Jihad Galore and the Toledo Whore

A fine history lesson.

from the Austraian Islamist Monitor

Battle of Higueruela

battle-of-higueruela1

How often in conversation with a Muslim, do they quote Spain as the crowning achievement of Islam, where Muslims, Jews and Christians lived in harmony for about 800 years?

And when you mention the killings and massacres, you are told that the Spanish Inquisition was much worse.
This is a misconception, since the Inquisition in Spain was responsible for only between 4,000 and 5,000 lives.

Yet in 1066AD, in a single day, muslims murdered over 4,000 Jews because Vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela had risen to a position greater than them, and of course, this upset the Muslim sensitivities. 

History tells us that the Muslim invasion started in 711AD and that Spain, or al-Andalus, was Islamic until 1492 when Granada fell to King Ferdinand, the Christian king of Spain.

Spain then provides an excellent case for studying how Islam might work in a Western civilization today. It is both timely and relevant to examine this period in history, and we know that after the Madrid bombings in 2004, Osama bin Laden has called for the retaking of Spain for Islam.

Certainly it is true that the Muslim invaders of Spain believed in the Holy Trinity, the Islamic version, of course, 1) Booty, 2) Women and 3) Slaves!

Does a critical look at history support this romantic view that al-Andalus was a model of Islamic harmony, and what does it say about Jihad Continue Reading →

More Legal Jihad.

chiste_jihad_1from The Wall Street Journal April 3rd, 2009

Spain Has No Right to Try U.S. Officials

What next? Prosecutions for bad advice on global warming?

A lawyer in Spain — who did his legal studies while serving over seven years in prison for kidnapping and terrorism — has engineered a complaint accusing the U.S. government of systematically torturing war-on-terrorism detainees. He filed this complaint with Baltasar Garzon, an activist magistrate famous for championing the “universal jurisdiction” of Spanish courts. That magistrate is now asking a Spanish prosecutor to bring criminal charges on this matter against former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, four other former Bush administration lawyers, and me.

The allegation is not that any of us tortured anyone. And it is not that any of us even directed anyone to commit torture. The allegation is that, when we advised President George W. Bush on the Geneva Conventions and detainee interrogations, our interpretations were wrong — in the view of the disapproving Spaniards. According to the complaint, these wrong interpretations encouraged the president to make decisions that led to torture. Continue Reading →