Andalusia on my mind...

Andalusia (Al Andalus) on my mind...

During the past months there have been several references to an historic region of Spain named Andalusia or Al Andalus (as it was called during the Moorish occupation of southern Spain). When I think of the Moors, I think of two cities: Granada and Cordoba. These were the two principal settlements; where still today one can experience the great cultural and architectural achievements of the Moors.

Let's look at some of the direct and collateral references to Andalusia that I've heard recently:

1. First Lady Michelle Obama visited Granada--------------------------- About 15.30 hrs Michelle Obama and Sasha arrived at the Plaza de Isabel La Católica in Granada. First stop was a famous ice cream parlour called 'Los Italianos' where Michelle chose three flavours of Chocolate and Sasha chose melon and raspberry. The first lady with her hair tied up in a bun and wearing a printed rose, orange and green printed dress with black belt then entered the Cathedral. They were particularly interested in the tomb of the catholic monarchs who conquered the region from the Moors in 1492 and financed Columbus’ expedition. http://www.andalucia.com/history/people/michelle-obama.htm
   The tour of the city ended with a tour at sunset of the Alhambra fortress-palace, Spain’s most-visited tourist attraction. Once the residence of Moorish kings, the Alhambra is now one of the world’s largest open-air museums of Islamic architecture and a World Heritage Site. It features royal residential quarters, official chambers, a bathhouse, and a mosque, as well as a series of courtyards flanked by sweeping archways, columns and fountains.
   http://live.kyero.com/2010/08/06/michelle-obama-visits-granada-and-the-alhambra-palace/



2. A controversy about a Muslim Cultural Center to be built near ground-zero in NYC, lead by an organization called The Cordoba Initiative.---- The world should know that the ‘Cordoba Initiative,’ the New York City based organization desiring to construct a massive Islamic house of prayer at ‘Ground Zero,’ has posted on its website, a peculiar and disingenuous statement indicating the desire to bring back the atmosphere of, “interfaith tolerance and respect that we have longed for since Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together in harmony and prosperity eight hundred years ago.”
   
   I point this out because contemporary scholarship has clearly demonstrated that there was no ‘harmony’ or ‘prosperity’ for non-Muslims in Islamic Spain. The Cordoba Initiative is attempting to revisit some sort of mythical “tolerance and respect” which never existed.
   
   What is irrefutable is that living under Islam, the non-Muslim population was always mandated to submit to Islam, accept discriminatory laws, and make payment of a mandatory Quranic tax imposed upon every non-Muslim. For a period of about 800 years, most of Spain was ruled by Muslims and this area was known as ‘Al-Andalus.’ Islamic rule ended in 1492, when the city of Granada, the last Muslim kingdom in Western Europe, capitulated to the Spanish Catholics. http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/127499.html



3. Muslims Campaign to Worship in Spain's Cordoba Cathedral
   "There are things that are shared and others that are not, and the Cathedral of Cordoba is not shared with Muslims," said Fernandez, according to the Spanish-language Europa Press. Built in the 8th century after the Moorish invasion of Spain"...
   http://catawissagazetteer.blogspot.com/2010/08/muslims-want-to-worship-in-catholic.html
   Now, some Muslims are trying to repeat that history. Mansur Escudero, a Spanish convert to Islam, is leading the movement that is pushing for the right of Muslims to pray at the Cordoba Cathedral. "I don't think it's important for Muslims. I think it's important for humankind," Escudero says. "We think this is a beautiful paradigm of tolerance, knowledge, culture. People of different religions living together."
   Spain has more than a million Muslims, little more than two percent of the population. Most of that growth is made up of migrants from countries such as Morocco. But the southern European country has a significant community of Muslim converts inspired by its Islamic history.
   http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/08/17/cordoba.mosque.spain/?hpt=C2#fbid=HK1B0o9SqNa&wom=true

Judging from the sudden resurgence in Andalusia and Cordoba in the media, it seems as if there is a organized effort in "going forward" or pushing the envelope of Islamic influence in western nations. I believe in religious liberty for all; However, that includes allowing all religions to worship separately if they so desire. This new Islamic Renaissance with an Ecumenical appeal does not appeal to many; I am one of those that am not very enthusiastic about joining in worship with Muslims, or with any other denomination.

If so, to worship what god, Allah? No thanks, my God is not Allah; He is the great I AM!

Isn't it strange to now have Muslims pushing Ecumenism? Something that the Catholic Church has been actively promoting since Vatican II? And, a movement Evangelicals, and many other christian churches, also support.

Can a one-world religion as prophesied in the Bible be far way?

Arsenio.

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