Interviews with the author of 'The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise'

Did Jews, Christians and Muslims live together in a tolerant, multicultural society under Islamic rule in early medieval Spain? 

Here are 2 interviews with the Dr. Darío Fernández-Morera (Northwestern University) author of 'The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise.'  (Thanks to Bill D. for sharing this.)

For more on the book, see my earlier post here.

Audio interview with Dr. Darío Fernández-Morera (29 min):

NEW BOOK: The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise

This important new scholarly work unearths primary sources to show that, "far from a land of tolerance, Islamic Spain was marked by religious and therefore cultural repression in all areas of life, and by the marginalization of Christians and other groups..."

I've added this to my Amazon Wish List, and have begun reading the Kindle sample, and am quite impressed already. For instance, Fernández-Morera is happily unafraid to address the explicit Islamic religious mandate in spreading its spiritual (and worldly) hegemony around the world, and to critique the Western epistemological deficiency which all too often ignores this primary motivation behind Muslim jihad:

Failing to take seriously the religious factor in Islamic conquests is characteristic of a certain type of materialist Western historiography which finds it uncomfortable to accept that war and the willingness to kill and die in it can be the result of someone’s religious faith... (Kindle Locations 137-138). 

This book promises to take its place with such important works as Bat Ye'Or's The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam,  Mark Durie's The Third Choice - Islam, Dhimmitude and Freedom, Raymond Ibrahim's Crucified Again - Exposing Islam's New War on Christians, and Andrew Bostom's The Legacy of Jihad - Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims.

Muslims Demand 'Right of Return' to Spain

"By granting citizenship to the descendants of Muslims expelled from Spain — possibly tens of millions — Spain, virtually overnight, would end up with the largest Muslim population in the European Union."

Mass Immigration Jihad through Muslim victimhood status.

Muslims Demand 'Right of Return' to Spain
by Soeren Kern, AINA — May 3, 2015

Muslim groups are demanding Spanish citizenship for potentially millions of descendants of Muslims who were expelled from Spain during the Middle Ages.

The growing clamor for "historical justice" comes after the recent approval of a law that would grant Spanish citizenship to descendants of Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain in 1492.

Muslim supporters say they are entitled to the same rights and privileges as Jews because both groups were expelled from Spain under similar historical circumstances.

But historians point out that the Jewish presence in Spain predates the arrival of Christianity in the country and that their expulsion was a matter of bigotry. By contrast, the Muslims in Spain were colonial occupiers who called the territory Al-Andalus and imposed Arabic as the official language. Historians say their expulsion was a matter of decolonization.

In any event, the descendants of Muslims expelled from Spain are believed to number in the millions--possibly tens of millions--and most of them now live in North Africa. Observers say that by granting citizenship to all of them, Spain, virtually overnight, would end up with the largest Muslim population in the European Union.

Much of the Iberian Peninsula was occupied by Muslim conquerors known as the Moors from 711 until 1492, when the Moorish Kingdom of Granada surrendered to the Catholic Monarchs of Spain (Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon), in what is known as the Christian Reconquest.

But the final Muslim expulsion from Granada did not take place until over a century later, beginning in 1609, when King Philip III decreed the expulsion of the Moriscos.

The Moriscos--Moors who decided to convert to Catholicism after the Reconquest rather than leave Spain--were suspected of being nominal Catholics who continued to practice Islam in secret. From 1609 through 1614, the Spanish monarchy forced an estimated 350,000 Moriscos to leave Spain for Muslim North Africa.

Today, up to five million descendants of the Moriscos are living in Morocco alone; there are millions more living in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Tunisia and Turkey.