MUST READ: SPAIN IN THE SHADOW OF BIN LADEN

Spain In The Shadow Of Bin Laden
(and the upcoming elections)
by Norman Berdichevsky (March 2008)

On the day that General Franco’s Nationalist forces entered Madrid ending the Spanish Civil War, Pope Pius XII sent him a telegram of congratulations which read “Lifting up our hearts to the Lord we rejoice with your Excellency in the victory so greatly desired of Catholic Spain”. Throughout the war, the Nationalist side portrayed their cause as the defense of the fundamentals of Christian civilization against atheistic Bolshevism yet very much like Napoleon, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Mussolini and Hitler, Franco saw a tactical advantage in a military and political alliance with Muslims whom he could entice or cajole as “natural allies.”

From the time of the expulsion of the last Moors, the term “Moros” has been used in Spain and applied indiscriminately to everything connected to the Arabs and Islam. Due to Spain’s colonial involvement in Morocco, a large overseas “Army of Africa” was created in which Moslem conscripts played a large part. In the 1930’s, it was commanded by General Francisco Franco and its troops took part in the suppression of a revolt by anarchist miners in the northern province of Asturias in 1934 and then in the uprising to overthrow the Republic, that culminated in the Civil War (1936-1939).

In spite of General Franco’s frequent use of the theme of rescuing Spain’s Christian heritage from communism and barbarism, the use of Moslem troops that he brought with him from Morocco, earned a reputation of brutality among the great mass of the Spanish people. They were hated and feared by ordinary Spaniards wherever they fought.

The last Moors resident in Spain were known as Moriscos. They had “officially” converted to Catholicism, but from the time of the fall of Granada in 1492 until their final expulsion in 1608-09, many acted as a fifth column, provided aid and information to the raiding parties of Muslim pirates that frequented the Spanish coast (the same “Barbary Pirates” that provoked the Barbary Wars from 1798-1820 with the United States) and were involved in several revolts throughout Andalucía. Until the defeat of the Ottoman navy at the Battle of Lepanto (1571) in which Cervantes was wounded, the Turks had made significant inroads throughout the Balkans and Eastern Europe and were threatening to spread Islam by Holy War (Jihad) that would have included the reconquest of Spain.

A certain intellectual interest in Arab and Moslem affairs was stimulated in the last days of the monarchy due to Spain's renewed involvement in Morocco and came to be known under the label of “Africanismo Español”.

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Pertinent Links:

1) Spain In The Shadow Of Bin Laden