Inquisition - Arab Apology Demanded?

Submitted by John Randall Peacher (United States), Mar 8, 2005 at 17:11

Muslims, as Jews, suffered in the Spanish Inquisition period of the late 1400 and early 1500's. After torture, mass killings and forced conversions thousands fled to new lands. Spain is being criticized for apologizing to Jews for treatment rendered and Muslims are now demanding that an apology of the same nature be given them. While torture and mistreatment of any religion is the worst form of bigotry, Muslims tend to overlook what brought them to Spain in the first place. War, conquest, capture of land, and mistreatment of all nations and peoples that fell under their conquest. It is not unlike the atmosphere today in Islamic countries. How many churches or synogogues are open and prospering in Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, or Sudan?

Demanding equal treatment under quite different circumstances without acknowledgement of the past is deceptive. Jews found themselves in Spain and Europe after being expelled from their Biblical homeland by the Romans, the Ottomans, and other conquests. Muslims invaded Europe and treated all non Muslims as second class citizens, the same way they treat Christians, Jews, Buddists, or any other minority in Islamic countries even today.

While Spain should offer an apology for misdeeds of the past, 500 years past, Islamic countries themselves need to offer an apology to other religions for their misdeeds of both the past and present.



John Randall Peacher

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