re: #5 Gus 802

Those included my ancestors, who were variously killed, forced to convert, adopted into Christian families with no knowledge of their ancestry, and sent to the Carribbean as indentured servants— basically slaves.

In addition, those who had previous been Muslim but converted, or were from Muslim families, were also deported— and their property confiscated.

In 1609 King Philip III, upon the advice of his financial adviser the Duke of Lerma and Archbishop of Valencia Juan de Ribera, decreed the Expulsion of the Moriscos. Hundreds of thousands of Moriscos were expelled, some of them probably sincere Christians. This was further fueled by the religious intolerance of Archbishop Ribera who quoted the Old Testament texts ordering the enemies of God to be slain without mercy and setting forth the duties of kings to extirpate them. The edict required: ‘The Moriscos to depart, under the pain of death and confiscation, without trial or sentence… to take with them no money, bullion, jewels or bills of exchange…. just what they could carry.’ So successful was the enterprise, in the space of months, Spain was emptied of its Moriscos. Expelled were the Moriscos of Aragon, Murcia, Catalonia, Castile, Mancha and Extremadura. As for the Moriscos of Granada, such as the Herrador family who held positions in the Church and magistracy, they still had to struggle against exile and confiscation.

I’m sure many of those expelled were not true converts— just as many of my ancestors were not true converts, but practiced their faith in secret.

I have noticed in recent times a tendency of Christians to try to rehabilitate the historic treatment of Jews by Christians— particularly making claims that Muslims were historically worse. This is untrue, and the history of Spain is a good microcosm of that.

I don’t think this is anything inherent in Christianity or in Islam; it’s just history.