St. James Matamoros

[Joe & MJ]

Basically, it seems to me that there are (and always have been) two
groups (no matter what your nationality, religion, or ethnic group):
assimilationists (for us to get along we should all have *basically* the
same (although not necessarily identical) beliefs / language / culture /
religion) and pluralists (I'm okay, you're okay, let's all be okay,
separately together). The last young man who spoke and said "it's hard,
but we have to recognize that Europeans have their own values" is a
pluralist; the "we've been waiting for 500 years" guy is an
assimilationist. Your comfort level with either group is your own
value/belief system.

As something to think about however: the Christians' battles(with
Santiago Matamoros at their lead) are collectively called the
REconquista--in other words, at some point (most notably 711, and in
several successive waves after that) the Muslims *conquered* the
(Christian) Goths by FORCE. The loss of Granada in 1492 was actually the
culmination of a long, slow, steady retaking of the peninsula whether by
actual battle, or by decline and degeneration by the Muslims. It's not
like the entire peninsula was Muslim (and only Muslim) for 780 years and
suddenly "poof!" it's gone. History is never quite so black and white as
what it appears (or sounds like)in a seven minute media clip.

One last thought before I send this and set the list aflame (sorry
Linda, but I do love to occasionally play devil's advocate):  How many
students do you suppose study Spanish peninsular history with the
romantic notion of the "Moors" and never realize that Moors = Muslims?
While I was student teaching last semester I'd say it ran about 75-85%.

Maryjane

> I did go back to Silvia Poggioli's piece, I was a bit chilled
> by the comment made by a young Arab interviewed by Poggioli
> about the building of a mosque that "we have been waiting for
> this moment for 500 years" .
>
> Maura
>