Re: Obama Repeats Historically Baseless Myths

Submitted by Aymenn Jawad (United Kingdom), Jun 5, 2009 at 03:32

Dr. Pipes:

You missed out on what I believe was a key point and error: Obama claimed that "Cordoba" and "Al-Andalus" were beacons of tolerance for non-Muslims living under Shari'a whilst there was an "Inquisition" in Europe.

Although subjugating non-Muslims to second-class status as dhimmis might have been tolerant compared to Christian Europe at that time (howbeit, the period was marked, for example, by massacres of hundreds of Jews in Cordoba 1010-1013 and circa 4000 Jews in 1066 in Granada), it is not to be lionized as an example for our times, is it? This is surely just another way to appease Islamists by appealing to a mythical past of supposed ecumenical harmony?

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