The
following excerpts are from AINA.org:
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.
In
a recent essay published by the Morocco-based newspaper Correo
Diplomático, the Morisco-Moroccan journalist Ahmed Bensalh wrote
that the "decision to grant Spanish citizenship to the
grandchildren of the Hebrews in Spain in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries, while ignoring the Moriscos, the grandsons of the Muslims,
is without doubt, flagrant segregation and unquestionable
discrimination, as both communities suffered equally in Spain at that
time. The decision could also be considered by the international
community to be an historic act of absolute immorality and
injustice...This decision is absolutely disgraceful and
dishonorable."
Bensalh
then went on to threaten Spain: "Is Spain aware of what might be
assumed when it makes peace with some and not with others? Is Spain
aware of what this decision could cost? Has Spain considered that it
could jeopardize the massive investments that Muslims have made on
its territory? Does Spain have alternatives to the foreign investment
from Muslims if they ever decide to move that capital to other
destinations due to the discrimination against Muslims?"
Bensalh
is one of many Muslim journalists, historians and academics who are
demanding that Spain treat Moriscos the same way it treats Sephardic
Jews.
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