Moriscos: What If There Had Been A UN in the 1600s?

The irony of it all! Muslims are demanding the “Right of Return” to the homes of their ancestors in Spain.Given that they are lately being offered sympathy and condolences for the injustice committed against them in the Inquisition (see here and here, for example), Spain might one day find itself being led to the guillotine much as Israel is today.

Oy! Those Poor Moriscos!

We have all heard the term, Maranos, the Jewish “New Christians” forced to convert or be expelled from Spain in 1492. Spain had just succeeded in taking back Catholic control of the land after centuries of Muslim occupation. For some reason, apparently because of their strong economic position in the land, it took until the early 1500s before Spain presented the Muslims with the same ultimatum earlier placed before the Jews: convert or leave! Those who converted, or pretended to convert, were referred to as Moriscos (based on the term Moors, Muslims who invaded Spain from northern Africa). It took another hundred years until they were expelled from the Iberian peninsula, ethnically cleansing it of all Muslims. Today, the descendants of those who had left and settled in north Africa are also referred to as Moriscos. (For a more detailed history, read this fascinating account.)

Accepted numbers today are that 250,000-350,000 Muslims were expelled out of a total Spanish Muslim population of about 500,000, the remainder having converted to Catholicism. The expulsions took place between 1609 and 1614. It appears that the bulk of them resettled in Tunisia and Morocco, but some also migrated to Europe and the Middle East. Interestingly, in Tunisia and Morocco, they were (and still are) referred to as Andalusians (Al-Andalus was the name of the region under the Muslims); they were regarded by the local Muslims with suspicion as they seemed more European than Muslim/Arab but they eventually did prove themselves to be bona fide Moslems.

They seem to have done quite well for themselves, at least according to a fascinating PhD thesis on the topic of the enduring Andalusian identity:

In almost all the territories that the Moriscos settled, they established agricultural colonies in the countryside surrounding urban centers, or as urbanites, they provided artisanal works, mercantile businesses, and military service to their new homelands. [page 106]

(Note the term: new homelands. We will return to that below.)

What if there had been a UN way back then?

The forced conversions and expulsion of the Muslims — making their numbers in Spain drop from 500,000 to zero — comprised what is now recognized as ethnic cleansing and genocide. Had there been an operational UN back then, would the UN have censured the Spanish monarchy? After all, the Arab and Muslim world of that time, still vast and powerful, may have exerted the same kind of influence over votes in that UN as they do in the contemporary UN.

In any case, the Muslim world was intent on regaining Islamic control of Iberia. The Ottomans were breathing down the neck of Spain, which is why Spain saw fit to strengthen its Catholic population and uproot all non-Catholics in order to prevent the Muslim fifth column from helping the Ottomans from within.

Had there been a UN back then, would it have insisted that the Moriscos be refused integration within the countries to which they fled/were expelled? Would there have been an equivalent of the contemporary UNRWA, calling it the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Al-Andalus? Would that UNRWA have declared that all descendants of the original refugees were also refugees? Would they have encouraged them to hang onto the keys to their former homes in Al-Andalus, not to be offered or to accept citizenship in the countries in which they found themselves after the expulsion? Even if they were actually of the same blood-lines as the dominant population in those other places in northern Africa?

Would the UN of that time have said that the Muslims, descendants of the invaders out of Arabia who were hell-bent on establishing a global caliphate, were the indigenous people of the Iberian Peninsula because they had been living there for hundreds of years? Would they have claimed that the fact that the Arab colonizers had had control over the land for so long that that was enough to wipe out the indigenous status claimed by the colonized Iberians?

Would they have had pity on the poor beleaguered Christian population of Iberia and written up a few documents stating that they had a right to self-sovereignty in their former homeland, but not too much of a right?  That the Christians who had fled the land when the Moslem Conquest took over would be allowed in a few at a time? Not too much, mind you. Not in numbers that would upset the Arab colonizers. Would they have proposed a two-state solution, cutting up Spain and Portugal and referring to the region in all their official documents as the Occupied Territories of Al-Andalus?

Spain (and Portugal) should thank their lucky stars that there was no UN back then.

And Now? What About Morisco Demands Now?

In 2014, Spain announced that it would offer immediate citizenship to Jewish descendants of those who were forcefully expelled from Spain during the Inquisition. But they are not offering this to descendants of Moslems. Soeren Kern of Gatestone quotes Morisco-Moroccan journalist Ahmed Bensahl who eloquently expresses his indignation:

[The] decision to grant Spanish citizenship to the grandchildren of the Hebrews in Spain in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, while ignoring the Moriscos, the grandsons of the Muslims, is without doubt, flagrant segregation and unquestionable discrimination, as both communities suffered equally in Spain at that time. The decision could also be considered by the international community to be an historic act of absolute immorality and injustice…This decision is absolutely disgraceful and dishonorable.

Kern also quotes Jamal Bin Ammar al-Ahmar, an “Andalus-Algerian” university professor who requests:

[a] full legal and historical investigation of the war crimes that were perpetrated on the Muslim population of Andalusia by the French, English, European and papal crusaders, whose victims were our poor miserable people, after the collapse of Islamic rule in Andalusia.

(Am I allowed to be bemused by this display of the poor-victim-role Arabs are so good at taking on when their repeated attempts to rule the world do not succeed? Perhaps Spain and Portugal would not mind if the Muslims decide to celebrate this Nakba in their public squares and on university campuses? And if they want Spanish and Portuguese public funds to support these commemorations, would the taxpayers agree?)

In any case, one knows that one only insults Moslems at great potential peril to oneself. Kern again quotes Morisco-Moroccan journalist Ahmed Bensahl, who expressed his anger in threatening tones:

Is Spain aware of what might be assumed when it makes peace with some and not with others? Is Spain aware of what this decision could cost? Has Spain considered that it could jeopardize the massive investments that Muslims have made on its territory? Does Spain have alternatives to the foreign investment from Muslims if they ever decide to move that capital to other destinations due to the discrimination against Muslims?

I guess Spain was listening. They are showing self-preservation skills in two ways. On the one hand, they are not succumbing to the threat and are standing firm on their decision to offer citizenship to Jews and not Arabs, because, after all, according to Kern:

Today, up to five million descendants of the Moriscos are living in Morocco alone; there are millions more living in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Tunisia and Turkey.

And Spain has no desire to change its demographic balance.

At the same time, they continue to vote with the Arab countries against Israel in the UN that we have today. That way they can have their cake and eat it too.

Sometimes there are people of principle who are able to make important distinctions [emphasis added].

Portuguese lawmakers who drafted the country’s law on Sephardic Jews rejected calls to naturalize the descendants of Muslims who were expelled, citing the fact that the expulsion of the Muslims was part of a war to end the occupation of Spain by North African invaders.

“Persecution of Jews was just that, while what happened with the Arabs was part of a conflict,” Jose Ribeiro e Castro, a Spanish lawmaker who drafted Portugal’s law of return, said. ”There’s no basis for comparison.”

I just wish that they were able to project their understanding of this aspect of their own history onto my tiny corner of the world, Israel.

Feature Image Credit: Wikimedia