Michael Lame of the decidedly non-partisan Re-Think The Middle East provides some useful background on the history of Cordoba for which the Ground Zero mosque is to be named. He writes:
Many writers have waxed rhapsodic about a golden age of peace and prosperity in Muslim Spain. But is that really what it was like? “Nostalgia is the enemy of historical understanding,” warns historian Richard Fletcher, author of Moorish Spain. “The simple and verifiable historical truth is that Moorish Spain was more often a land of turmoil than it was a land of tranquility.”
The 800 years referred to by the Cordoba Initiative constitutes the entire era of Muslim rule in Spain, stretching from 711 to 1492. Yet Cordoba itself, the cultural and for long periods of time the political capital of al-Andalus, succumbed to Christian conquest (or reconquest) in 1236.
Imam Rauf’s book, What’s Right with Islam: a New Vision for Muslims and the West, narrows the pertinent time frame, explaining that the Cordoba Initiative is “named after the period between roughly 800 and 1200 CE, when the Cordoba Caliphate ruled much of today’s Spain.”
But Rauf’s nostalgia should concern us, and give pause to his defenders. As Lame notes:
The idea of an Andalusian golden age, when Christians and Jews lived contentedly under Muslim rule, has become a fixture of Western historical thinking over the last hundred years. But is it true?
Professor [Richard] Fletcher weighs in on the question: “Early medieval Spain was multicultural in the sense of being culturally diverse, a land within which different cultures coexisted; but not in the sense of experiencing cultural integration. Toleration for Christians and Jews as ‘Peoples of the Book’ is enjoined by the Koran. But in practice it was limited – Christians under Islamic rule were forbidden to build new churches, to ring church bells, to hold public processions – and sometimes it broke down altogether. In 1066 there was a pogrom in Granada in which its Jewish community was slaughtered. Thousands of Christians were deported to slavery in Morocco in 1126. Thoroughly dismissive attitudes to Christians and Jews may be found in the Arabic literature of al-Andalus. It is a myth of the modern liberal imagination that medieval Islamic Spain was, in any sense that we should recognize today, a tolerant society.”
Lame advises that we should be aware of what Rauf’s “tolerance” entails:
One should not forget that Cordovan tolerance was predicated on Islamic rule. Jews and Christians, once they accepted their status as dhimmi, protected albeit subservient peoples, could participate in the intellectual, artistic, and economic life of the broader community. But one fact was clear throughout medieval Spain, that a single faith was dominant – Islam in the south and Christianity in the north – and the other religious communities were allowed to remain at the pleasure, or rather the sufferance, of the dominant religious-political power.
Sufferance as the basis for a multi-religious society is not a model that will appeal to 21st century Christians, Muslims, or Jews. For that reason alone, Cordoba is a questionable symbol of inter-faith co-existence. A better model might be … New York City!
In fact, New York has so many mosques that the question of tolerance of Muslims in America is not in doubt, except in the minds of the mosque’s defenders, who equate the placement of the mosque with religious “freedom.” Now, Rauf can hardly be ignorant of the history of Cordoba, as many of his defenders seem to be. He has, in the selection of his mosque’s name and placement, chosen to carry a message to his fellow Muslims and the world at large. It’s not a message the any of us, especially the left, which is supposedly opposed to religious domination of societies (or is that only a rule for Christians?), should embrace.
Kerry called Lambeau Field “Lambert Field,” which is the name of the airport in St. Louis. Vince Lombardi was the famous coach of my beloved Packers. He doesn’t have a stadium named after him, but there is a Lombardi Ave. in Green Bay. Anyway, when we twit Biden or The One for a verbal gaffe, best not to make one ourselves while we’re doing it.
Biden’s and Obama’s affronts are going unheard in the noise of the financial mess. Evidence?Today Gallup is ominous: McCain behind by five and Obama at 49%. McCain is experiencing a near collapse.
I think Kerry also got confused about the Wolverines and the Buckeyes, IIRC. I know, flyover country…
In fairness to Slo Joe, I just think he was trying to be funny. Like when a scrawny guy says he’s going to kick some big dude’s butt. The big dude knows he isn’t serious. I mean, the University of Delaware? Do they even have a football team?
You know, the only thing saving Biden is that he’s up against Bob Dole (and Sarah Quaylin).
Adam Nagourney, NYT:
“These days, Mr. McCain sounds less like his old self than Bob Dole, another Republican senator who ran for president in 1996, sounded in the closing days of his campaign — speaking louder or repeating statements that he thinks might be overlooked. “The American economy is in a crisis!” Mr. McCain said. “It’s in a crisis!”’
The Wall Street Journal piles on: “Unpresidential”
“John McCain has made it clear this week he doesn’t understand what’s happening on Wall Street. … But on Thursday, he took his populist riffing up a notch and found his scapegoat for financial panic — Christopher Cox, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission….
“Mr. McCain clearly wants to distance himself from the Bush Administration. But this assault on Mr. Cox is both false and deeply unfair. It’s also un-Presidential….
In a crisis, voters want steady, calm leadership, not easy, misleading answers that will do nothing to help. Mr. McCain is sounding like a candidate searching for a political foil rather than a genuine solution.”
“Sarah Quaylin”, Chait, TNR:
“The flip side for Republicans of losing most of their attack lines was supposed to be a series of virtues Palin would bring to the ticket: She’s a reformer, a steadfast opponent of earmarks, a proponent of transparency and clean government. Subsequent reporting has revealed that Palin embodies the precise opposite of every one of these virtues. She appointed unqualified cronies, abused her power to punish personal enemies, and has displayed a Cheney-esque passion for government secrecy. Her boast of having put the state airplane on eBay was undermined by subsequent revelations that she failed to actually sell it on eBay.
“The swift disintegration of Palin’s anti-pork credentials has been especially amusing. After initially casting Palin as a dedicated foe of earmarks, and then having it revealed that she asked for and received enormous sums of earmarked projects, the McCain campaign has fallen back to the defense that she requested fewer earmarks than other Alaska pols. This is true: Even though Palin took ten times the national per capita average in earmarked spending, in this regard she still rates somewhat below average by the standards of the petro-kleptocracy of the state from which she hails. Yet this defense raises the question of why Ted Kennedy never thought to run for president on the slogan “He Never Took a Drink In His Life,” and then, when challenged, point out that other members of his family are less sober than he.”
How’s that war on the media going? Time for a surge?
“How’s that war on the
mediaMcCain going? Time for a surge?”Who’s Joe Biden and what’s he running for?
Obama chose Biden to justify his own credentials. Experience does not equal a grasp on politics or governance.
Here is the blueprint for SwampFox; the liberal boilerplate for everything:
1. Every economic downturn is the Great Depression
2. Every war is Vietnam
3. Every opponent of liberals is a racist, backwaters, hick
4. Every VP is Dan Quayle
5. Every P is Bush
6. Everything America does overseas other than talk is a disaster
7. Every success in race relations and civil rights in America is really a failure
8. Haters of America have a good point, supporters of America are rabid nationalists, unless they are paying high taxes, then they are patriotic.
I hope America wakes up to this nonsense and votes McCain/Palin into the White House.
Is Biden playing the fool as a tactic? Does he make Obama look better? Or is it somehow supposed to play negatively against Palin ?
It’s been said for some time that the only thing keeping Joe Biden from being president is his mouth. Well, now it is likely keeping Barack Obama from being president as well. Not that Barack doesn’t do OK all by himself.
“Haters of America have a good point”
We only hate Jonas’s version of America,but we love our version.
PALEO, let me guess, you must be a supporter of Sen. Obama The Uniter, the Post-Racial, Post-Partisan candidate Who Will Bring The Country Together.
Not true Mom,i’m for Nader which is a vote for McCain
Hi Paleo,
Yes, I agree, your reaction to a person with different views is Hate. Its the Left’s reaction to anyone who would dare disagree with their perfect, omniscient worldview. That is an ancient idea.
However, that is not the foundation of a modern democracy. It is the marketplace of ideas, exchanged with civility and respect.
I always felt that today’s Democract unity, post-partisan talk was just a mask over an angry face, your comments confirm it.
Jonas, that’s why most of just skip over contributions from trolls, especially when they’re impolite enough to cut and paste hostile excerpts from articles that we could read for ourselves if we cared.
Paul, did you forget to take your Prozac? In this race, if you’re going to call every vibration to the top of a recent ceiling by Obama and vibration downward to the trough for McCain a “collapse,” you’re going to run out of expressions. Gallup’s polls have seemed unusually volatile this year, giving at least the appearance of a relatively large pool of weakly committed voters. If they can swing one way, they can swing the other. Rasmussen’s likely voter tracking poll has been much less volatile (it’s designed that way), even in the topline “pushed leaners” version that is most widely quoted. You might want to stick with Rasmussen for a little while – or maybe give up poll-watching.
We’ve seen that, when McCain makes progress or, as recently, spends a little time on top, the combined cacophony from the media and the Obama campaign gets painfully shrill. At the same time, the McCain campaign appears to lose focus, though I’m not sure that it isn’t just part of the natural ebb and flow of political campaigns and of life in general. In my view, a collapse would, at the very least, have to be a result well outside the rather well-established error-ranges for this race, and to be taken seriously it would have to be confirmed and sustained. If the public decides it’s had enough of this race, we’ll know it. I don’t think we’re anywhere near that point.
“your reaction to a person with different views is Hate.”
Wrong,the hate is for your views,not you Jonas. Your “Civility”is just a mask.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/horseraceblog/2008/09/the_state_of_the_race.html
Typical rationality from Jay Cost.
CK, the only medication I take is for my GERD(go to Wikipedia). I admit that I’m a bit nervous over this election. But why not? Obama is a very left wing guy and brings with him a lot of the left wing entourage(Wright, Ayers, for example). However, I do try very hard to be objective, and, like any human being, may fail in my endeavors, but, essentially, after all is said and done, do believe that my angst is justified.
Is it just me? The economy is on the verge of collapse, needing to be bailed out by a trillon taxpayer dollars we don’t have, and we are talking about Biden gaffes? Not trying to be snarky here, but we are in the midst of a major crisis. I am getting the feeling looking around the blogs many are not wanting to face up to this.
“Jonas, that’s why most of just skip over contributions from trolls”
CK MacLeod, they are not trolls – they are Tolerant Liberals.
“The economy is on the verge of collapse, needing to be bailed out by a trillon taxpayer dollars we don’t have,”
So do you want to talk about Democratic policies that may bring on this collapse?
Re the K of C letter: as a Catholic, I find it pretty galling that the true Catholic in the race is Sarah Palin. It’s one thing for Biden to be pro-choice, or pro-life personally but pro-Roe. But his use of a pro-choice stance as a cudgel with which to beat up pro-life candidates is highly disturbing. I wonder what the bishops think? (Not that they’ll favor us with their point of view.)
As a life-long Buckeye and OSU football fan, this sort of stuff doesn’t bother me in the least. As a father of young children, though, I really, really, don’t like this sort of language being used in an off-hand way in public by a vice presidential candidate. I know politicians frequently use rough language, and President Bush is far from immune, but is it too much to ask a guy who’s every word is being followed closely by the media to not use language he (hopefully) wouldn’t use if he was a guest in my home?
It is not original with me, but when it comes to Biden you can see the difference between 36 years of experience and one year of experience repeated 36 times.
Don’t Obama/Biden supporters have any concerns about Senator Biden’s propensity for making foolish and offensive remarks and the potential for gravely insulting foreign dignitaries?