With the Moorish architecture of Granada's Alhambra and Córdoba cathedral as a backdrop, Marcel Theroux meets a group of Spanish Muslims who are drawing on the area's Islamic legacy to a promote a new religious tolerance
islamic architecture is so mystical, like the religon itself. islam certainly left it's mark in spain for maany generations to witness the beauty of islam, this is why spanish people are more tolerant and sypathetic towards muslims, becuase they know from alhambra, how cultured and tolerant the muslim civilisation once were. today there are 5 thousand words which are used in spanish language which came from the arabic language. the food, music, culture, of spain has ancestorial roots from the arab world.
@Gunther Vincent learning about history is more than visiting historical sites. If you know the history behind these buildings, libraries and mosques you will understand that Spain was the most multicultural city the world has ever seen at that time. The few remaining documents that wasn't burned by the reconquista is a proof to that
These castles are the only things left and few mosques which are likely converted to churches. Al andalus was an interesting part of Muslim history but I'm from balkans and our Islamic history is mostly bound with Ottoman Turks. Whenever Muslim kingdom or nation become corrupt, Allah swt takes it away from them and punishes them in some way. This is why Muslims lost Spain and other lands in the East.
In Granada studying abroad here, and I shall say, the Alhambra is one of the most exquisite architecture created by Arabs, Moors, and others. There is sadness in this city due to the Spanish civil war, but also, I sense a sadness of how Catholicism has taken over souls that have a bigger desire for liberation. Areas are still underdeveloped and live in great poverty. But, it is a beautiful place to visit, and Alhambra is a must visit for all mankind. You must see it with your own eyes to truly understand the roots of what Arabs brought to civilization.
It's great that you find appreciation in the architecture of the Alhambra. I hope to see it one day myself. I hope you don't mind but I just want to point out one thing, the Alhambra was not specifically built by the Arabs. Rather it was built by the Moors which is a mixed group of people from Northern Africa (Mauretania/Berbers), including Spanish and Arab. Just want to point out that it was not specifically the Arabs but that many other ethnic groups aside from just Arabs who have contributed to the rich history of Muslim Spain and other parts of the Muslim world.
It were not only the Arabs but most of the Muslims in Andalous were Amazigh Muslims from Morocco and Algeria. Remember North Africa has Amazigh roots and not Arabic roots!!! Arabic roots go to the Middle East in Asia
Tariq ibn Zayed who opened the way over sea to Al Andalous was not an Arabic Muslim but an Amazigh Muslim from Algeria. It's sad and unfair that only the Arabs get the credits for the success what the Amazigh Muslims had realized for the Islamic history!!!!!
OMG I’ve been to that masjid in Spain! It’s very beautiful and I urge anyone who visits the Alhambra palace to visit that Masjid. Spain is beautiful and so is most of its history.
ASHHADU ALLA ILAHA ILLALLAH, WA ASHHADU ANNA MUHAMMADAR-RASULULLAH................. I bear witness that no one deserves to be worshiped except Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah
It’s quite disheartening to see how the Spain, once the bearer of the torch of wisdom & Knowledge in Europe been degraded to a teenage play (like that tomato 🍅 festival thingy).
You forget that Spain was the biggest Empire on Earth, and its was a Christian Empire and prosperous !!! None of your business as you are not Spanish anyway and don't belong to Spain.
how you know its Arabic scripture or arabic culture? what you understand under the word arabic? do you travel around the world to discover all designs and cultures? andalusia has 80% things from Asia and not arabic
a native speaker doesnt mean that you are arab if your ancestors are not from Jazeera tul arab, but anyway this is not my point. what i want to say that see on the faces of north africans why they have asian faces most of them. read ibn batuta books why he went from north india to andalusia, there are many migration of muslims from : Bukhara, West china (kashghar) kabul, Sindh wa hind, Malasia, thailand, indonesia, and not only arabs. if you travel lot then you could find same designs on alhambra walls in malaysia for example. oldest mosque is still today in Beijing which was build in 73 hijri by chinese king, same like Aladin story was written by a chinese muslim
The truth is not racist. Andalus always belonged to native Spaniards. How can an Arab feel it is their lost glory? There is no Arab blood in Spanish people. Is that being racist? It is just the truth. You see racism anywhere. Spain belongs to Spanish people who happen to have a Chrsitian background. There is no racism there.
Jm Cr; Modern Spaniards and Portuguese do have Arabic and Berber blood. If you're Iberian, then go get a DNA test and see for yourself. The Iberian Peninsula was home to the Moors for about 800 years until the Roman Church invasion. Our ancestors were those Moors.
JanetFunkYeah Go back to school and check all genetic studies about Spaniards. Roman Church? You are not Spanish That was more than 600 years ago. Why Spanish people don't speak Arabic and are Christian?
You're an ignorant and hateful fool. And yes, I am Hispanic. I live in North America, but both my parents are immigrants from Iberia, and I still have extended family there and visit every few years. And while most of my family are Catholic, I am an atheist, so I have no favoritism towards Christianity or Islam. In my position, I can be honest and unbiased. Can you say the same for yourself?
To be accurate, the Grand Mosque/Cathedral in Córdoba was renovated by moors but not built by them. It predates their arrival as an ancient Romano/Visigothic Christian Church. So in complete fairness it was a church turned mosque then returned to a church.
richard hakes you are wrong, in islam the instruction by the prophet Mohammad said: dont hurt an old man, women, children, uprooting trees and Do not destroy their places of worship. when muslims came to spain in the past they didn't kill Innocent people , they didn't convert their churchs to mosques, they didn't force them to be muslims as spanish Catholic Churchs and kill who cover his islam
It has to be those humane and compassionate Spaniards to lead co-existence. Al-Andalus is pivotal to teaching philosophical tolerance and respect for all religious communities. Learned more about love and Peace from two trips to Beloved Spain.🧡🌹😎🌼
The Islamophobia in the comments is very ugly and disappointing. You haters should feel ashamed of yourselves. That said, I have no religious affiliation, but I'm an Iberian, and after much study, I learned that the Iberian Peninsula was at its best when it existed as Al-Andalus. It was a country ahead of its time. It's very sad that the Roman Church invaded Iberia and imposed its dogma on the people, and would soon after invade other places over seas and assimilate those poor people through brutal force and genocide as well. Christian Iberia was like the Borg from _Star Trek._ ..Absolutely relentless.
Islamic Iberia must definitely have been far ahead of catholic Iberia, but isn't the current secular democratic Iberia much more rational and ahead of the Islamic Iberia of the past. How good is the replacement of one dogma with another, both of which in their literal implementation end up trampling the existence of individuals. Nostalgia is a part of our lives and it is the right thing to recognise and be true to our past, heritage and have the courage to reconcile our present selves with it. But why should it necessitate the selection of one over the other. How rational is it to believe that an individual has to surrender himself before a set of rules, symbols or social mores and not have the freedom to assimilate the notions from his present, historical, geographical, cultural surroundings that improve his existence and live his life in an more fulfilling manner.
Don't Let Her Speak it was that same attitude you have, that resulted in Five centuries of civil war in Iberia. That same civil war was actually an engineered conquest, and they added to it Re. As to say we’re just taking it back. The pope called for holy war and promised warriors and volunteers a place in heaven. It was one of the worst tragedies in human history.
Cumulonimbus Cloud the takeover of Hagia Sofia was disapproved by Muslim scholars, back then. But then the Ottoman Empire have built a copy of it next to it to use as mosque 🕌 and left the true one as a monument. We didn’t yet see that applied in the mosque of Córdoba
Until the 1400 Lebanon,, Syria, Egypt, etc were majority Christian. The demographics have changed dramatically in the last 200 years due to fleeing the country. In Latin America, there are more than 11 million Syrian and Lebanese Christian (mostly Maronite Christians) immigrants
Yes makes sense, I guess the churches here should permit the muslims to pray , this can showcase tolerance and religious harmony. Make a better world from bitter experience
its just a matter of time the birth rate of muslim are a lot higher than christian & the additional muslim immigrant plus the new convert it will overtake the christian population.
I hope things change. Granada's Alhambra and Córdoba cathedral are so rich in history and it's a shame that Muslims are being denied the experience of worshiping in a place that was once a mosque.
S Mathias, honey it was a mosque and it became a church after the Reconquista. Everyone knows that. Learn something useful instead of hating on other religions, when they're denied the simple right of praying in a place that was once theirs. You're perhaps one of those who support the state of Israel and hate on the Palestinians for asking for their lands back. Uneducated low life
When the Arab and birbir Came to Iberia the They mixed with the people and They formed the ( Arabiain andulsian people who speak Arabic and were Muslims )which their offsprings lived generations after generations for over 800 years in the four fathers land and established the most significant culture in Europe at that time ; until the Castilians , envied their land and forced them to Christianity or expelled form their four fathers homelands sorry to say that many of Andalusian don’t know may about their ancestors history, l went to Spain,,, and a very very nice and beautiful people to meet I think that because of Arabic blood in their genes
What happened to the glory of Muslims from those times?Sadly the Muslims of those times don’t exist today ;( they regressed and are in the dark ages today.
Many mosques were converted to churches including the cathedral one in Qurtaba where 100K people could pray together. This was built by Tariq bin Ziad himself. If Hagia sofia was made a museum, why cant they do it here?
Not by Tariq Bin Ziad. Actually by Abdul Rahman Al Dakhil (The enterer) AKA, The Falcon of Quriesh. The Umayyad Prince who escaped his family slaughter in Syria and seperated Al Andalus as a principality for himself making Cordoba his capital. The mosque is a replica in some of its features of the great mosque of Damascus.
WHoever this Mustafa Bougrine has no right to say that 1. He is not the keeper of Islam, we have no keepers of Islam 2. It is between them and Allaah, how does he know what is in their heart. 3. It seems like he thinks he is better than others.
Are we saying that Spain is not harmonious today so it needs Islam in order to be harmonious? We need to ask ourself why was Islam kicked out of Spain if Spain was so harmonious under its rule? Were the Spanish people stupid?
pet charles it were the muslims who spain a name.a name of glory....muslims made it a place of culture and education and people from whole europe come for education to spain thats what muslims did
Some of you guys got to get over yourselves and get a vast interpretation of history. Its a shame Al-Andalus lost a portion of itself. Its also a shame Constaintinople lost a portion of itself too. Some of you make it sound as if Islam is only capable of providing enlightment. Others make it sound like its the last thing capable of providing a healthy society. I feel some of you sound obsessive and can't wait "for it to be restored" yet you don't acknowledge nor respect the loss the middle east has had in its diversity since the early 20th century. Guys please be balanced and be loving. This world shouldn't be about conquest. I hear it from both sides and can see your hearts yearn for victory. Calm yourselves for gods sake.
Welp, all is man made fairy tale, and the believers are fighting over the true teachings. If only, the Greco-Romans and Turks were not that weak-willed at that time
What Has Light have To do with Dark! Non Nobis. In The Beginning was The Word and The Word Was With GOD and The Word Was GOD. Amen. Think?? On.... Espanola Was CONQUERED! ??? By The Sword. ???. GOD BLESS El CID.
Al andalus were. they were not modern muslims with untolerance or middle age christians who held "witch trial" or dreamt Le conquesta" They were uncrediable tolerance or open minded people. Muslim and Christian lived peacefully together at same cities and towns. Nobody pushed them to change or deny their religion to others. That's how we need to learn a lot from them even in modern days.
Shin James tbh most modern muslim countries are more tolerant. Non muslims still had to pay the jizya tax, even though this was far more tolerant than Christian europe at the time
Goose Hamsterson Jizya tax are for non Muslim for protection from the state and they do not have to participate in war but still be protected but the Muslim population have to pay compulsory Zakat tax and had to participate if war broke out. And if you research Islamic history in Spain some of the greatest scientist, scholars came from there. After the Reconquista all the books were taken and translated into Latin and this is what started the European Enlightment. Look up Islamic scientist and you will see that most of them are labeled as father of Chemistry, Geography, Zoology, Medicine, Botany, Anthropology, Algebra and the list goes on.
Shin James you have been indoctrinated with false history. The Muslims enslaved Christians and would collect the extortortion money from the Christains. This is coming out to rebuff the false history!
Shin are you kidding? Al Andalus was esclavagist, they captured slaves during deadly razzias in Africa or Europe, the men were enchained, whipped and even castrated like animals and the women were sold into sexual slavery. Those things didn't exist in Christian Middle Age, that was an islamic speciality. What an "incredible tolerance"!
Correct me if I'm wrong but I see a selfishness when say this group wants to pray in the mosque to show Muslims and Christians can live together. I feel the best way to do that and I don't hear this often is have a Christian fight for the Muslim to pray in his church and these Muslims to go to mosques like haghia Sophia and fight for Christians to pray there. Rather to me this sounds egotistic and not as selfless as these people let out to believe.
All scientific studies say Spanish people have no Arab blood. Sorry if you would like to be Spanish or looking for some kind of connection but it's not true.
Interesante eso que mencionas de "que se conquiste al conquistador", como si no existiera algo llamado Hispania (en aquél momento en su mayoría ya Visigoda) en la Península antes de la entrada por la fuerza de Táriq Ibn Ziyad. Lo de "que se conquiste al conquistador" fue precisamente lo que un puñado de Astures dirigidos por el gran Pelayo iniciaron, de ahí el término Reconquista.
islam resurgence! is very good news but people should be careful about wahabi islam, salafi islam, la majhab islam if they spread there no one will see any benefit but evil like that evil for which once a kingdom that raised so high perished and thrown into dungeon an believe me those who are enemy of this great path will try to contaminate it
