Andrew Bostom makes short shrift of the myth of a ‘tolerant Islamic Spain’

Gates of Vienna:

The Cordoba House and the Myth of Andalusian “Ecumenism”

In response to yesterday’s video about the “Andalusian Spring”, Andy Bostom sends the following article adapted from his forthcoming book Sharia Versus Freedom — The Legacy of Islamic Totalitarianism.

The Cordoba House and the Myth of Andalusian “Ecumenism”
by Andrew G. Bostom

Feisal Abdul RaufImam Feisal Rauf, “founder and visionary” of the Cordoba Initiative, [1] apparently sees the construction of a triumphal mosque within the 9/11 World Trade Center attack’s zone of destruction [2] as a fulfillment of his vision for Islam in America. As Rauf stated in his 2004 What’s Right with Islam, a work limited to treacly Islamic propaganda: [3]

For many centuries, Islam inspired a civilization that was particularly tolerant and pluralistic. … Great philosophers such as Maimonides were free to create their historic works within the pluralistic culture of Islam.

Rauf envisions this invented past as a model for the future “Sharia-compliant” America he desires. [4]

Cordoba Initiative

The late self-proclaimed “contrarian,” Christopher Hitchens, asserted his distaste for those in charge of the Cordoba Initiative, especially Rauf, characterizing the imam’s utterances about the 9/11 atrocities as “shady and creepy.” [5] Yet even Hitchens upheld the Andalusian myth of Cordoba, calling it: [6]

The site of an astonishing cultural synthesis, best associated with the names of Averroes ibn-Rushd and Moses Maimonides …

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About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

2 Replies to “Andrew Bostom makes short shrift of the myth of a ‘tolerant Islamic Spain’”

  1. More people need to debunk the myth, and the MSM needs to broadcast the debunking.

  2. The city of Córdoba was the setting for an unusual historical drama that unfolded between the years 850 and 859, when forty-eight Christians were decapitated for religious offenses against Islam. More striking than the number of executions were the peculiar circumstances surrounding them. For one thing, as the sources unambiguously demonstrate, the majority of the victims deliberately invoked capital punishment by publicly blaspheming Muhammad and disparaging Islam. Moreover, though some Cordoban Christians applauded the executed Christians as martyrs, others regarded them as self-immolators whose unwarranted outbursts served only to expose the community as a whole to the emirs suspicions.

    Kenneth Baxter Wolf – Christian Martyrs in Muslim Spain