Trains explode in Spain; minorities, immigrants hardest hit

From the NYT comes this weepy, Sally Struthersian article about Muslim immigrants in Spain: 'Deep Unease Over the Future Gnaws at Moroccans in Spain'.

They fear they're going to get blamed, etc. etc. All it's missing is a loop of violins.

Consider this excerpt:

For nearly 800 years, the Moors ruled Spain from its southern stronghold, El Andalus, ushering in a period of enlightenment and relative tolerance while the rest of Europe thrashed about in the Dark Ages.

The NYT might want to check out 'The Corrosive Hagiography of Muslim Spain'. "Relative" is definitely the operative word here:

Celebratory announcements July 10, 2003 of a "return of Islam to Spain" marked the completion of the new Granada Mosque. Unfortunately, at a conference entitled, "Islam in Europe" that accompanied the opening of the mosque, some alarming statements were made by European Muslim leaders. For example, the keynote speaker at this conference, Umar Ibrahim Vadillo, a Spanish Muslim leader, implored Muslims to cause an economic collapse of Western economies (by switching to gold dinars, and ceasing to use Western currencies), while the German Muslim leader Abu Bakr Rieger told attendees not to adapt their Islamic religious practices to accommodate European (i.e., Western Enlightenment) values...

The NYT might want to check out this quote from a very well-known Muslim scholar, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi:

Nowadays, the conquest of the other city Romia [Rome] remains unfulfilled. Namely, Islam will return once more to Europe as a conqueror and as a victorious power after it was expelled twice from the continent....I assume that next time the conquest [of Europe] will not be achieved by the sword [i.e., war] but by preaching (_daawa_) and spreading the ideology [of Islam]....The conquest of Romia [Rome] and the expansion of Islam will reach all the areas where the sun shines and the moon appears [i.e., the entire world]....That will be the result of a planted seed and the beginning of the righteous Caliphate's return....[The Islamic Caliphate] deserves to lead the nation to the plains of victory.

According to the NYT, Stalin was relatively tolerant as well.

Immigration_terror · Thu, 03/18/2004 - 20:21 · · Importance: 1