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In 711 Muslim armies crossed the Strait of Gibraltar. They took Spain by force and remained there until they were thrown out during the reconquista in 1492. Every year, in a tradition that goes back to the 16th century, Spanish villages still celebrate the liberation from the Moors (as the Muslims were locally called) during “Moros y Cristianos” festivals in which effigies of the prophet Muhammad – the so-called “la Mahoma” – are mocked, thrown out of windows, and burned.

MEDINA AZAHARA, Spain - To hear historians tell it, this buried city three miles west of Córdoba was the Versailles of the Middle Ages, a collection of estates and palaces teeming with treasures that dazzled the most jaded traveler or world-weary aristocrat. Pools of mercury could be shaken to spray beams of reflected sunlight across marble walls and ceilings of gold, according to contemporary records. Doors carved of ivory and ebony led to sprawling gardens full of exotic animals and sculptures made of amber and pearls. "Travelers from distant lands, men of all ranks and professions in life, following various...

Fear of Islamist terror casts shadows on the country that expelled the Moors ALL of Europe, it seems, is fretting about its Muslim population. Spain's is relatively small—less than a million—yet no country has a more complex relationship with Islam. Until two years ago, the muezzin's cry “Allahu akbar” had not been heard in Granada since the reconquista and the expulsion of the last Moorish king in 1492. But then a mosque was erected in the Albaicin quarter near the Alhambra. For the mainly Spanish converts to Islam who built it, this was the dawn of a new era: as...

The Spanish appeasement government of Zapatero is now planning to drastically cut ties with the Roman Catholic Church, slashing current funding in half: Funding for Church to be slashed by Spanish. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/09/25/wspain25.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/09/25/ixworld.html) The Spanish government sparked a furious row yesterday after it emerged that it had drawn up a timetable to halve state funding of the Roman Catholic Church and to ban crucifixes from public buildings. The Socialist government has already pedged to confront the Church ideologically and fiscally and to transform Spain into a fully secular society by scrapping the Church’s “privileged position in society”. The newspaper El Mundo...

Borders folk may be descended from Africans By David Derbyshire (Filed: 11/06/2004) Families who have lived in the English-Scottish Borders for generations could be descended from African soldiers who patrolled Hadrian's Wall nearly 2,000 years ago. Archaeologists say there is compelling evidence that a 500-strong unit of Moors manned a fort near Carlisle in the third century AD. Richard Benjamin, an archaeologist at Liverpool University who has studied the history of black Britons, believes many would have settled and raised families. "When you talk about Romans in Britain, most people think about blue eyes and pale complexions," he said. "But...

Santiago cathedral is to lose its politically incorrect sculpture A STATUE of Spain’s patron saint, Saint James “the Moorslayer”, is to be removed from one of the country’s most famous cathedrals and pilgrimage centres in case it offends Muslims. The decision, announced by Santiago Cathedral’s church authorities, has outraged traditional Catholics, many of whom still light candles and pray to the 18th-century statue in the tiny chapel inside one of Christendom’s three greatest pilgrim places of worship. Although the cathedral’s spokesman insisted the decision was taken four months ago to remove the Moorslayer sculpture — which depicts the sword-wielding apostle...

GRANADA, Spain -- In the long shadows of the Alhambra, the palace of the Muslim kingdom in Andalucia in the Golden Age of Islam, a steep, narrow road winds its way up to a new mosque. -snip- Perched on a cliff overlooking the majesty of the ninth-century Alhambra palace in southern Spain, the new mosque's location also reflects a modern yearning -- and an ancient resentment -- among many Muslims for the return of the Golden Age, according to historians and investigators who follow trends in militant Islam. Their desire is to recover the "Ummah," or nation of Islam, that...

<p>In the legend of Moorish Spain, the last Muslim king of Granada, Boabdil, surrendered the keys to his city on Jan. 2, 1492, and on one of its hills, paused for a final glance at his lost dominion. The place would henceforth be known as El Ultimo Suspiro del Moro--"the Moor's Last Sigh." Boabdil's mother is said to have taunted him, and to have told him to "weep like a woman for the land he could not defend as a man." An Arab poet of our own era gave voice to a historical lament when he wrote that as he walked the streets of Granada, he searched his pockets for the keys to its houses. Al Andalus--Andalusia--would become a deep wound, a reminder of dominions gained by Islam and then squandered. No wonder Muslim chroniclers added "May Allah return it to Islam" as they told and retold Granada's fate.</p>

In the legend of Moorish Spain, the last Muslim king of Granada, Boabdil, surrendered the keys to his city on Jan. 2, 1492, and on one of its hills, paused for a final glance at his lost dominion. The place would henceforth be known as El Ultimo Suspiro del Moro — "the Moor's Last Sigh." Boabdil's mother is said to have taunted him, and to have told him to "weep like a woman for the land he could not defend as a man." An Arab poet of our own era gave voice to a historical lament when he wrote that...

<p>In the legend of Moorish Spain, the last Muslim king of Granada, Boabdil, surrendered the keys to his city on January 2, 1492, and on one of its hills, paused for a final glance at his lost dominion. The place would henceforth be known as El Ultimo Suspiro del Moro -- "the Moor's Last Sigh." Boabdil's mother is said to have taunted him, and to have told him to "weep like a woman for the land he could not defend as a man." An Arab poet of our own era gave voice to a historical lament when he wrote that as he walked the streets of Granada, he searched his pockets for the keys to its houses. Al Andalus -- Andalusia -- would become a deep wound, a reminder of dominions gained by Islam and then squandered. No wonder Muslim chroniclers added "May Allah return it to Islam," as they told and retold Granada's fate.</p>

The relationship is marked by centuries of periodic conflict and uneasy intimacy. Madrid – The train-bombing massacre carried out by Islamic terrorists in Spain on the eve of a general election had clear motives: to force a change of government, which it achieved; and to get Spanish troops out of Iraq, which it will certainly achieve. How to account for this astonishing success of the Islamic fundamentalist cause in Spain? More than any other Western country, Spain has lived on intimate terms with Islam. For 700 years, from the 8th century to the 15th century, Muslims ruled the greater part...

The Spanish press has finally confirmed it: the outgoing government of premier Jose Maria Aznar - just like the Bush administration and the British government in relation to the non-existent weapons of mass destruction in Iraq - lied and manipulated information concerning responsibility for the Madrid bombings. Since the morning of March 11, hours after the bombings took place, journalists at the Spanish news agency EFE knew that the official version blaming Basque separatists from ETA was false. According to the journalists, "already in the morning, EFE learned about the existence of a cellphone configured in Arabic, the van found...

Iberia looms large in Islamist ambitions and regrets, writes Isambard Wilkinson in Madrid. Thursday's bombings have raised an uncomfortable question for Spaniards. Is Osama bin Laden dreaming of exacting revenge for the loss of Al-Andalus, the ancient Moorish kingdom in Iberia? A group said to be close to bin Laden's al-Qaeda, the Brigade of Abu Hafs al-Masri, sent a message to a London-based Arabic newspaper saying: "This is part of settling old accounts with Spain, the crusader and America's ally in its war against Islam." While the authenticity of the message is open to doubt, there is no question that...

New forensic evidence on the bombings has raised an uncomfortable question for Spaniards. Is Osama bin Laden dreaming of exacting revenge for the loss of Al-Andalus, the ancient Moorish kingdom in Iberia? A group close to bin Laden's al-Qa'eda network, the Brigade of Abu Hafs al-Masri, sent a message to a London-based Arabic newspaper explaining the reasons for attacking Spain. "This is part of settling old accounts with Spain, the crusader and America's ally in its war against Islam," the statement said. While the authentiticy of the message is open to doubt, there is no question that it reflects the...

Spain forced to face past 'evil' of expelling Moors (Filed: 15/11/2003) Very little has changed in Spanish attitudes towards the non-Christian, non-European aspects of its heritage, writes Isambard Wilkinson Leaning against a farm outbuilding with his large, swarthy hands jammed into the tops of his trouser pockets, Jose Antonio Lopez was disgusted. "No! For God's sake!" he exploded at the suggestion that he could be descended from North African Moors, despite his dark olive complexion. "We did not have any moro in the family. We drove them all out centuries ago." The farmer's outright denial of a mixed or mestizaje...

RANADA, 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."We've come to offer society the only alternative that exists to lead it out of chaos," declared one of the community's founders, Hajj Abdulhasib Castiñeira, a tall, bearded Spaniard in a glen plaid jacket and suede...

Granada, Spain – A dispenser of iced lemonade sits invitingly by the door of the newly whitewashed building — hospitality for summer visitors coming to the first mosque built in Granada in over 500 years. But looming over the freshly planted garden, seeming to quiver in the furnacelike heat, is another image: the Alhambra, a 14th-century Muslim fortress of red-tinted stone that is everything this mosque is not: ancient, battle-scarred, monumental. It seems at once a reminder of lost glories and a spur for their restoration. It may also inspire darker sentiments. For it was from the Alhambra's watchtower that...

Troops bear 'Moor Killer' badges Giles Tremlett in Madrid Friday July 25, 2003 The Guardian (UK)A row broke out in Spain yesterday after the country sent its first troops to patrol Iraq wearing on their shoulders the Cross of St James of Compostela - popularly known in Spain as "the Moor Killer". Patches bearing the cross, the symbol of a saint who allegedly guided the medieval Christian re conquista of Spain from the Muslims, are to be worn by a 2,000-strong Spanish brigade in central Iraq, who will patrol the sacred Shia city of Najaf. While newspapers and radio stations...

<p>For the first time in six centuries the muezzin's cry echoed over Spanish Granada with the inauguration in that city of a new mosque last week. The call to prayer hadn't been heard in the old capital of Moorish civilization since the last Muslim king was expelled by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492.</p>

July 15 2003 Headline: New mosque signals 'return of Islam' to Spain -- Detail Story GRANADA :It is more than 500 years since the Spanish reconquered the Iberian peninsula, killing or expelling every confessed Muslim who could be found and conclusively ending 800 years of Islamic rule. But on Thursday, a "muezzin" (Man who calls for prayers) is calling Spanish Muslims to pray at the first mosque to be opened in Granada since the reconquista, the culmination of a 22-year-old project that has been plagued by controversy. For those who built the Great Mosque of Granada, which looks out onto...