Are you looking for my non-technical blog?

This is now my technical-only blog, my non-technical blog is here.

14 March 2007

Spanish Inquisition

In joint event in Chicago marking 21 years since establishment of relations between Israel and Spain, Spanish consul general apologizes for expulsion of Jews from his country in 15th century. He also stated that the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 was an "almost barbaric" act.
Source: Ynet News, Jewish Scene.

But the question is, were the Jews the only ones who faced discrimination and were kicked out of Spain at that time!?

On March 31, 1492, the Alhambra Decree for the expulsion of the Jews and Muslims was issued. Approximately 200,000 people left Spain. The Muslims of the newly conquered Granada had been initially granted religious freedom, but pressure to convert increased, and after some revolts, a policy of forced expulsion or conversion was also instituted in 1502.
Source: Wikipedia, Isabella of Castile, Expulsion of the Jews and Muslims.

After the fall of Granada in 1492, the Muslim population was promised religious freedom by the Treaty of Granada, but that promise was short-lived. In 1502, Muslims were given an ultimatum to either convert or emigrate. The majority converted, but only superficially, continuing to dress and speak as they had before and to secretly practice Islam and use the aljamiado writing system. This led Cardinal Cisneros to use a more forceful approach, which resulted in an uprising in 1500 to 1502. This was suppressed, and the Spanish authorities took that as a pretext to void the rights and obligations in the surrender treaty. As early as 1508, authorities banned traditional fashion. In 1567, Philip II of Spain issued an edict requiring Moriscos to give up their Muslim names, their traditional Muslim dress, and even prohibited the speaking of Arabic. They were even told that they would have to give up their children to be educated by Christian priests.
Source: Wikipedia, Moriscos History.

I agree with the Spanish consul general, that expulsion of the any specific sect from any country is an "almost barbaric" act. In fact, I think the the whole Spanish Inquisition was a barbaric act. But he has to apologize to the Muslims who faced similar discrimination too. Which is not the case, and no one ever thought of apologizing to them. May be because our regimes have similar Inquisitions in the Muslim countries now a days, so we are supposed to be used to this, and we shall be grateful to the Spanish people for teaching our regimes such thing.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

9 comments:

  1. That's interesting. I guess I thought that when Isabella did her thing all of the Moors left Spain right away, but that doesn't make any sense, does it. One reads about the way Jews were treated during the Inquisition but I've never run across the idea that Muslims were treated the same way. I remember that in Ivanhoe the Jews were portrayed as being really oppressed in England, and Muslims not at all. Fiction, one realizes, and maybe that kind of thing is why our ideas about history aren't accurate.

    Even with the attempted stamping out of Islam and the Arabic language, a lot of the culture remained mixed with Spanish culture. It's in the music, and the way women used to dress.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is a bit circular, though.

    "1502, Muslims were given an ultimatum to either convert or emigrate. The majority converted, but only superficially, continuing to dress and speak as they had before and to secretly practice Islam and use the aljamiado writing system. This led Cardinal Cisneros to use a more forceful approach, which resulted in an uprising in 1500 to 1502."

    If the 1502 ultimatum resulted in only superficial conversions, leading Cisneros to a more forceful approach, this couldn't have led to an uprising 2 years previous.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You are right, I think *In* is supposed to be replaced with *Till*

    ReplyDelete
  4. they burned the books and libraries that contained sciences that may have been more advanced in chemistry and medicine because they saw it was black magic , they also killed many many muslims , yes they should apologize , but whom you are talking to , the former spanish prime minister said that the arabs should apologize for invading Spain for centuries , that jerk forgot that those centuries were the ones that made Spain so special
    what it kills the jews got apology for something happened in 15th century while we can't get a confession of what happened from 50 years

    ReplyDelete
  5. Tarek what do you think about the expulsion of jews from Egypt in 1956? is it barabric as well? by the way, there is no such thing as moors.. it is a racist western propaganda that made use of the presence of the some slaves among Arabs in spain to depict them as black moors

    ReplyDelete
  6. "...that jerk forgot that those centuries were the ones that made Spain so special...."

    Spoken like a true colonialist.

    : )

    "by the way, there is no such thing as moors.. it is a racist western propaganda...."

    Sez you.

    THE EMPIRE OF THE MOORS

    ReplyDelete
  7. Amre El-Abyad said…
    "expulsion of jews from Egypt in 1956?"

    What Crape? They Left it Themselves , Cause They can`t Kill The Egyptians and live between them at the same time...

    let`s back to the facts , they killed the British assistant consul at 1942 ...

    and destroy three houses by explosions
    1941 , 1944 , 1951 .......

    and when the History Talk , The Ignorants should stopped

    1941 : Egyptian Police captured 3 Jews in Killing case to Peaceful Jews Family refused to Immigrate to Israel..

    let`s back to the Fact : The Jews Help The British , Food Supplies , ....etc for the British army ...

    at 1956 : they were facing Dangerous Choices 1- to live between the people who help to killing them ?

    2- or to Go TO KILL The KIDS and Babies at The " Promising Land " Israel

    and remember there is about 65 Jews Families refuse to Get Out of EGYPT

    and They are PRO - ANTI ZOnitic ...

    " Let me say i have Friends from Them "

    They told me : we can`t leave here to go to Kill The people who are we living For.


    ahhh and one Thing . " Jamal abd Elnaser " which Role Egypt
    since 1954 was have True and Strong Jews Connections since 1948 " Histroy Recorded "

    and established this Relation Ship trough " Hasan Altohamey " with support of King of Moroco " Mohamed al-khames "
    and had agreement with Israel to Push The Jews to GET OUT of EGYPT
    and That`s Recorded by

    Kenan Aasal : He was The head of Egyptian Jews and killed by Israel at Rome 1958 ...

    He said " The Secret agreement by Jamal Abd elnaser and Israel was like The Jews and Nazi to Force The Jews to Go To Israel "

    Special Replay to an Ignorant

    ------------------

    My Replay to The Post : There is No Such Thing as Moors , That was against Muslims
    Not Moors

    Lets Go back to the facts , The Muslims Don`t need an apologies...

    They role the Country and Make their own stamp .... No Need to apologies or saying thanks ...

    cause we are Not Jews , we will not ask for Money for what the spans did to us over 600 years ago

    we are Not Jews :D

    ReplyDelete
  8. The thing with apologies for things in the distant past is a constant rewriting of the same clashes. Spain was invaded, had both wars and alliances between Christians and Muslims. There was an uneasy convivience that went to hell with the arrival of the Almoravids. It also had constant raids from Berbery pirates in its coasts for many centuries, which were a constant security problem. I think you have to put things in a wider perspective when thinking about History

    ReplyDelete
  9. By the way, Moors is a word to designate people from Northern Africa that comes from latin "maurus" meaning "dark" and that gave the name of Mauritania to the whole Roman province. And it must have stricken Romans as a feature of the inhabitants of the area a darker shade of skin than theirs, because of more insolation, which does not seem to me as having any particular connotation.

    ReplyDelete