Spain’s Left is concerned that a growing number of Spaniards are learning from their nation’s long history with, and under, Islam. Sergio Gracia, president of something called the Center for Research on the Far-Right (CINVED) in Spain, recently complained that

The extreme right usually refers to historical figures like Don Pelayo or El Cid, also using terms like reconquer, making reference to battles such as the battle of Covadonga, the battle of Alarcos, the battle of las Navas of Tolosa or the takeover of Granada.

Don Pelayo is the first Christian king of Spain following that nation’s conquest by Muslims in 711. Vastly outnumbered, he first defied the Muslims at the inspirational battle of Covadonga.  

The battle of Alarcos, 1195, was one of Islam’s supreme triumphs over the Christians, and, according to one Muslim chronicler, “became ever after celebrated for the complete defeat of the Christians, of whose number no less than thirty thousand perished by the swords of the Moslems.”

The battle of las Navas de Tolosa, 1212, was the opposite — the greatest Christian victory, which saw Islam retreat to the southern tip of the peninsula.

The “takeover of Granada” — which itself was taken over from Christians in 711 — was accomplished by the Christians in 1492, thereby bringing an end to the Reconquista, the centuries-long Christian drive to reclaim Spain from Islam.

To be sure, these are just but a few of the battles and incidents to take place in the long war between Muslims and Christians in Spain. Notably, Gracia fails to mention the centuries’ worth of persecution and atrocities committed by Muslims against Christians — the thousands of churches torched and/or turned into mosques, the thousands of women and children enslaved and sent to harems — particularly when Muslims were a greater power, from the eighth to eleventh centuries.

Rather, and without providing such necessary context, Gracia states:

The far right sees Muslims as invaders and they sell it that way. You can read on social media references such as “expel the invader” or you can hear a politician of extreme right talk about Troy [Trojan] horses, Islamization, or that demographics are changing in Spain — referring to the construction of religious centers such as mosques, as Sergio Macian and Rocio de Meer have done.

The question here is: Are these “far-right” Spaniards correct in seeing continuity between their nation’s past and present interaction with Islam? The answer is yes, of course. Just as the Muslim conquest and centuries-long occupation of Spain was replete with atrocities against Christians, recisely because Islam commands hate for and persecution of “infidels” Christians, so too is modern-day Spain suffering from similar atrocities at the hands of its growing Muslim population, especially new-come migrants who are still dedicated to the “old ways.”

Cherry-Picked Facts in a Vacuum

But, as is well known, demonstrating continuity is the enemy of those who would subvert both history and current events to suit their agenda. Much better to present disturbing facts in a vacuum. Consider, for example, how Gracia goes on to bemoan how “Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula faced the choice between Christianization, death or exile” following the Reconquista:

Moriscos were the descendants of the Spaniard Muslims who had remained in the Iberian Peninsula after the fall of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada in 1492 and who were forced to choose between conversion or exile. Not wanting to sacrifice either his [sic] land or his faith, the vast majority converted to Christianity but clandestinely maintained their fidelity to Islam. In 1502, an edict was published that required all subjects of the crown to baptize — were they Christians or not. Later, other prohibitions that could be identified with Islam were carried out — like the way of dressing or the use of the Arabic language. After the expulsion decree, they had no other option but to hide their convictions.

On the surface, this sounds backwards and cruel. Beating Muslims and reclaiming lost territory is one thing, but why force them to become Christian? Well, as it happens, following the conquest of Granada, Muslims were allowed to practice their religion. But because they continued to engage in uprisings — always on jihadist logic — the crown concluded that the only way Muslims would ever slough off their tribal anti-Christianism was for them to become like everyone else, i.e.,Christian. (This is also why distinctly Muslim customs were prohibited.) Either that, or keep your Islamic hostility for Spain, but return to North Africa (from where the eighth-century conquest of Spain originated).

Stealth Muslims

Rather than do the honorable thing, some half a million Muslims outwardly converted, while inwardly still practicing Islam and preaching undying hate for the infidel. Generation after generation of Muslims lived as model Christians in Spain, even as they had nothing but hatred for Christianity and preached it to their children, for the purpose ofremaining in and eventually reconquering Spain for Islam. As one frustrated Spaniard remarked,

With the permission and license that their accursed sect [Islam] accorded them, they could feign any religion outwardly and without sinning, as long as they kept their hearts nevertheless devoted to their false impostor of a prophet. We saw so many of them who died while worshipping the Cross and speaking well of our Catholic Religion yet who were inwardly excellent Muslims.

In other words, when, as Gracia said, Spanish politicians of the “extreme right talk about Troy [Trojan] horses, Islamization, or that demographics are changing in Spain,” these too — especially the Trojan Horse — all have antecedents in Spain’s history with Islam.

How Dare Spaniards Push Back?

It’s worth adding that the report quoting Gracia goes on to suggest that, as with France and all of Europe, the so-called “far right” party of Spain is growing, to the consternation of many political observers. Its leader, Luis Perez, demonized in the report for “his harsh anti-Islam and anti-immigrant rhetoric,” is quoted as saying, “Spain has become a country of criminals, corrupt people, mercenaries, pedophiles and rapists, and this is a sad situation. Many Spaniards suffer from this every day.”

The report distressingly complains that Perez referred to all illegal immigrants as “criminals” and that he refused to live in Brussels as a Member of European Parliament, calling it “the capital of a failed country full of Islamists, insecurity, and rape.”

The fact is, in Spain and all throughout Europe, Europeans have learned what it means to live side-by-side with Muslims the hard way. The US can learn from this mistake before it emulates Spain and becomes Americastan.

Raymond Ibrahim, author of Defenders of the West and Sword and Scimitar, is the Distinguished Senior Shillman Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.