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| Europe |
| Where the Moors Held Sway, Allah Is Praised Again |
| 2003-10-21 |
| EFL, rego required GRANADA, Spain — Muslims are back in this ancient Moorish stronghold, the last bastion of Islam in Spain before the 15th-century emir Boabdil kissed King Ferdinand’s hand and relinquished the city with a legendary sigh. But the row of men kneeling in prayer at the city’s new mosque, the first built here in more than 500 years, are not modern-day Moors; they are well-educated European converts. While immigration is gradually spreading Islam across Europe, a homegrown movement is giving it added momentum in Spain, where a generation of post-Franco intellectuals are reassessing the country’s Moorish past and recasting Spanish identity to include Islamic influences rejected as heretical centuries ago. Hugo Chavez and other Latin Americans have used the same argument to explain why they should be allied to radical Muslim regimes, and that sympathy is why Hezbollah has been able to operate unhindered there for years. The movement has its roots, not in the austere Islamic fundamentalism that dominates popular Western imagination these days, but in the Beat Generation and the hippies who pursued spiritual quests to Morocco when it was a counterculturalist Mecca of sun, sand and cheap hashish. There, a young patrician Scot, Ian Dallas, converted to Islam. He eventually changed his name to Sheik Abdalqadir al-Murabit and returned to Britain, where he began gathering Western converts, who became known as the Murabitun. The movement is marked by his proselytizing vision, which strives ultimately to found an Islamic caliphate with an economy based on gold dinars. A handful of Spaniards accepted Islam under his tutelage on the eve of Franco’s death and returned to Córdoba to start an Islamic community there. The new Muslims attracted leftist intellectuals looking for spiritual alternatives to the strict Catholicism that dominated life under Franco. Spain’s Muslim converts now number in the tens of thousands, though many of the new Muslims no longer follow Sheik Abdalqadir. I’ve noticed that, in Europe especially, Islam seems to be particularly attractive to leftists who in the past would have been followers of Mao and Che. Many neo-Nazis, like Ahmed Huber, also seem to be attracted to Islam, and they seem to agree with the leftists on so many issues apart from race. Perhaps this is the seeds of a European "Third position", underwhich Europeans radicals are able to come together under a shared ideology and with shared hatreds. Given the demographics in Western Europe, perhaps EUrabia isn’t so far away? Granada has about 15,000 Muslims today, mostly Moroccan and Syrian immigrants and North African students who worship at three nondescript Muslim prayer rooms in different parts of town. But the town’s 1,000 or so converts are very significant, Mr. Ruiz said, because they give Islam a voice that cannot be ignored. Granada’s Islamic Council, for example, has been lobbying to stop annual celebrations of the fall of Granada into Christian hands. Across Europe, plans to build mosques have met resistance in traditionally Christian communities, where people worry that the growth of Islam is changing the character of their towns. But nowhere, perhaps, has a mosque stirred as much emotion as in Granada, where the location, across a ravine from the reddish-brown ramparts of Islam’s last stand, carries unmistakable symbolism. |
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |
| #22 The population of Granada is about 218,000 according to world gazette--google it. So we're worried about 1000 nut jobs? |
| Posted by: NotMikeMoore 2003-10-21 10:39:48 PM |
| #21 It's not a matter of following of what is right but knowing in your mind that you commited wrong even the sucicide bombers you speak of knew they commited murder as they blew themselves up |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-10-21 7:25:48 PM |
| #20 It's not a matter of following of what is right but knowing in your mind that you commited wrong even the sucicide bombers you speak of knew they commited murder as they blew themselves up |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-10-21 7:25:23 PM |
| #19 "The rule of morality is what all people know is wrong no matter if they denie it " I think I follow your thinking - and wish I could agree. There was a time, back when I was a bit younger, when I thought that a bomber / suicide bomber who blew up innocent people would be universally condemned. Universal = all people. I was wrong. Sorry, but I can't imagine anything more obviously wrong and immoral than that. Whether it's Harrods or Haifa or Oklahoma City - same thing. Sadly, the world does not accept your definition. The proof is in the actions, which span the entire spectrum, and the fact that there are supporters for every "cause" - regardless of the acts perpetrated in the name of that cause. You and I might, indeed, agree on a code of conduct, but "all" will not happen - not in this world. Thx for the response! |
| Posted by: .com 2003-10-21 4:47:18 PM |
| #18 The lack of objective exposition of Islam is creating a window of opportunity for Muslim programers. It is political-correctitude at work again. |
| Posted by: Anonon 2003-10-21 3:59:06 PM |
| #17 The rule of morality is what all people know is wrong no matter if they denie it |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-10-21 3:55:31 PM |
| #16 right...make Jada Pinkston Smith get her ass in a burka and I'll be impressed, Will. Bet it was a PR thing |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-10-21 3:25:03 PM |
| #15 "Will Smith is Muslim!?" Yeah - converted during filming of Ali. So much for the Bad Boys & MiB series. |
| Posted by: .com 2003-10-21 2:50:51 PM |
| #14 Why do lefties like Islam? It's the hash, folks... |
| Posted by: Raj 2003-10-21 2:40:13 PM |
| #13 Will Smith is Muslim!? |
| Posted by: someone 2003-10-21 2:10:59 PM |
| #12 I read an article about the Murabitun earlier this year; the impression was that they were idealists that had lost their paradise, as the communist experiment pitifully crashed, and had simply replaced it with an another one. Converting to islam : the ultimate rejection of western society. Same thing in France; the loudest converts to islam, from holocaust deniers to rap "artists" were originally leftists or communists. There is also an undeniable convergence; Tarik Ramadan, Geneva-based ideologist of the muslim brotherhood in Europe (grandson of the founder), was recently invited in the "Larzac 2003" & "European social Forum" antiglobo jamborees, and basically said muslim youths will add their weight to the mvt if the antiglobos only addressed their issues. Last saturday, he also was featured in the very same popular show that launched the conspiracy theory 'terrible lie' book (gvt-owned network), where he had a love affair with the leader of one of our equivalent (?) of your ACLU. Revolutionnary islam is up. Muslims are the new international working class. |
| Posted by: Another Anonymous 2003-10-21 1:21:07 PM |
| #11 Anonymous - Care to expand on that? That's just exactly vague enough to be worthless. The Law of the land I can handle... Rule of "morality"? Whose? BTW, any society that is held together by common consent, not some imagined "laws of morality", will be resilient enough to weather the rejection by its inevitable miscreants and misfits. If not, then it is not worthy to survive, nor will it. Are you advocating something? Spell it out so we can see if it holds water. |
| Posted by: .com 2003-10-21 12:09:49 PM |
| #10 All who refuse to follow the rule of morality and law will always find some means of rejecting and destroying the fabric of society |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-10-21 11:29:59 AM |
| #9 It was just too long a wait until the next millenium. Wait for the next comet approach and these new muslim brothers will find a new passtime. Islam takes quite a bit of effort. All the praying interrupts vacations, television and siesta time. Drinking isn't allowed. For the "Euro-socialists" Islam is a passing fad. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-10-21 11:02:17 AM |
| #8 The "growth" of Islam has been puzzling to me ever since I found out what it was really like. Makes me wonder what the PR version looks like. In the real world of how it is practised, Islam appeals to many men for some pretty bad reasons - it is more than obvious that Little Mike had "issues" with women and was, by any modern Western definition, seriously screwed up - and that's leaving out the "voices" thing, y'know? No matter what the outward appearance and credentials are, for a man to find its practices palatable, he has to be a complete loser. When it appeals to a Western woman, hey, you've got to consider her more than just a little fucked up. Can you say masochistic with a full-blown "Daddy" complex? What a mess these people must be. Islam is a bottom-feeder. I certainly view Lew Alcindor, Cassius Clay, Will Smith, Cat Stevens and the rest much much differently, now. Proof that you can hold the world in your hand and still be a loser. |
| Posted by: .com 2003-10-21 10:52:59 AM |
| #7 BH, they're well educated EUROPEANS. Different standards of "well educated" over there. |
| Posted by: Charles 2003-10-21 10:28:02 AM |
| #6 Wire Paladin, Palace Hotel, San Francisco... |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-10-21 10:27:34 AM |
| #5 "they are well-educated European converts." That is, by definition, impossible. |
| Posted by: BH 2003-10-21 10:06:32 AM |
| #4 Fascism was started by socialists looking for a "third way"; they were troubled by the failures of Marx to get anything correct, but too enamored of the power a strong state would give them over other people to consider (true) liberalism worthwhile. That the left is now turning to Islamic fascism is no surprise. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2003-10-21 7:16:59 AM |
| #3 I’ve noticed that, in Europe especially, Islam seems to be particularly attractive to leftists... Wretchard at Belmont Club has written some brilliant stuff on this subject. If you haven't discovered this blog before, it's worth reading from the first post onwards. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2003-10-21 5:35:00 AM |
| #2 Clemenceau said: "Tolerance! There are houses for that!". In French a house of tolerance is a brothel. |
| Posted by: JFM 2003-10-21 3:44:00 AM |
| #1 Tolerance is a great thing. But it cannot be one way. Unfortunately, it is. |
| Posted by: Tokyo Taro 2003-10-21 2:11:49 AM |