Anyone care to comment on the history of this:

Anyone care to comment on the history of this:

"Systematic expulsion of Muslims from Spain"? How could that be, why did it happen? Any comments?

http://www.project-syndicate.org/co...-jihad-islamic-state-by-rebecca-gould-2015-08

 

I read a really interesting book called Story of Spanish, a relatively recently published non-fiction book written by Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow which is actually a thorough history of the Spanish language, but goes into the general Muslim influence on the Spanish culture and language in the Iberian peninsula.

I'm not a history major, but from what I remember from that book, after the "Reconquista" or the taking of Granada and southern Spain by the Northern Spanish kingdoms, I think, like most non-Catholics in Spain during the Inquisition, Muslims were given a choice to convert or leave.

 

convert or leave.... the country and not this world without your head in tact I presume?

 

As I say, I'm not a history major, nor do I read much history, so I go to Wikipedia for my information because it's easy. A quick search just now told me the Spanish Inquisition was based on royal decrees of 1492 and 1501 and was aimed at Muslims and Jews. They were ordered to convert or leave the country.

"The Spanish Inquisition is often cited in literature and history as an example of Catholic intolerance and repression. Modern historians have tended to question earlier and possibly exaggerated accounts concerning the severity of the Inquisition. Although records are incomplete, estimates of the number of persons charged with crimes by the Inquisition range up to 150,000, with 2,000 to 5,000 people executed."

 

That's what I remember from history. If they didn't leave Spain, they were subject to some gruesome tortures, and eventual execution courtesy of the Catholic Church. See Tomás de Torquemada, a Spanish Dominican friar and the first Grand Inquisitor in Spain's movement to force Roman Catholicism upon its populace in the late 15th century, otherwise known as "The Spanish Inquisition".

 

When nationalism, expansionism, greed and xenophobia mesh with religion, there can be bad consequences. Then, as now, many in power get God's will and their will confused. Fortunately, in most of the world, torture is no longer considered a legitimate means for inquiry or punishment.