spain’s conflict with the Ottoman Empire, the Moriscos were suspected of being a Muslim fifth column, aiding the Barbary pirates.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/white_slaves_02.shtml
Meanwhile, in modern times, muslims plant bombs on Madrid’s public trains, killing hundreds of innocent civilians, and the muslim world stands mute — and thus complicit — in the wake of mass murder committed under their religion’s banner.
When are they to apologize for 800 years of slave trading of teen agers to the harems?
And yes indeed, it was the Moriscos who were the majority of the slave traders between the muslims and their christian slaves.
The handwriting is on the wall. What the Spaniards do in the next few years will determine whether or not the “Reconquista” was in vain.
Sadly, I believe we will have an “Islamic Republic of Spain” and then Europe will become muslim in totem with the two front assault via the Islamic Republic of Kosovo, and Islamic Spain.
Incessantly we read and are told about the splendid civilization that flourished in Spain under the Moors. Ah yes, wasn’t it wonderful? All that marvellous diversity!
And of course, those barbaric, uneducated Europeans never bathed and were living in ignorance and squalor. Poor fools, they didn’t have the blessings of Diversity. What else could anyone expect?
Well, that’s how it’s portrayed by those who want to push their own diversity agendas.
But the fact is that the Moors brought virtually nothing to Spain. They plundered and fattened off the culture they found there. If the Spaniards managed to maintain a relatively high level of civilization during this period, it was not BECAUSE of the Moors, but rather it was IN SPITE OF them.
So the Muslims of today want Spain to apologize for the expulsion of converts hundreds of years ago while as we speak many of them say the punishment for a Muslim converting is actually death?
The “Moors” aren’t interested in fairness or doing the right thing. They are solely interested in exerting themselves over the white people who still reside in Spain. Are they going to apologize for all the conquests and people they enslaved? No. They don’t care about that. They simply want us to submissively fall in line, so don’t allow yourselves to be pushed around by this drivel.
— in the wake of mass murder committed under their religion’s banner.
Not just under the banner but with total muslim support and encouragement.
The history of humanity is a Darwinian struggle for existence. Just because someone wrote a song called “Kumbaya” hasn’t changed anything. Liberals need to face facts and stop empowering people who want to destroy us. Humans do not grow out of the ground. All nations exist because at some point in the past, their ancestors conquered and held onto a particular piece of ground. The Spanish would do well to contemplate this truth.
HUNDREDS? Out of hundreds of THOUSANDS? That’s nothing! In fact, it amounts to preferential treatment, when compared to the countless Jews who died or were murdered during their expulsion, around 1492.
I think Spain is handling this ‘issue’ correctly. And if pressed, I think they should take the rational, factual approach and curtly explain that Spain is now a secular democracy, and is in no way accountable for the actions of the old Roman Catholic kingdom, or of the Catholic Church in the 17th century.
For any Moor/neo-Arab to ask for an apology for “ethnic cleansing” has a hollow ring. The Moors/Arabs together slaughtered and cleansed for hundreds of years and are still doing it everywhere. I like many aspects of their justice system but for them to go after Spain is typical of their cowardice. They act like coward africans who rape, rob, and loot and then try to make out like they are oppressed.
In PRE-muslim days the Arab world was indeed enlightened and forward thinking but since the introduction of the Muslim ideaology.. NOTHING has come from the Arabs except flame and sword, warfare, torture and slavery. World domination in the fashion of 6th century Arabia is the aim of muslims with THEM in control. I hope we never allow muslims or blacks in our space program to go into space.
Note that the Moors are not about to apologize to the Spanish for invading Spain in the first place.
Posted by Refugee at 6:23 AM on April 11
Oh yeah, I saw the movies illustrating this world famous genocide of German’s; “Hitler’s Hike.”
Posted by Dave at 12:38 AM on April 11
“Here’s what I found from a wonderfully politically incorrect history text from 1888: “There is some reason for supposing that at the time of the Gothic invasion Spain was still in great part Pagan, and that it continued to be so during the whole period of Gothic domination. Some Pagans undoubtedly lingered on even as late as the end of the sixth century, but that there were any large numbers of them as late as the eighth century is improbable.” The Goths, by the way, were evidently Arian Christians.”
Here’s why these texts are obsolete; It has since become well known that “pagans” practicing ways similar to pre-Christian practices in Europe, often combining Christian (Catholic) rites with pre-Christian ones has been ongoing in many remote regions of Europe in an unbroken time line up to the present. Estonia has a very lively pre-Christian form of European shamanism that has never been interferred with by anyone - so remote were they. I lived and traveled in Europe for several years, paying particular attention to pockets of indigenous religious practices. England, Ireland, Scotland and the Baltic regions have their share, but the Peyrennes and Slavic regions, notably the Balkans, have large unmolested indigenous religious regions or regions where Christianity is practiced simultaneously with indigenous beliefs and rites - as they always have done, according to the people of those regions. Claiming the eradication of “paganism” was merely an assumption by the ill-informed and myopic chroniclers of the Victorian age exalting in themselves.
Nearly all of Europe was Arian or Celtic Christian before the arrival of Roman Catholicism, which is - when examined even cursively, a clear combination of Roman Polytheism and Patriarchal Judaism. Any real historian or even Roman Catholic theologian can tell you that.
I guess that means that the French can ask for compensation from Algeria, the British from India and Kenya and the Portuguese from Angola! If and when Algeria pays compensation to the French for expelling the 1 million plus French Pied-Noir from Algeria, Spain MAY consider this proposal.
When will the Turkish Muslims apologize to the Christians in Greece and Eastern Europe for taking their lands and their once-beautiful city, Constantinople?
The expulsion of the “moriscos” was plenty justified because they had rebelled against the king several years before. Note that in this time the ottomans were ataccking eastern europe and pirates from north africa atacked and pillaged the mediterranean coasts of Spain and Italy. The coast of Spain is full of castles and watchtowers.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pe%C3%B1%C3%ADscola
Battle of Lepanto was in 1571 so the peril of invasion to Spain was great still. Muslims were the enemy and the common link of unity and identity for Spaniards was religion. Thats why Spaniards fought the religion wars in Europe and viewed as a duty to convert the indians to cristianity.
http://www.zum.de/whkmla/military/16cen/moriscos.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morisco_Revolt
As to asking pardon to the moors i laugh at the idea, as a spaniard i know if there are someone who the spanish still detest and consider our enemy that is the moors.
Funny but the first African slave trade was caused by the muslims in the early medieval period. Isn’t it odd that only Europe and America, especially the southern USA are the only ones held accountable?
Let me get this straight…the Moors INVADE the Iberian peninsula, then the Iberians manage to defend their territory, and now the invaders want an apology??? Those Muslims live in an inverted world. THEY should be apologizing to Spain and Portugal!!!
Reading the above article has left me disgusted and not a bit surprised. Welcome to the world according to Karl Marx, where up is down, and wrong is right. My family has been in Spain for over 1000 years (I’m the first American in my family), and I’m proud of the fact that I had ancestors who took part in the Reconquista, reclaiming the lands which eventually led to a united Spain.
You’ll find that are many in Spain, the vast majority I’m sure, that don’t trust the “Moros” (as we call all of the Muslims), but the current government of Zapatero is filled with the same traitors you find in almost every other white government. Otherwise, the Moors are trash, they commit crimes, they smell, and they belong to that damn death cult that my ancestors and our collective ancestors fought to keep away from Europe.
Elrey Jones at 12:43 PM on April 12
” I like many aspects of their justice system…”
Note that the Moors are not about to apologize to the Spanish for invading Spain in the first place.
Apologize!! HELL!!! the muslims are STILL invading Spain AND everywhere else.
Claiming the eradication of “paganism” was merely an assumption by the ill-informed and myopic chroniclers of the Victorian age exalting in themselves.
I’m not so sure about this. It’s true that vestiges of paganism are present everywhere, having been merged into Christian beliefs, or maintained alongside them, but nowhere in Europe that I am aware of are there pure pagans continuing to practice in an unbroken line from pre-Christian times.
As for Spain, remember that it was under Roman influence for almost 600 years, 300 of which occurred after Christianity had begun to spread — and was within the cultural sphere of Greece and Phoenicia for centuries before all that. And then it had a further 300 years of Christianization before the arrival of the Moors. Looked at this way, it does seem hard to believe that there still would have been a large pagan population in 710 A.D. (I’m not even sure what such paganism would have been at that time anyways. Roman state paganism? Indigenous Iberian paganism — a holdover from a millenium before?).
“It is the Moors who should apologize to Spain for their invasion in 711AD, and the mass killing of Jews and Christians.
That’s not what happened at all. Jews came into Spain with the Moors who were also helped by the Jews who were already living there. Jews had a favored position as overseers of the Christian population. That’s why they were expelled along with the Muslims.
Posted by Michael C. Scott:“Note that the Moors are not about to apologize to the Spanish for invading Spain in the first place.”
Perhaps they could come to a gentlemen’s agreement:
SKIP,
In the pre-Muslim days, yes you could say the Middle East was “forward thinking”, but it wasn’t the arabs who were behind it. The only “forward thinking” people who have ever lived in the Middle East who I would call “forward thinking” in the same way Europeans are, were the Persians etc…. (people who were related to Europeans). I hardly consider the Egyptian or Babylonian civilizations “forward thinking”. If so, then we might as well say the same about the Aztecs or the Indus River Valley Civilization.
The way to apologize is by sending back all the hard working immigrants with good family values we took to do jobs whites won’t do. Do this world wide. Whites will show their true remorse.
It wasn’t ethnic cleansing it was liberation of occupied land.
Posted by jewamongyou —
But then, the Basques, an isolated mountain people fiercely resisant to all outside influences, have always been the exception to all the rules. I don’t think they could be considered representative of Spain.
One could consider that the Moriscos had been treated very generously (by the standards of the time, that is). Theoretically, all Moslems were to have been out of Spain by Aug. 1, 1492. But in their case, the expulsion decree was quietly relaxed and they were allowed to stay on for another hundred years and more.
Despite that, at a time when Spain and Turkey were at war, when the Spanish coast was being raided by pirates for slaves and booty, and Spain was in great danger of an Ottoman invasion, the Moriscos were suspected (probably not without good cause) of aiding and sympathizing with the Turks. Finally, Spain said “enough!”
Apologize?
Are they crazy. We need to rediscover our roots. Rediscover pride. We need to go backwards to go forward.
Fundamentalist ISLAM is incompatible with Western Civilization. They need to stay in their corner of the globe where they belong. We need to stop apologizing.
I hardly consider the Egyptian or Babylonian civilizations “forward thinking”. If so, then we might as well say the same about the Aztecs or the Indus River Valley Civilization.
You’re right at this point in time, things weren’t always like this. Only when the muslims took over and blacks expanded did things go to hell in a basket. Egypt wasn’t always a desert, wasn’t always full of blacks and could grow food for most of the known world (Rome depended on Egyptian grain remember) But the Egyptians are pretty much black now and their society (or lack of) displays a distinct Detroit look to it.
You know, in Franco’s day, NO ONE needed to apologize for ANYTHING. There were no gays, jews, or other non-Europeans wandering around Iberia, and women were safe at nights on the streets.
So, why should we apologize for ANYTHING? Only he who has sinned should repent….
