The Islamization of Spain: From al-Andalus to the Migration Crisis
22nd December 2023
Recently, media attention has focused on Spain because of the public protests against its left-wing government. Widespread disapproval of the government is hardly surprising given the government’s unpopular policies regarding the economy, mass immigration, the constitution, education, and other important issues. Furthermore, with the mass influx of illegal Muslim migrants into Spain and the severe decline in Spanish birth rates, the nation finds itself at a crossroads, with its future far from certain.
A major problem that prevents many people from understanding Spain’s history with Islam is the false historiography, or even propaganda, that rewrites the history of Muslim-occupied medieval Spain and tries to portray it as a ‘bastion of peace and multiculturalism.’
After Islam’s emergence in Arabia during the 7th century, one of the first objectives of invading Arabs was the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in Europe. Parts of Spain and Portugal (which the Muslims called ‘al-Andalus’) were occupied and ruled by a succession of Islamic dynasties for almost 800 years, beginning in the 8th century. With the expansion of Islam, the Muslims seized almost the entirety of the Iberian Peninsula in less than a decade, from 711 to 718. The Visigothic Christian kingdom was defeated, and its last king, Rodrigo, was slain by the invaders.