Are Spaniards anti Muslim ?
- Thread starter Calmone20
- Start date
Molotoff
VIP
That's kind of... not very accurate if we want to look at the modern Spanish. The Inquisition was hundreds of years ago. Spain today is not the Spain of the Franco era from the 1930's to 1970's, much less the Spain of the middle ages.
Spain is a divided society in the same way as a lot of the Western countries.
You have the leftists and the rightists just like in other Western countries. And the leftists are pretty much the same thing as people like the Democrats in the US. They promote being welcoming to immigrants and in theory they are okay with Muslims but they also have values that are deeply opposed to the Islamic viewpoint, just like with the Democrats.
On the right, Spain has Vox which is kind of like the Spain equivalent of the BJP- Vox glorifies the Reconquista expulsion of Muslims and is hardcore anti-immigrant.
So I don't think it's that different than other Western countries. But Spain I think is very dominated by the leftists. So I think a lot of the people would not be overtly anti-Muslim but they would have values that are very contradictory to Islam.
Yes, more so than other European countries. They're like in between the UK and Austria in terms of their dislike for Muslims. They're not too extreme though.
From what I was told, Spain is more anti-black and African than being anti-Muslim.
greznigrezni
He/Him/She/Her/It/Zey/Zas/
They were a Muslim nation and now they want to ban ISLAM from Spain.
SOMALI GENERAL
VIP
Nowadays, most Spaniards don't harbour hatred for Muslims but many dislike Islam as an ideology mainly for historical reasons. However, the Spaniards have inherited a large amount of cultural heritage/legacy from the reconquista[reconquest] period which was to reclaim lost lands from the Islamic invaders. Like for instance, you'll see provincial flags featuring decapitated Moor/Arab heads and Anti-Muslim[and Jewish] place names.
In addition, the patron saint of the Spaniards/Spain is Saint James Matamoros who was depicted as a highly aggressive/militaristic Spaniard slaying the Moors/Arabs.
In addition, the patron saint of the Spaniards/Spain is Saint James Matamoros who was depicted as a highly aggressive/militaristic Spaniard slaying the Moors/Arabs.
Nowadays, most Spaniards don't harbour hatred for Muslims but many dislike Islam as an ideology mainly for historical reasons. However, the Spaniards have inherited a large amount of cultural heritage/legacy from the reconquista[reconquest] period which was to reclaim lost lands from the Islamic invaders. Like for instance, you'll see provincial flags featuring decapitated Moor/Arab heads and Anti-Muslim[and Jewish] place names.
In addition, the patron saint of the Spaniards/Spain is Saint James Matamoros who was depicted as a highly aggressive/militaristic Spaniard slaying the Moors/Arabs.
I wish we'd never lost the place. The Balkans should've been more heavily Islamized too then we'd have the "Western Europeans" proper sandwiched between Muslim lands.
SOMALI GENERAL
VIP
Al-Andalus was a lost cause from the get-go and there are several reasons for this. For example, the Umayyad Arab rulers, other Arabs & Berbers were highly racist towards the native Iberians/Hispani population [both Christian and Muslim converts] by calling them "sons of slaves" among other insults & gave preferential treatment for Arabs/Berbers at the expense of the Native Euros; this intense racism caused multiple revolts/bloodshed & instability for much of Al-Andalusi history. In Al-Andalus society, the native Iberians were made second-class citizens in their own country/land, even Jews were treated better because of their partnership with the Arabs; but this will come back to bite them when the Spaniards reconquered their lands and initiated pogroms/massacres against the Jews.I wish we'd never lost the place. The Balkans should've been more heavily Islamized too then we'd have the "Western Europeans" proper sandwiched between Muslim lands.
On top of that, the vast majority of the rulers in Al-Andalusi history were foreigners which further reinforced the idea that Islam will always be a foreign ideology.
To sum things up, the Christian Spaniards/Iberians were far more united as a population/race; had native rulers who championed a nativist/nationalistic pro-Gothic & Iberian ideology and viewed their country as holy land thanks to the Santiago De Compostela which many Western Europeans make pilgrimage to. In the end, the Visigoths were avenged by their descendants lol.
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If the Spanish were united as a race or Al-Andalus was a lost cause from the get-go they wouldn't have been colonized by Arabs for 750+ years. The problem was the Muslims didn't follow their own playbook in Spain they used in North Africa, which was the insistence of converting the conquered populace to Islam first
SOMALI GENERAL
VIP
Not all of Spain was colonised by the Arabs for 750 years; different parts of Spain witnessed varying amounts of Arab occupation due to the gradual expansion of the Northern Christian Kingdoms/States. Only Granada and it's surrounding territory witnessed Arab rule for 700+ years.
Furthermore, after the decisive battle of Guadalete most of the Hispano-Gothic soldiers of the realm had perished. As a result, southern & much of Central Iberia came under the military control of elite Syrian Arab & Berber soldiers numbering in the tens of thousands that were pouring into Iberia who were far more capable fighters than the millions of peasant Iberian farmers that had likely never picked up a sword in their lives. Hence why large scale revolts done by native Iberians were routinely put down by the large amount of elite foreign soldiers employed by the Umayyad Arabs. This tight military grip over southern & much of central Iberia can explain why Arab rule lasted for a good amount of time during the Cordoban Caliphate era.
The remaining minority of Iberian capable fighters/soldiers and noble Hispano-Gothic elites fled North and proceeded to set up the Kingdom of Asturias in the easily defensible mountainous region. Over time, the population of Asturias grew fast mainly due to northward migration of many Christian families from the Muslim Arab ruled South. This growing population would help with repopulation efforts as the Christian kingdoms expanded southwards.
Sounds like BS. Any proof for this? I’ve never read anywhere that revert and Christian native Iberians suffered racism. Provide your sources.
It was then that large scale converting should have taken place like in Persia/Egypt, A similar dynamic happened in India where there was a chance to convert most Hindus but the Mughals didn't take it and instead preferred to give them dhimmi status to collect Jizya from them.
SOMALI GENERAL
VIP
The collection of Jizya was definitely lucrative for the Arab rulers, but they were still open to accepting new converts to Islam. The main issue was the Arab rulers failed to completely conquer the Iberian peninsula and eliminate any independent Christian rule in the area. They got ahead of themselves by crossing the Pyrenees in an attempt to conquer more European land when they couldn't even finish off the Asturian Kingdom.
As long as there was an independent Christian kingdom in Iberia that aspired to reconquer lost lands then Islam wasn't going to take root in Iberia without constant disruption.
