Recently, there has been a lot of talk about the Spanish government seeking to make amends for the expulsion of the Sephardic Jewish community in 1492. One of the ways in which it has sought to do so is by extending Spanish citizenship to any living descendant of the Sephardim. Of course, the manner and parameters of this offer (which still has not been approved by Spanish parliament) remain unclear, but it appears that the Spanish state is attempting to rectify one of the darkest chapters of its history. However, some people have rightly pointed to a clear double-standard of the Spanish state since it has failed to either discuss or even contemplate a similar offer in the case of the descendants of the Iberian Muslims forcibly Christianized in 1502 and expelled in 1609-1614, the so-called Moriscos, of whom at least 1-3 million reside in North Africa.Worse, certain Spanish politicians have not only ruled out the possibility of doing so, but have also gone out of their way to justify the murder, systematic torture, forcible conversion, mass expulsions of the Iberian Muslim community that took place between 1502 and 1614. They have also sought to deny that the treatment of the Hispano-Muslims during the 15th, 16th and 17th century constituted persecution, preferring instead to reaffirm old myths and emphasize that the expulsions were simply security measures taken during a time of war. This refusal to consider the atrocities committed against Iberian Muslims certainly needs to be questioned.
Ballandalus 