What Mr Keeley, the writer of this article, fails to point out is that Spain had been invaded and conquered by the Moors, and the Spaniards’ culture and way of life had been taken away from them by the marauding invaders. I see little need for Spaniards today to apologize for anything. This was not so much “ethnic cleansing” as winning back the country which rightfully belonged to them. – ©Mark
TIMESONLINE: It was the start of one of the earliest and most brutal episodes of ethnic cleansing in Europe, so Spain is, understandably perhaps, a little reluctant to mark the occasion.
Four hundred years ago today King Philip III signed an order to expel 300,000 Moriscos - or part-Muslims - who had converted from Islam to Christianity.
Over the next five years hundreds of the exiles died as they were forced from their homes in Spain to North Africa at the height of the Spanish Inquisition.
There are no plans to mark the date officially, although the occasion is being remembered in a series of exhibitions, conferences and public debates.
The anniversary comes days after José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Spanish Prime Minister, met Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, in Istanbul to celebrate the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations, which is intended to foster friendship between the West and the Islamic world.
Some Muslim writers and Spanish and Moroccan campaigners believe that Madrid should apologise for the wrongs committed during the 17th century. Juan Goytisolo, a Spanish novelist, said:
“Official and academic Spain retires into the fortress of cautious silence, which reveals obvious discomfort. The expulsion was the first European precedent ... of the European ethnic cleansings of the last century.” >>> Graham Keeley in Barcelona | Thursday, April 9, 2009
