The Rain in Spain Falls on a Mythical Past

Our regular readers are aware that we like and promote Emmet Scott’s work.

His amazing book, Mohammed and Charlemagne Revisited dramatically changed our understanding of the roots of Western culture and the extent to which those roots were deformed by fear. His knowledge, now being adapted by others, is spreading among the non-indoctrinated students of history.

Mr. Scott also posts occasional essays at The New English Review. When NER was taken down last month by a DDOS — a Distribued Denial of Service attack — it was out of operation for quite some time. A few days before the site went dark, Scott had published an essay debunking Islam’s purported “golden age” in Spain. With only a momentary exposure before that cowardly attack, “Myth” didn’t draw the audience it normally would have. Thus at the request of NER and Mr. Scott, here is an excerpt “The Myth of Spain’s Golden Age”. It can be read in its entirety here.

Following the excerpts below you’ll find a link to Mr. Scott’s other essays at The New English Review and — ta da! — information on an upcoming book.

NOTE: The occasional emphases below are mine, as is the middle section of observation on Mr. Scott’s findings.

He begins:

We have traditionally been told that the first two centuries of the Spanish Emirate, supposedly founded in 756 by Abd’ er Rahman I, constituted a veritable Golden Age of Spanish history. And indeed the opulence and prosperity of Spain during these years is contrasted very favorably with the poverty and ignorance of Christian Europe in the same period. 

The following description of eighth-tenth century Cordoba, written by English historian H. St. L. B. Moss in 1935, may be regarded as fairly typical of the genre: 

“In Spain … the foundation of Umayyad power [in 756] ushers in an era of unequalled splendour, which reaches its height in the early part of the tenth century. The great university of Cordova is thronged with students … while the city itself excites the wonder of visitors from Germany and France. The banks of the Guadalquivir are covered with luxurious villas, and born of the ruler’s caprice rises the famous Palace of the Flower, a fantastic city of delights.” 

The picture Moss paints was derived from medieval Arab annalists, who spoke of a city of half a million inhabitants, of three thousand mosques, of one hundred and thirteen thousand houses, and of three hundred public baths — this not even counting the twenty-eight suburbs said to have surrounded the metropolis. 

Over the past sixty years intensive efforts have been made to discover this astonishing civilization — to no avail. Try as they might, archaeologists have found hardly anything, hardly a brick or inscription, for the first two centuries of Arab rule in Spain. Between 711 and 911 there is almost nothing, with substantial remains only beginning to appear around 925 or 930.

GO READ THE WHOLE THING. 

Spain: Moroccan arrested on Jihad recruiting activities

The roommate of the young Moroccan arrested in Gran Canaria for alleged links with Al Qaeda cells, Othaman Elovadi, said that Imad El Mouahhid “is a mentally ill person. ” Elovadi, who ensured that the detainee takes drugs, had known him since 2003 and was at home when the police raided it.
The young Moroccan is accused of glorifying terrorism and proselytism. Presumably, El Mouahhid recruited young people and tried to persuade them to take part in terrorist activities.

More here.

Spain: Muslims sue teacher for speaking about ham in class

Spanish ham (absolutely offensive to "Ham-o-phobic" Muslims...)

According to the account of the facts, the teacher was explaining the different climates in a geography class and cited the village of Trevelez due to its cold and dry climate. According to the newspaper account, "as a story, the teacher told his students that such a climate was conducive to making hams (this refers to the procedure that it's necessary between the pig is killed and the ham is actually ready to be eaten). Then the student asked the teacher not to speak of hams since it offended him, because he was a Muslim. "

The teacher told the students that in his classes, he did not consider the religion of their students, but apparently the family did not stay at home when they learned the facts, to the extent that they went to the National Police to file a complaint without speaking in advance with the teacher.

According to "El Diario de Cádiz", the teacher "is accused of being the author of an alleged crime of abuse of workers, also alleging racist and xenophobic motives. " His school colleagues can't believe what has happened and speak about the impeccable record of teaching reported.

Well, I can of course, believe it... and they are absolutely insane. Ham is basic food in Spain. If they don't like it, they have the frontier open to get back where it's forbidden...

Tx to @Crispal and @Prevost.

Crossposted from T&P.

Wikileaks: US is worried about Catalonia being “the main center of Mediterranean jihadism”

Nothing we did not already know, about jihadism in Catalonia, but it is interesting to see U.S. concerns on the subject.

The U.S. Embassy in Madrid believe that Catalonia is the hottest spot of radical Islam in Spain, a scenario that should be monitored and controlled as a bridge to the Mediterranean. The strong presence of Moroccan and Pakistani community in Barcelona and the effervescent activity of Islamists in towns such as Tarragona, Hospitalet, Badalona and Reus concern to U.S. intelligence services. IN fact, they consider this community as its first research objective. The secret documents of the State Department define Catalonia as the main center of Islamism in the Mediterranean.

So concerned they were, that they have opened some offices in Barcelona for "a multi-agency co-ordinating the fight against terrorism, crime and intelligence information to combat the growing threat jihadist and criminal activities in the region" in collaboration with our Spanish hosts. "

Background:

1. Catalonia: the meaning of the Pakistani terrorists' detentions (for translation to English, scroll down).
2. Spain: No1. place in recruitment of Islamist terrorists in Europe. Most of the Islamist terrorist choose the Muslim communities in Catalonia to create sleeping cells. 80% of the police operations have taken place in Catalonia and 31% of the 130 Islamists who are now in prison were arrested in Catalonia.
3. Spain: alleged Al-Qaeda financier belongs to Socialist Party's Executive Board.
4. Spain: Salafist criminal “procedure” condemns a woman to death on adultery charges.
5. Spain: Islamic Moral Police in action.
6. Spain: Italian Prosecutors’ report showed AQIM recruitment.
7. Spain: Salafist Imam Charged for Coercing a Woman to Wear Hijab.
8. Spain: Seven accused of setting up a Sharia court, freed.
9. Spain: the dangers of locating mosques in industrial areas.
10. Spain: pro-independency Catalonian entity wants to show the “bonds that historically have existed between Islam and Catalonia”.
11. Spain: police arrest 7 linked to al-Qaida.

Cross-posted from T&P.

Posts for Nov 3rd: Iranians in Isle of Man, Imam condemned in Spain, Sakineh update, Malaysian blogger Kamaruddin, Iraqi massacre update, Women and the Taliban, Algeria ambush, Obama adviser on "anti-Muslim sentiment"

1. Investigation: Why did Iran register ships in the Isle of Man? File on 4 investigation has discovered questions over whether the Iranians have already sidestepped the international arms embargo, on the UK’s own doorstep by setting up companies in the Isle of Man to register ships for its fleet.
2. Spain: Cunit's imam, Benbraim Mhamed, sentenced to a year in prison for coercing a woman to wear the Hijab:The president of Cunit’s Islamic cultural association, Abderrahman el Osri, was convicted of the same crime and sentenced to nine months in prison and the imam’s daughter, Hafssa Ben Brahim, to pay a fine of 730 euros. They may not approach the victim or communicate with her for two years and must pay 1,500 euros in moral damages. If it would have been me, I would have expelled them all. They have given sufficient evidence (with death threats and intimidation to her family) that they are not succesfully integrated in Spanish society.
3. Apparently Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was going to be executed today, but in the end she has not. But her family is also fearing for the lifes of both his son and lawyer, both arrested with two German journalists when they were trying to speak about her. When attempting to secure lawyers for the two, authorities have said that the two men did not need legal representation.
4. Malaysia: exiled Muslim blogger accused of "insulting Islam" is free to return. He has refused: “This order has lapsed but it does not stop the authorities from seeking my client’s detention on other grounds should he return,” said lawyer Jadadish Chandra. He lives in the UK now.
5. Iraq: Pope sends mesage to Syriac Archbishop of Baghdad. Meanwhile, the Vatican envoy to the UN, Archbishop Chullikatt, said that although the Holy See favors efforts to protect religion from “hate speech and incitement to violence,” his delegation was uneasy with the approach that targets “defamation of religion.” In practice, he said, measures promoted to stop “defamation of religion” have actually “served as a means for State-sponsored oppression of religious believers.” Let's see if someone really begins protesting about the abominable UN Resolution on the Defamation of Religions.
6. Afghanistan: negotiating with Taliban will crush women. "The evidence that girls will be able to go to school under the Taliban is slim. While girls might go to schools in some areas, in my experience, this is highly exceptional and by no means a uniform practice. The Taliban have been quite consistent in their beliefs that girls should not be educated and women who work outside the home deserve to die, a belief enacted in the Taliban’s murder of numerous female politicians, elections workers, policewomen and other prominent professional women. They are hardly interested in the protection or welfare of children given they regularly use children as suicide bombers and spotters and have hung boys they accuse of “spying for the Americans“".
7. Algeria: Islamic terrorists ambush soldiers: 2 killed, 3 wounded: On Oct 3rd, another 5 soldiers were killed on the same spot, a stronghold of AQIM.
8. US: Obama adviser decries "anti-Muslim sentiments".Hussain said he’s concerned about the increasing vitriol directed at Muslims, which he said may be due to their increasing visibility in the U.S. It’s a “reaction to a lot of progress made by Muslim communities,” he said.

Lastly, from Townhall.com:

Posts for Oct 29th: French schools, Spanish weapons, violent Muslim wins election in India, Islamism vs Copts, Swiss couple in Maldivas, Sisters in Islam, weapons in Nigeria

1. 

   Añadir leyenda

   "Islam not invasive": Impositions grow in French schools. "Teachers often faced objections when they taught courses about world religions, the Holocaust or France’s war in Algeria, or discussed events related to Israel and the Palestinians or American military actions in Muslim countries, the study said".
2. Spain: $3b arms deal with Saudi Arabia targeted. "The newspaper said without citing the source of the news that Spain hopes to reach a deal to General Dynamics Santa Barbara to sell between 200 and 270 model from the tank (Leopard 2 no) when the Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khaled bin Sultan (what a name) official visit to the country in November".
3. India: man who choffed off blasphemer's hand, wins election. "Anas won from the Vanchinad division of Vazhakkulam block in Ernakulam district on a ticket of Socialist Democratic Party of India (SDPI), political arm of Popular Front of India (PFI), whose activists were allegedly behind the attack on Joseph for preparing a question paper containing blasphemous references to Prophet Mohammed".
4. Answering Islamist's' accusations against Copts. 
5. Video: dream wedding Swiss pair, humiliated at Maldivas. "A video of the ceremony was then posted on the internet. “You are swine. The children that you bear from this marriage will all be bastard swine,” the couple were told as they smiled and nodded. “Your marriage is not a valid one. You are not the kind of people who can have a valid marriage. One of you is an infidel. The other, too, is an infidel and — we have reason to believe — an atheist, who does not even believe in an infidel religion.”
6. Malaysia: women group gets to keep "Islam" in its name.
7. Nigeria: secret police intercepts weapons' system. They identified the artillery rockets as Norinco rockets – a type used by the Taliban in Afghanistan – suitable for high-intensity warfare.

Spain: "Extremist" imams' ideology blamed on "disorganized Islam", according to El País

"We can say I worked as shepherd," he smiles. "I was in charge of a herd of goats in northern Morocco." Until he crossed the Straits and settled in the province of Tarragona. Unemployed, handicapped by the lack of training and a chronic disease for many years improvised direction of prayers in several mosques in the vicinity of Valls and Torredembarra. Rachid H. worked as an imam. "Not really, but I know Islam better than others", said after admitting that no studies that Muslim countries call for the task.

What kind of prayers were performed by this improvised imam? "I talked about everything: the relationship between men and women, life's problems," he says. Witnesses say those prayers castigated women and young Muslims who were related to people outside this belief. Rachid denies without elaborating. But at home, he stores magazines, recordings and videos that shed some clue to his speeches. The material supports that an adulterous wife should be punished with death and supports other repressive behaviors on the role of women relative to men, according to the report of the register details of the property conducted by the Autonomous Police in 2009. Rachid, who asked not to reveal his name for his legal situation, only occasionally leads prayers, due to his poor state of health and also because he is on probation after being charged with promoting violence linked to radical Salafism, Islam's ultra-conservative current.

I don't care about his health. If he is Moroccan, he should have been expelled after learning about his sermons.

Rachid's sexist diatribes and repressive tone are common elements between the improvised imams. They are people without religious training that have emerged as leaders of the prayers of their communities, generally in the most precarious and isolated from major urban centers and without the means to hire a minimally trained imam.

Abu Omar Hussein

As Abu Omar Hussein, the president of the Muslim community in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid) (he said that "forbidding the hijab is a crime", last April), who, in an interview with this newspaper goes on to say that killing by stoning an adulteress is fair and in line with Islam and that the ultimate goal is to defend children, stigmatized if they are born out of wedlock. He reflects on this: "God wants you to be clean. Stoning has an objective: that no adulterer has sons. He (will give birth to) a child without a father, with hatred, (as) he has no rights (sic). Islam does not want many children of adulterers in the world."

For that reason, Omar Hussein, referring to the Iranian Sakineh Ashtiani, sentenced to death, should be stoned: "That woman and her lover killed her husband. They should kill that woman one by one, man for man (...) Islam respects human rights and women. Islam does not attack a very clean woman. "

The imam of Alcalá believes that in Europe sexual promiscuity is promoted: "Changing partners is offered. Is this is civilization? Six people make love in the same bed, without shame. It allows two women or two men marry . The nude beaches ... If Jesus son of Mary, arrived today would be ashamed. "

Another one who is in the same situation: he is Egyptian, so if he doesn't like Spain, he can go back there or be expelled, because he clearly isn't integrated in Spanish society.

What he considers as "sexual promiscuity", means only that people are free to take decisions about their life. No one is obliged to marry another human being of their own sex, no one is obliged to go around naked on beaches and also no one is obliged to change partners. But if someone wants to do it, he can. That's not "promoting sexual promiscuity", that's just freedom to choose. And there are also people who are not the least "promiscuous", because that's their choice, and not because some barbaric imam tells them that they should be stoned if they are. But this guy doesn't know about this other people, because they aren't on TV 24/7 and they give no scandals.

"Illegitimate" childs don't exist, either. They have the same rights as the children from married couples. So no hatred and no tales to support stoning.

These are examples of the improvisation with which Islam has been installed in Spain: there are no rules, standards or criteria in relation to ministers of religion to Islam. They are not properly Islamic radicals (sic): mixed religion with repressive traditions imported from their country of origin and spread as sacred mandates. This enables that cases such as the Cunit's imam, who is awaiting trial and sentence for coercing and threatening a Muslim because she lived a Western lifestyle, that generate social alarm against Islam and demonize the figure of the imams inside Spanish society. In Cunit, the imam is actually a worker who lost his job after suffering a leg injury and went on to lead the prayer of his group even though he only knows the Koran by heart, by his own account.

You see: for El País, someone who is supporting stoning in the name of religion is not "properly an Islamic radical".

However, experts warn that it's greater the risk of social exclusion that a hypothetical terrorist threat. What messages are disseminated by imams without proper training and considered radical? "If a Muslim is mixed with a Western, if only to shake hands, is contaminated by their sins." "Women can not leave home except to attend the funeral of the husband." "Children should learn the Koran and you must not associate with other children are not Muslims." "The West is against Islam, would pervert and threatens us because we are noble." These are excerpts from the prayers that magnets on Fridays, according to some followers of the mosques in the area of Reus and Tarragona. After being consulted on these statements, the imams who led the prayers have categorically denied.

Riad Tatary

"The possibility that any imam can lead prayers is a problem but controversial cases are exceptional," defends Riad Tatary (born in Syria although now he's a Spanish national), secretary general of the representative body of Islam with the Government since 1992, the Islamic Commission of Spain (CIE). "But the media generalize these cases and have created a very dangerous Islamophobia" he notes. Controversial cases are, in effect, a minority among the thousand imams is estimated that lead prayers in Spain. "But they can't be considered as exceptions from the rule because no one has set this standard. The Islamic Commission should impose criteria to control who can and who can not exercise as imam. For their own good: untrained imams are the ones who spread the most radical and dangerous messages, "argues Jordi Moreres, sociologist expert in Islam. But they aren't so exceptional, according to other experts. "After 15 years living in Spain, I have not seen in the whole country, a single valid imam," says Hesham El Sadr, founder of the Islamic Cultural Association Attawwhid.

The indefinite figure of the imam is the main obstacle to the normalization of Islam in Spain: 1.3 million people follow this belief in the country and it is not immigrants only but a growing majority has or is in the process of achieving Spanish nationality.

Abdelwahab Houzi

Nevertheless, anyone able to convince their fellow Muslims, can be constructed into an imam, whether he is liberal-leaning, conservative or just a visionary. It is a reality that has taken root among the Muslim communities in impoverished areas, with virtually illiterate immigrants who barely know the language, laws or Spanish customs. This cocktail caused cases of imams that encourage isolation and rejection of Western people or situations such as Lleida's imam, Abdelwahab Houzi, monitored by the National Intelligence Center as one of the most dangerous because of his radicalism and that according to several faithful advocates polygamy in his prayers, a tradition alien to Islam (sic). Others promote criticism and attacks on Western values that lead to suspicion of terrorism.

Polygamy is a tradition alien to Islam? In what world?

And if you fear that you cannot act equitably towards orphans, then marry such women as seem good to you, two and three and four; but if you fear that you will not do justice (between them), then (marry) only one or what your right hands possess; this is more proper, that you may not deviate from the right course.

Ye are never able to be fair and just as between women, even if it is your ardent desire: But turn not away (from a woman) altogether, so as to leave her (as it were) hanging (in the air). If ye come to a friendly understanding, and practise self-restraint, Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful. (Verses 3 and 129 from Sura An-Nissa, Women).

Those two verses state that:
1. Polygamy is allowed.
2. It's limited to four wifes.

The article ends:

"It's possible that extremist imams living in Spain are spreading this type of message, as an attempt to assert the traditions of their country of origin. We need time and quiet to contact them and make them understand," claims Tatary. ICE, on paper, is the referee that should regulate and account for the activity of the imams, and it's engaged in a reform to settle the current crisis of representation that encourages lawlessness. There are a thousand of Muslim communities in Spain, about 800 of them registered. More than 400 are not represented in this body.

"It's possible...". It seems Mr. Tatari doesn't believe that these cases really exist. And no, these extremist imams are not waiting for Tatari and friends to reform anything (if that's their intention indeed), they are spreading this message now.

Source.

Cross-posted from T&P.

(Translation: T&P).

Spain: Nightclub "Mecca" of Águilas (Murcia) reopens, gets threats by Jihadists, changes its name...

(Translation: T&P)

La discoteca La Meca de Águilas enciende la ira de grupos yihadistas radicales. La Verdad:

"Spain is again in the line of fire of international Jihadism [NOTE: has Spain been sometime exempted from it?]. And truly. In the last 4 weeks the services of Information and Inteligence of the Ministries of Interior and Defense have reported on the important rise in the number threats made by radical groups against Spain in the main Internet websites linked to Al-Qaeda.

The last Jihadist net offensive was made last Wednesday: the radicals call for a boycott and to fight Spain after knowing that in Águilas a nightclub named "Mecca" was re-opened last June. Jihadists, even, threat with a great war between Spain and Islam's people.

Spain: school confirms hijab's prohibition

Its internal regulations forbid the use of any garment that covers the head:

The Centre's management announced that the Board of Education of the Secondary Education School "Camilo José Cela" has "decided to maintain the internal rules unchanged", according to a statement written by its director, Eduardo de Bergia. The center expelled a student from a Muslim background last week after she attended class with the veil.

Now, the Department of Education of the Community of Madrid announced that, if the child wants to keep going to school with the veil, they will search "immediately" for another one, near the current center, in which they permit her go with the veil according to its internal rules, reported the deparment's official sources.

After an hour and a half meeting, the School Board, formed in addition to the permanent members (director, head teacher and secretary), by representatives of teachers, pupils, parents and administrative staff, decided to leave the article as 32 of the regulations which states: "Inside the building it's not allowed to use caps or any other garment that covers the head."

Background here.

Spain: Knife Carrying Muslims Arrested for Trying to Pray in Famous Catholic Cathedral Formerly Known as Great Mosque of Cordoba, Security Guard Seriously Injured

During Holy Week no less. Let's see, what would happen if a group of Christians tried to hold Mass inside a mosque during Ramadan?

Click on the title to get the whole story.