The blogger called the Muslims who conquered Andalusia invaders and Israelis “poor people” seeking to “return to their land which Arabs seized.”

Saudi Blogger Muslims Were Invaders, Arabs Seized Israel’s Land
Saudi blogger Mohammad Al Shammari has described the Muslims who conquered Andalusia as invaders.
Tarek Bazza
By
Tarek Bazza
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Tarek Bazza is a journalist at Morocco World News with Master’s degree in Translation from King Fahd School of Translation in Tangier.

Rabat – Saudi blogger Mohammad Al Shammari has described the Muslims who conquered Andalusia as invaders and claimed that Islam has been “a savage religion” since the Umayyad era in the seventh and eighth centuries.

“Muslims entered Spain as invaders. They captured over 600,000 people and after four centuries, the church regained its land from the invaders. Why should we cry on something we took by force? If logic says that land belongs to whoever invades and imposes power over it, then we should treat Israel with the same logic,”  Al Shammari tweeted on January 2.

The conquest of the Iberian peninsula started in 711 when Muslim commander Tariq ibn Ziyad landed at Gibraltar leading a small army of 7,000 Moroccans under the orders of Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I.

Muslims ruled over most of the Iberian peninsula, calling it al-Andalus, for nearly eight centuries, from 711 to 1492.

From the mid 13th to the late 15th century, the Emirate of Granada was the last Muslim stronghold in the Iberian Peninsula.

In January 1492, the Catholic monarchs, Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, took over Granada, completing the Christian Reconquista of the peninsula.

Al Shammari compared the Catholic Church’s reconquest of Andalusia to what Israelis are seeking in Palestine. He seemed to defend the Israelis’ position against Palestinians.

Al Shammari criticized those who mourn the loss of Andalusia and wish to regain it, saying they should treat Israel with the same logic.

“Poor Israelis should be allowed to return to their land which Arabs seized and took over,” he wrote in a jeering reply to a Twitter user who emphasized that Islam is a religion of pride and glory and that Muslims will regain Andalusia some day.

Read also: Iberian Mystics in Al Andalus: Hearkening Back to a Time of Tolerance
Islam has been a ‘savage religion’ since the Umayyads

Responding to a tweet highlighting Islam as a religion of mercy and tolerance, the Saudi blogger, who is living in the UAE, stressed that the Umayyad state politicized Islam.

“Acquitting Muslims of killing is a claim that lacks credibility. The political motives were dominant in the public scene. It was expected that Muslims would leave Spain especially if you read about that era and the outbreak of a nationalist movement calling for the return back to the embrace of Europe again,” Al Shammari wrote.


He also stated that Muslims have used their authority unjustly since the Umayyad state.

“Muslim politicians misused Islam and made it a lash on people’s backs and a sword on the necks of those who disagreed,” he wrote.

“Savage Islam is the product of a political plot that began in [the era of] the Umayyad state and has developed to this day.”

Read also: Spanish Politician Wants to Add Morocco’s Rif to ‘Andalusian Republic’
‘Andalusian civilization was not Islamic’

Al Shammari also denied the existence of an Islamic civilization in Andalusia, saying, “If Muslims brought civilization to Andalusia, why did we not see the same civilization in the Arabian Peninsula?”

For the Saudi blogger “Islam has nothing to do with civilization” since the religion could not create civilization in the Arabian Peninsula.

The Andalusian civilization, according to Al Shammari, was thanks to the Spaniards who “were open to science and supported the thought movement.”

Al Shammari cited the example of Ibn Rushd, known as Averroes in Latin, a Muslim and Andalusian philosopher who was born in Spain in 1126 and died in 1198. Al Shammari stressed that Muslims repressed Ibn Rushd’s thought while Europeans revived it and erected a statue of him.

“The Spaniards consider the Andalusian era as a part of their civilization for which they don’t owe favors to the Arabs.”

Al Shammari’s tweets went viral on social media and received both criticism and admiration. The Saudi blogger reflects his country’s increasingly friendly relations with Israel. Saudi Arabia, according to some reports, may normalize relations with Israel in the near future.

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