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The case of Islamic Spain is a universally significant microcosm that serves as a warning of what awaits Christians, Jews, and other non-Muslims under Muslim rule\u00a0when Judeo-Christian values, history, and tradition\u2014and especially the protection of individual liberties\u2014are not adequately defended.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Originally published under the title, “The Infidels of Spain”<\/p>\n Soeren Kern | Ideological Defense Institute<\/a> | October 15, 2026<\/p>\n During an official visit to Spain in June 2026, Pope Leo XIV praised<\/a> medieval Spain\u2014which was occupied by Muslim conquerors for nearly 800 years\u2014as an interfaith utopia that led to advancements in astronomy, mathematics, medicine, philosophy, and science. He urged modern Spaniards to embrace multicultural coexistence with Islam and stop \u201cfanning the flames of polarization\u201d over mass migration from the Muslim world. He claimed that Christians and Muslims can live together as friends as they did in centuries past.<\/p>\n The Pope\u2019s remarks were greeted with significant pushback by historians, theologians, and lay Catholics. They accused him of misrepresenting Spain\u2019s history by repeating the shibboleths of progressive historians that life on the Iberian Peninsula (modern-day Spain and Portugal) during its occupation by Muslims was a paragon of religious tolerance and harmony.<\/p>\n The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate that Islamic Spain was ruled by ruthless and tyrannical Muslim theocrats who marginalized and repressed Christians and Jews in all areas of life. Under Islamic law, non-Muslims under Muslim rule were branded as infidels (disbelievers) and relegated to a subordinate social class.<\/p>\n The case of Islamic Spain is a universally significant microcosm that serves as a warning of what awaits Christians, Jews, and other non-Muslims under Muslim rule. Islam and the West represent two diametrically opposed and fundamentally incompatible civilizations.<\/p>\n As millions upon millions of immigrants from the Islamic world pour into Western countries in our lifetimes, the sordid history of medieval Spain is repeating itself. The only difference now is that foot soldiers of the opposing civilization are being invited into non-Muslim lands with open arms by political leaders who are either ignorant of the history of al-Andalus or who despise the heritage of Western civilization.<\/p>\n Demographic trends favor the Muslim newcomers, who, by and large, refuse to assimilate to the Western way of life. They are not only establishing parallel societies in Western cities but are also taking the reins of political power. Islam is spreading across the West at a rapid pace, and if not stopped and reversed, it will eventually take over and impose its will on non-Muslims as in medieval Spain.<\/p>\n May Spain be a warning for the rest of Western world of what happens when Judeo-Christian values, history, and tradition\u2014and especially the protection of individual liberties\u2014are not adequately defended.<\/p>\n In AD 711, less than a century after the birth of Islam in the deserts of Arabia, a Muslim military force consisting of approximately 7,000 Arabs and Berbers from North Africa crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and invaded Visigothic Hispania (the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula, modern day Spain and Portugal). The Visigoths, Germanic peoples who had taken full control of Hispania from the Romans by 507 and had converted the entire Iberian Peninsula to Nicene Christianity by 589, had become weak due to internal divisions and were utterly unprepared for the Muslim onslaught.<\/p>\n The Muslim invaders, led by Tariq ibn Ziyad, an Umayyad commander from what is now known as Algeria, faced little resistance. In July 711, at the Battle of Guadalete in southern Iberia, the Muslim forces decisively defeated the Visigoths and their leader, King Roderic, was killed in battle. The rout led to the total collapse of the Visigothic kingdom and opened the way for the capture of Toledo, the Visigoth capital, in 712. Visigoth Spain was forever lost. Christian Spain became Muslim Spain.<\/p>\n The Muslim warriors, known as Moors (a blanket term that refers to the medieval Muslim inhabitants of North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula), renamed the territory of Hispania and called it al-Andalus, a term of uncertain etymology but may derive its name from Vandalusia (\u201cland of the Vandals\u201d) and refer to the Vandals, a Germanic people who settled in Iberia and North Africa in the fifth century.<\/p>\n Within a period of just seven years, the Moors, motivated by religious fervor and hungry for plunder, succeeded in conquering most of the Iberian Peninsula and ruled it as an emirate of the Umayyad Caliphate in Damascus. In less than a decade, five million Christians suddenly were subjugated to the oppressive rule of Muslim autocrats.<\/p>\n The Moorish advance beyond Iberia was halted in October 732, when the Frankish leader Charles \u201cthe Hammer\u201d Martel defeated the Umayyad army at the Battle of Tours (also called the Battle of Poitiers).<\/p>\n The defeat of Umayyads, who managed to cross over the Pyrenees mountains into France, not only curtailed the spread of Islam into northern Europe but also contributed to the birth a collective European identity. The first recorded use of the word \u201cEuropean\u201d dates to 754, when a scribe, writing in Latin, referred to the victors of the Battle of Tours as Europenses<\/em>, a term he used to describe the Christian peoples of the western part of the continent.<\/p>\n Image 1. Site of the Battle of Tours in western France. The defeat of the Muslim invaders here in 732 effectively stopped the spread of Islam into northern Europe. Photo by Soeren Kern.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n The Moors were unable to occupy parts of northern Iberia due to mountainous terrain that created a natural protective barrier. In 718, Pelagius (Pelayo), a Visigothic nobleman, founded the Kingdom of Asturias, from where he began to push back against the Moorish occupiers. In the summer of 722, Pelagius defeated an Umayyad army at the Battle of Covadonga, in what is regarded as the beginning of the Christian Reconquista<\/em> (reconquest) of Iberia.<\/p>\n During subsequent centuries, power struggles and the fragmentation of Moorish al-Andalus allowed for the creation and expansion of Christian kingdoms in Aragon, Castile, Le\u00f3n, Navarre, and Portugal. In 1085, Alfonso VI of Le\u00f3n and Castile retook Toledo, the ancient Visigoth capital.<\/p>\n A key turning point of the Reconquista<\/em> occurred in July 1212, when a coalition of Christian armies decisively defeated the Moorish Almohads at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in southern Spain. The defeat significantly reduced the power of Moors in Iberia and gave new impetus to the Reconquista<\/em>. In 1248, Ferdinand III of Castile retook Seville, further diminishing Islamic control over Spain.<\/p>\n Muslims occupied Spain for nearly eight centuries, until January 1492, when the Catholic Monarchs, Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand of Aragon, captured Granada, the last Muslim stronghold on the Iberian Peninsula. This ended formal Muslim political rule in Iberia.<\/p>\n Like Pope Leo XIV, modern liberal academics, authors, and religious leaders consistently promote medieval Islamic Spain as having ushered in a \u201cGolden Age\u201d of great learning and human advancement\u2014a multicultural age that serves as an example for what could and should be replicated today. They claim that Islamic Spain was benevolent to, and tolerant of, its Christian and Jewish subjects. They present Islamic al-Andalus as the savior of medieval Europe and assert that Islamic Spain pulled Western Europe out of the Dark Ages by sparking the Renaissance.<\/p>\n Some examples include:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Many of the claims that are being peddled by liberal Westerners about Islamic tolerance in medieval Spain are demonstrably false and yet millions of people are being led to believe a lie about multicultural coexistence with Islam.<\/p>\n Image 2. The Alhambra Palace in Granada, the last stronghold of the Moors in Spain. Photo by Soeren Kern.<\/p><\/div>\n Before presenting evidence regarding the reality of life for non-Muslims in medieval Spain, a quick review of what Islamic doctrine says about Islam and non-Muslims (infidels) is in order.<\/p>\n Islam and its concepts, objectives, and terminology are derived from the Qur\u2019an, the Hadith (quotes by Muhammad), Sunnah (actions by Muhammad), and Islamic law (sharia).<\/p>\n The term Islam means \u201csubmission\u201d or \u201csurrender\u201d to the will of Allah. Islam does not mean \u201cpeace,\u201d as many claim, although the Arabic words for Islam and peace (salam<\/em>) do share the same three-letter root (s-l-m).<\/p>\n The Qur\u2019an teaches that: Islam is preeminent over all other religions (9:33); Islam is the only true religion of Allah (3:19); Islam is universal and should reign over all of humanity (34:27); the Muslim community (umma<\/em>) is perfect (3:110) and elected by Allah to rule over the world (35:37). This goal will be achieved by jihad (holy war), which is an obligation for all Muslims (2:216).<\/p>\n Islamic law divides the geopolitical world into two groups: Dar al-Islam (territory of Islam) and Dar al-Harb (territory of war). In other words, lands that are under Muslim rule and lands that are under non-Muslim rule.<\/p>\n Under Islamic jurisprudence, once a land becomes Islamic it is declared a waqf<\/em> (religious endowment) and ownership transfers to Allah. As such, it cannot be permanently transferred back to non-Muslim ownership. For this reason, many jihadists believe they have a right to reconquer Spain for Islam.<\/p>\n Islam divides people into two groups: Muslims (umma<\/em>) and unbelievers (kafir<\/em>, roughly equivalent to the Latin term infidel). In medieval Spain, Christian and Jews, the so-called People of the Book (monotheists), were dhimmis<\/em> (protected persons) and required to submit to Islam and pay an annual poll tax (jizya<\/em>). In general, the jizya tax required Christians to pay an annual tribute of one gold coin per person, plus quotas of barley, honey, vinegar, and wheat.<\/p>\n Although legally protected, they were second-class citizens and required to accept religious and cultural repression in all aspects of life. Because they could never have equal status with Muslims, the jizya<\/em> incentivized nominal Christians and Jews, including noblemen and elites, to convert to Islam.<\/p>\n Al-Andalus was governed by the Maliki school of Islamic jurisprudence, one of four major schools of Islamic law within Sunni Islam. The Maliki school was founded by Malik ibn Anas (c. 711\u2013795), a jurist in Medina, to prioritize the influence of the Umayyads over the Abbasids. Alongside the Hanafi, Hanbali, and Shafi\u2019i schools, the Maliki school provides a conservative methodology for interpreting the Qur\u2019an, and deciding practical questions of worship, family life, criminal justice, and public order.<\/p>\n In Islamic Spain, Christians faced systematic inequalities. They were heavily taxed, prohibited from proselytizing, and faced social restrictions aimed at humiliating non-Muslims.<\/p>\n In his landmark book, The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise<\/a>, historian Dar\u00edo Fern\u00e1ndez-Morera documents the \u201cbrutality,\u201d \u201cbrute force,\u201d and \u201cruthless methods\u201d with which the Muslims subjugated the Jewish and Catholic populations of Spain. He shows how Muslims systematically sacked Catholic cities and towns, demolished their churches, confiscated their property, enslaved them, and increased their taxes \u201cto finance the embellishment of al-Andalus.\u201d He further documents imprisonments, forced exiles, assassinations, and racial prejudice by Muslims against Jews and Christians. He explains<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cThe existence of a Muslim kingdom in Medieval Spain where different races and religions lived harmoniously in multicultural tolerance is one of today\u2019s most widespread myths. University professors teach it. Journalists repeat it. Tourists visiting the Alhambra accept it. It has reached the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal<\/em>, which sings the virtues of the \u201cpan-confessional humanism\u201d of Andalusian Spain (July 18, 2003). The Economist echoes the belief: \u201cMuslim rulers of the past were far more tolerant of people of other faiths than were Catholic ones (November 15, 2001)\u2026. The problem with this belief is that it is historically unfounded, a myth. The fascinating cultural achievements of Islamic Spain cannot obscure the fact that it was never an example of peaceful convivencia.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n Christian, Jewish, and Muslim sources document how the Muslim invaders burned churches and monasteries, destroyed castles, looted treasures, burned sacred Christian books, and took Christian women as sexual slaves.<\/p>\n The earliest known sources that document the Moorish conquest of Spain are the Byzantine-Arab Chronicle<\/em> of 741 and the Mozarabic Chronicle<\/em> of 754, both of which were written in Latin and provide details on the realities of Christian life under Muslim rule.<\/p>\n Following are some select examples documented by Fern\u00e1ndez-Morera and other sources, including the Spanish Arabist Francisco Javier Simonet (1829\u20131897), whose magisterial work about the reality of the daily life of Christians in al-Andalus was not published, even back then, for more than 30 years after it was written due to fears of offending Muslim sensibilities. His book, Historia de los moz\u00e1rabes en Espa\u00f1a<\/a>, was finally published in 1897, briefly before Simonet died.<\/p>\n Fern\u00e1ndez-Morera explained the why Muslims were required to dominate non-Muslims and why Islamic tolerance of infidels in al-Andalus was practically and theologically impossible:<\/p>\n \u201cMuslims in medieval Spain considered Islam the final and most perfect form of divine revelation. They also believed that the \u201cPeople of the Book\u201d\u2014Christians and Jews\u2014had strayed from the teachings of their Bible in various ways that rendered them religiously inferior to Muslims, who had kept the true faith. Given this conviction of superiority, Islam in medieval Spain could hardly be said to be \u201ctolerant\u201d of other religions. To prevent other faiths from contesting the religious and therefore political, social, and cultural supremacy of Islam, rulers and clerics endeavored to keep every type of hegemony over the \u201cPeople of the Book.\u201d\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Following are further examples of how non-Muslims in al-Andalus were discriminated against by their Muslim overlords:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n As has been shown, al-Andalus was not the multicultural paradise many progressive academics make it out to be. The Islamic overlords always considered Christians and Jews as inferior to Muslims. Non-Muslims were infidels and declared dhimmis<\/em>, (protected people) if they paid a special tax called jizya<\/em>. They were infidels (an English word used to translate the Arabic term kafir<\/em>, which broadly refers to anyone who does not accept the Islamic faith).<\/p>\n Over time, most of the native inhabitants of al-Andalus either fled to northern Spain, converted to Islam, or became dhimmis<\/em>. As a result, many Christian communities eventually ceased to exist as distinct religious entities.<\/p>\n Image 3. The Great Mosque of Cordoba, built on the ruins of a Visigothic Christian church in 785, is one of the oldest remaining structures from al-Andalus. Photo by Soeren Kern.<\/p><\/div>\n Modern Spain appears to have learned little from its former history as the only Islamic state in Western Europe. Today, Muslim immigrants are pouring into the country at breakneck speed, and nothing is being done to halt the demographic and cultural transformation of the country that the 800-year Reconquest of Spain worked so hard to stop.<\/p>\n In 1975, there were only 2,277 Moroccan residents in Spain, according<\/a> to data from the Moroccan Consulate in Madrid. Fifty years later, that number has increased to 1.2 million, an increase of 53,000 percent.<\/p>\n Overall, there are now an estimated 2.5 million Muslims in Spain (of course, there is no way of knowing exactly how many illegal Muslim immigrants are currently present in Spain), roughly five percent of the total population, according to the March 2026 study, \u201cDemography of Islam in Spain<\/a>.\u201d Of this group, approximately 1.8 million are first-generation immigrants, and 680,000 were born in Spain to at least one Muslim parent.<\/p>\n According to the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE), eleven percent of babies born in Spain in 2024 had at least one Muslim parent.<\/p>\n The Muslim population is unevenly distributed across Spain. In absolute terms, the largest Muslim populations in Spain are concentrated in Catalonia, Andalusia, and the Valencian Community. In relative terms, Murcia, Catalonia, and La Rioja stand out. In these three regions, 19 percent of those born in 2024 had at least one Muslim parent. By province, this percentage rose to 28 percent in Almer\u00eda, 27 percent in Girona, 25 percent in Lleida, 23 percent in Tarragona, and 22 percent in \u00c1lava.<\/p>\n Foreign-born Muslims now represent around eight percent of men aged 20 to 44 in Spain. This age group is demographically relevant because it accounts for a large proportion of births. In some provinces this this percentage is far higher: Almer\u00eda (24 percent), Lleida (22 percent), Girona (18 percent), Tarragona (16 percent), Murcia (15 percent), and Huesca, Teruel, and Huelva (13 percent).<\/p>\n Approximately 85 percent of first-generation Muslim immigrants come from Africa, and nearly 65 percent were born in Morocco. After Morocco, the countries of origin with the largest Muslim populations are: Pakistan, Senegal, Algeria, Mali, Gambia, and Bangladesh.<\/p>\n The study highlighted that the fertility rate of Muslim women in Spain is far higher than that of Spanish women and non-Muslim immigrants. Statistics show that Muslims in Spain have far higher rates of unemployment, poverty, and crime, than non-Muslims.<\/p>\n Mass migration from the Muslim world continues to cast a spotlight on the problem of Islamic extremism in Catalonia (of which Barcelona is the capital), which has the largest Muslim population in Spain. The region is home to an estimated 700,000 Muslims, or roughly ten percent of the total Catalan population.<\/p>\n Catalonia, controlled for decades by radical separatists who seek independence from Spain, has deliberately imported hundreds of thousands of Muslim immigrants due to reasons of linguistics. Immigrants from Latin America speak Spanish, but in an effort to increase the number of speakers of Catalan, Muslim immigrants are preferred because they do not speak Spanish and are thus more likely to learn Catalan rather than Spanish.<\/p>\n The result of this linguistic policy has had devastating results. According to leaked diplomatic cables<\/a> from the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, Catalonia has become a \u201cprime base of operations\u201d Islamic terrorists and a \u201cinternational magnet for terrorist recruiters.\u201d One cable warned<\/a> that the influx of large numbers of North African immigrants \u201cis changing the profile of Spain-based Islamic extremists, creating a large pool of young, alienated men available for recruitment.\u201d<\/p>\n In his book Jihadism: The Radical Islamic Threat to Catalonia<\/a>, the Catalan terrorism analyst Jofre Montoto estimated that at least ten percent of the Muslims in Catalonia are \u201cradicals\u201d who are hardcore believers in the \u201cdoctrine of jihadism.\u201d He described Catalonia, which constitutes an important transit point and destination for migration flows, as the \u201cMediterranean corridor of jihadism.\u201d<\/p>\n The July 2026 migrant invasion of Ceuta, a Spanish exclave in northern Africa, where more than 70,000 people illegally crossed the border into Spain, shows that Muslim migration into Spain continues at a relentless pace and is unstoppable unless Spanish authorities take effective measures to stop the onslaught. Strangely, no mainstream political party in Spain, left or right, seems ready to stop the permanent Islamization of Spain, one of the oldest countries in Europe.<\/p>\n Five centuries after Spanish monarchs succeeded in ousting the Islamic presence in Spain, one of the largest countries in Christendom, millions of immigrants from the Muslim world are now arriving unabated. Parallel societies are proliferating, crime rates are skyrocketing, and Spanish women and girls increasingly are the victims of sexual attacks. Muslims, rather than assimilating, are demanding special privileges. Any yet, the general population overwhelmingly appears to believe the false narrative that Spain and the rest of Europe benefits from mass migration from the Muslim world\u2014the uncontrolled influx of people who are culturally alien and non-integratable.<\/p>\nThe Truth About Al-Andauls<\/h2>\n
Introduction<\/strong><\/h3>\n
A Brief History of Islamic Spain<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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An Islamic Golden Age?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Infidels, Jihad, Dhimmitude<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Myth of the Andalusian Paradise<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Other Examples of Moorish \u201cTolerance\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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The Re-Islamization of Spain<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Conclusion<\/strong><\/h3>\n