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Rabat – Dubai Deputy Police Chief Dhahi Khalfan stirred controversy in a tweet yesterday saying that Muslims occupied Andalusia in Spain for hundreds of years.
“Muslims occupied Al Andalus for eight centuries, and Al Andalus returned to its people. Be patient. Every power goes down, no matter the time,” Khalfan said.
A flood of replies followed Khalfan’s post, mostly denying that Muslims occupied the Iberian peninsula.
One user who commented made a reference to the early 20th-century Spanish poet Lorca Federico. “The Spanish poet Lorca considered the Muslim exit from Andalusia the greatest disaster that Spain ever knew.”
والله انك لا تستحق عناء الرد ولكن افعل حتي لا تغرر بمن لا يقرأ
الشاعر الإسباني لوركا عد خروج المسلمين من الأندلس اكبر كارثة حلت بتاريخ اسبانياالفرنسي جوستاف لوبون والألمانية زيجريد هونكة والأمريكي جوزيف ماك جب والأمريكي واشنطن ايرفنج وغيرهم لا يحسبون دخول المسلمين اليها إحتلالا
— المسلمون فى الاندلس (@andalucian711) February 19, 2019
The user was likely referring to a quote by Lorca on the city of Granada, in which he said that the city “lost an admirable civilization.”
“A relationship with the Israeli people is possible, but not with the Israeli government,” Khalfan argued in another tweet.
“Israeli citizens can go to any Arab country, but Israeli officials cannot communicate with us unless a Palestinian state is established. Maybe this has to do with the human side, far from politics,” he continued in the same post.
احتل المسلمون الاندلس ثمانية قرون وعادت الاندلس لأهلها ..اصبروا ..لكل قوة زوال مهما الزمن طال.
— ضاحي خلفان تميم (@Dhahi_Khalfan) February 19, 2019
In following tweets, police chief struck a different tone.
He compared the mindset of Israeli officials to Nazi ideology, “in terms of the sense of superiority.”
القادة السياسيين الاسرائيليين يعيشون بعقليات متخلفة يهيمن عليها ما هيمن على عقلية هتلر
تماما من حيث الشعور بالفوقية.— ضاحي خلفان تميم (@Dhahi_Khalfan) February 19, 2019
A month ago, Saudi blogger Mohammad Al Shammari made a similar comment to Khalfan’s.
Al Shammari said “Muslims came to Spain as invaders. They captured over 600,000 people and after four centuries, the church regained its land from the invaders.”
“If logic says that land belongs to whoever invades and imposes power over it, then we should treat Israel with the same logic,” added the blogger.
While relations between some Arab countries and Israel saw some rapprochement in recent years, many popular and grassroots movements have protested the moves.
In late October, an Israeli official accompanied her country’s judo team to the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam, where the Israeli anthem was played for the first time in the UAE’s history.
Israeli Minister of Culture Miriam Regev was later invited on an official visit by officials in the United Arab Emirates to tour the country’s largest mosque, the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.
Last month, a Moroccan movement called for the boycott of pro-Israel French Jewish singer Enrico Macias, amid rumors of Morocco-Israel normalization following an alleged high-level secret meeting between Morocco’s foreign minister Nasser Bourita and Israel’s Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu.
