The Alhambra in Grenada
One very controversial act in history was the expulsion of the Jews and the Moors from Spain in 1492. From then until the early 1800’s, Spain was a bastion for Catholicism in the world. They probably did more than any other country in history for Catholicism and for that I’m thankful. Their greatness was not only in political, military, and colonial power, but in faith as well. They were able to produce amazing saints such as St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Ignatius of Loyola, and so many others. Imagine a country as Catholic as Poland with the military power of the United States. That’s what Spain was for over three centuries.
I will focus on the Moors here because the situation with the Jews was very different. The Moors didn’t have the converso problem. By the year 1480 when Isabella was Queen of Castile, the vast majority of Spain had been reconquered by Christian forces. Toledo was recaptured in 1085 and Cordoba was recaptured in 1236. All that the Muslims had left was Granada and the surrounding area. In other words, not a lot.
There was a really aggressive Sultan in Grenada named Muley Hacen. He died in 1485 and the next two political leaders were more reasonable. In fact, the last Sultan surrendered the city to Fernando and Isabella in 1492 without a fight.
Was it correct to expel all of the Moors at this point? Jews and Muslims lived in many other Christian countries as minorities. Christian states usually permitted this although there were restrictions. In fact, many of the Jews who were expelled went to other Christian countries such as Italy. To my knowledge, most of the Moors went to Morocco.
With Grenada and every other city in Spain in Christian hands, what should the monarchs have done? I would have expelled all of the Muslim political leaders and anyone who showed signs of blaspheme, anti-Christian sentiment, or a desire to restore Muslim rule to Spain. I would have banned all Muslims from coastal towns and cities. This was always a danger since foreign Muslim powers could replenish the Moors in Southern Spain via the sea. With the coast in Christian hands, this would have been impossible.
I would have allowed Muslim villagers and peasants to remain. I would have let the Muslims in Grenada live in their own quarter of the city. They would have no access to the Alhambra. These were the descendants of foreign invaders. Do they bear the responsibility of their evil conquering ancestors from the eighth century? I don’t believe that they do but they must realize that they are guests in a Christian country.
I would also make an effort to Christianize these remaining Muslims. Obviously not by force since that is against the Christian religion but I would make every attempt with gentleness and reverence to show them that the Christian faith is true and that Muhammad’s religion contradicts established history and previous revelation.
So I wouldn’t have done what Isabella and Fernando did regarding the Muslims. The Jews are a different story since they had the converso problem. What I would have done with them was something completely different. The Muslims didn’t have that problem at all. I would have allowed some Muslims to stay in southern Spain in certain areas.
I do not believe that this extremely small Muslim minority would have hindered the good work that Spain did in service of the true faith in the following centuries. Obviously these Muslims wouldn’t have been allowed to travel to the New World and spread Islam there. In conclusion, I think that Fernando and Isabella were wrong to expel all of the Muslims in 1492. I know that a lot of my fellow Catholics may disagree with me but I don’t think the Muslims deserved to be expelled from Spain because of what their ancestors did. Feel free to disagree in the comments below.
Very interesting think piece. Out of curiosity, do you know all the reasons why Isabella and Fernando decided to expell the Moors?
Hi Mark,
Thanks for the comment. Do I know all the reasons? No. The main reason was that they feared Spain being retaken by the Moors who had a landing area set up in the southern Kingdom. They were worried that they’d help Moors from Morocco conquer. This is somewhat similar to how the Jews helped the Moors in the 8th century. So, the main reason was for safety.
Also, I believe that they fell victim to anger on the Christian part because Christians were mad at the Jews because of the converso problem. They were caught in the crossfire.
I firmly believe that Muslims living in certain areas in the south wouldn’t have caused a threat to Catholic identity or power in the centuries to come. What people don’t know is that Muslim populations can be controlled if you have a brave leader. We don’t have that in the West right now but Spain certainly had it back then.
God Bless,
Allan
Mr. Ruhl! You are too idealistic! Just going by your own reasoning, I would say that you are wrong. If it is true that, as you say, it would be important to send away the muslims remaining in coastal regions, then for the very same reason wouldn’t it be important to expell them all? I know travel and moving livelihood from the interior to the coast would not be easy, but would you want to have the task of monitoring the coastal regions for muslims comnig from the interior?
I am a soft Canadian like you, I do like your reasoning in general, but I wonder if it is practical.
I also do not know what form of Islam was believed by those muslims. I heard in a talk by Robert Reilly, that there were some relatively quite reasonable versions of Islam at one point. But where do you think Islam originated from? From the mind of God?
Hi Maria,
No, Islam is definitely not from God, although Sophronius of Jerusalem who experienced the wrath of these Muslims said that it was a punishment for Monophysitism. Unfortunately in later years the Monophysites would say the same thing about Chalcedonianism.
What people forget is that Islam can be controlled. They look powerful because if an enemy is weak, they’ll attack and expose it. With powerful leaders, Muslim minorities in a country pose almost no threat.
Muslim peasants or Muslims in the ghetto would pose almost no threat.
Also, Riley was talking about the Muslim intellectuals in Cordoba under the Golden Age there. Unfortunately the Almohads brought the end of the Golden Age, condemned the intellectual giant of the day which was Averroes and also burned his works in the public square. This was in 1198. Shortly after this, Cordoba was recaptured in the reconquista so there was no large intellectual Islamic presence in Spain from then on.
God Bless,
Allan
Okay, but you left out the conditions under which the muslims would have to live. Did Isabelle and Ferdinand run a Catholic state where public worship of other religions was prohobited?
Hello Maria,
In a Catholic state, minority religions can exist. However, only the Kingship of Christ can be promoted. Other religions can’t be promoted publicly. In the Papal States, there was a Jewish community always in Rome but they had to stay in their community. In their community they were free to go to the Synagogue and engage in Jewish rites.
If the Muslims weren’t expelled, they would have been able to practice their faith in the hypothetical Muslim quarter in Grenada or in their towns or communities but proselytism or promoting Islam in any way is absolutely forbidden.
God Bless,
Allan
Hi Maria,
I recently did a presentation on Islam for my church, so from my research I come to two different, but not mutually exclusive possibilities (i.e. they can both be true):
1) Manmade effort for political unity (ref: the work of Dan Gibson, Robert Spencer, Jay Smith).
2) Spiritually inspired, but NOT by the Biblical YHWH.
I can elaborate briefly or more deeply if anyone wishes.
On point 2, here are the comparisons I dug up:
– Allah is the best deceiver (Sura 3:54)… Who is the father of lies? (John 8:44)
– Jibril of all the angels is the enemy of the Jews (Bukhari 4:55:546)… Who is our adversary? (1 Peter 5:8)
– Jibril is light (Sahih Muslim 2996)… Who can appear as an angel of light? (Isaiah 14:12, 2 Corinthians 11:14)
– When Jibril first appeared to Muhammad, Jibril grabbed his shoulders hard and Muhammad attempted suicide (Bukhari 96.15) and thought he had poetry powers (Tabari vol 9, pg 167, note 1151)… What causes convulsions (Mark 1:26, Mark 9:26, Luke 9:42) and self-harm (Mark 5:5, Mark 9:22) and fortunetelling? (Acts 16:16)
Various clues are also in the comparison of the End Times:
– A Beast of the Earth calls people to Islam (Sura 27:82); the Beast from the Earth calls people to worship the Beast from the Sea (Revelation 13:11-18). Honestly this is a RIDICULOUSLY SPECIFIC ‘coincidence’!
– The Mahdi will rule the world for 7 years (Hadrat Abu Saeed Khudri); as does the First Beast (Daniel 7:19-25, Revelation 13:1-8).
– Isa aka Muslim Jesus will return but support the Mahdi, condemn Christian beliefs and spread Islam (Sura 4:159, Sura 61:6); the Beast from the Earth aka The False Prophet performs miracles to support the Beast from the Sea (Revelation 13:11-20)
– Refuse the Mahdi and get beheaded (Imam al-Baqir); refuse the Beast and get beheaded (Revelation 20:4)
Great political move by Ferdinand and Isabella which consolidated their rule in Spain. In judging their actions one also has to bear in mind the potent force presented by Islam in the Mediterranean in that period.
Muslims have returned now, and as they have not come as conquerors this time it will be more difficult, if not impossible, to remove them, at least in the foreseeable future.
That said, you never know what political force is liable to emerge given time. We have had a fairly stable political situation on the Continent of Europe for several decades, but things may change if the EU’s leaders make a hash of things (which they have demonstrated they are quite capable of doing).
Hi Christopher,
“Muslims have returned now, and as they have not come as conquerors this time it will be more difficult, if not impossible, to remove them, at least in the foreseeable future.”
Muslims are only a problem in Europe because the secular leaders and the Church have no spine. I do believe that all of the Muslims will be expelled again, this time by ultra-nationalist governments like the one in Italy. I don’t know when this will happen but probably in the next couple of decades. I don’t think this is good either because these groups in power will then start to persecute the Church once the Muslims are gone. It will be more devastating for the Church than the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars that followed. This will probably spell the end for what remains of the mainline Protestants in Europe. Although the Catholic Church is headquartered in Europe, the strongest Catholics live outside of Europe so that will help us.
God Bless,
Allan
Allan, off-topic…
But in an earlier blog post, you did say you would like to see a Jewish Rabbi vs Muslim Apologist debate on “Was Jesus the Messiah?” correct…
Here’s Sam Shamoun’s take on that topic:
https://answeringislamblog.wordpress.com/2018/06/20/an-anti-christian-rabbi-proves-muhammad-is-a-false-prophet-pt-1/
(Part 2 is the post immediately following that)