As darkness rapidly engulfed the Catholic Visigothic territories of the Iberian Peninsula, Christians would begin a journey of between a few decades and 750 years (depending on the region in which they lived in Hispania) of bloodshed, continuous humiliation, and repression.
Not for the Virginia Military Institute (thanks to Spanish daily ABC for alerting us to this), which celebrates with a conference the mostly horrendous years of Arab domination in the Iberian peninsula, and describes it thus:
Join academic, political, and cultural leaders to address topics vital to our future: how to transform education, promote tolerance, inspire political reform, and advance human development so that we can build on the spirit and historical successes at those times when Christians, Jews, and Muslims lived side by side in Western Europe, forging a society that lit the Dark Ages.
Right... "Lit" the Dark Ages in a bonfire of blood, sharia, and dhimmitude, right? Living as a dhimmi can be quite peaceful and spiritually inspirational - though it is not exactly living side by side with one's Muslim superiors... In our modest opinion, as an institution dedicated to military matters, they should get ready to study the underlying inner strength which ignited a relentless crusade of seven centuries, from the revolt of Pelagius of Asturias in Covadonga (the Cave of Our Lady), in 718, and the great victory of Charles Martel in Tours-Poitiers, in 732, to the final extinction of Arab domination in the peninsula in Granada, in the significant year of 1492.
What else do Muslims need to do in our own days so that scholars can stop romanticizing an inexistent peaceful and joyful Al-Andalus?
