7th Rangers: Was the Muslim Conquest of Spain Driven by Piety or Plunder? Ha, Ha, Ha - “Bringing knowledge, justice, freedom, and equality” to the conquered By Raymond Ibrahim
Fighting Seventh
The Fighting Rangers On War, Politics and Burning Issues
Rudyard Kipling"
“When you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
Was the Muslim Conquest of Spain Driven by Piety or Plunder? Ha, Ha, Ha - “Bringing knowledge, justice, freedom, and equality” to the conquered By Raymond Ibrahim
Saturday, June 04, 2022
Spain
Recently, the Grand Imam of Al Azhar University, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, claimed
that the seventh century Muslim conquests of the mostly Christian
majority Middle East and North Africa “were not conquests of
colonization that rely on the methods of plunder, oppression, control,
and the policies of domination and dependency.”
Rather, they were about
bringing “knowledge, justice, freedom, and equality” to the conquered.
A couple of weeks before al-Tayeb made these highly ahistorical claims,
another prominent sheikh and professional historian, Dr. Ali Muhammad
al-Salabi, wrote a lengthy article dedicated to making the same
claims—also during Ramadan, when Muslims are wont to reminisce over the virtues of jihad—but in the context of the Muslim conquest of Spain.
Published
by the International Union of Muslim Scholars, and titled “From
Ramadan’s Victories: The Islamic Conquest of al-Andalus,” it offers a
more focused case study on this phenomenon of wildly whitewashing
Islamic history.
According to Dr. al-Salabi, the Muslim conquerors of Spain were not in
it “to gain spoils or achieve status; and this was the objective of all
the Islamic conquests. Reading about and learning their [true] nature
is sufficient to reject the allegations and refute the forged slanders
which suggest, implicitly or explicitly, that plunder was the motive of
this conquest. Such a claim is devoid of arguments, proofs, and
evidence; it is an illusion without the slightest whiff of scientific or
historical support.” Instead, the Muslim conquest of Spain was about
“turning the page of injustice and tyranny to a new page of progress and
civilization.”
These are quite the claims. Back in the real word of actual recorded history,
the sources make abundantly clear that the Muslim conquest of Spain was
driven almost entirely by lust for booty—both animate and inanimate.
For example, according to one of the earliest accounts, the Latin Chronicle of 754, the Muslims “long plundered and godlessly invaded Spain to destroy it.” On landing there, they “ruined beautiful cities, burning them with fire; condemned lords and powerful men to the cross; and butchered youths and infants with the sword.” As for Musa bin Nusayr, the supreme general of the expedition whom al-Salabi otherwise praises in his article for his unswerving piety, “He terrorized everyone.”
Some may object that the Chronicle of 754 was written by an ungrateful Christian infidel, who failed to appreciate Islam’s altruistic intentions in conquering his nation. Unfortunately for them, Muslim sources—their own sources—are just as, if not more, explicit that the conquest of Spain was heavily motivated by thoughts of plunder.
