An Accurate Knowledge of History - the Christianists' and Demagogues' Worse Enemy

The far right is continuing to endeavor to whip the GOP base and others into an anti-Muslim frenzy by ranting about building a mosque close to the former New York World Trade Center site. Never mind that the proposed structure is actually a community center that could be used by non-Muslim residents of surrounding area of Manhattan. Why let accurate facts, historical or otherwise, get in the way of demagoguery. Newt Gingrich - the thrice married and twice divorced and now new Catholic - has joined the fray and is disseminating more false rhetoric to heat up matters and pander to the Christianist base of the GOP. Never mind that his historical facts are seriously wrong and that during the correct time period of the incident he claims to describe, the Muslim rulers in Cordoba Spain (pictured nowadays above) allowed freedom of religion - something that neither the Christianists nor the modern day Islamic fundamentalists will tolerate. The sad truth is that if modern day Americans knew their history - a subject slighted all too frequently in our schools - this type of demagoguery would never fly. Ditto for the Christianist efforts to portray the United States as having been founded as a "Christian nation." Here are highlights from Got Medieval, a blog that seeks to provide correct historical detail as opposed to the slip shod and/or deliberately false history that is popular with folks like Gingrich:
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There are any number of reasons why an American might oppose the Cordoba House, the planned $100 million Muslim-financed community center that has come to be known in the press as the "Ground Zero mosque." I don't think any of them are particularly good reasons. . . .
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Last week,* Newt Gingrich released a Newt Direct statement at Newt.org concerning the project. As you may have heard, he's somewhat opposed to it. And to explain why, he offered this history lesson: . . . . It refers to Cordoba, Spain – the capital of Muslim conquerors who symbolized their victory over the Christian Spaniards by transforming a church there into the world’s third-largest mosque complex. [...I]n fact, every Islamist in the world recognizes Cordoba as a symbol of Islamic conquest.
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The problem is that the conquest that Gingrich claims to describe was (1) against other Muslims and (2) occurred 300 years before ho claims and (3) did nothing to end religious tolerance in Cordoba at the time. But hey, Newt's a Republican and now a allegedly conservative Catholic, so what's some major lying? Truth be told, that for those who genuine, accurate history, it is easy to expose the lies of those like Gingrich who bet that their listeners will not know that they are being lied to. Here are highlights of the REAL TRUTH:
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Notice how carefully he's [Newt's] phrased his claim to give the impression that during the medieval conquest of Spain the Muslims charged into Cordoba and declared it the capital of a new Muslim empire, and in order to add insult to injury seized control of a Christian church and built the biggest mosque they could, right there in front of the Christians they'd just conquered, a big Muslim middle finger in the heart of medieval Christendom.
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The problem is, in order to give that impression of immediacy, Newt elides three-hundred years of Christian and Muslim history. Three-hundred years. The Muslims conquered Cordoba in 712. The Christian church that was later transformed into the Great Mosque of Cordoba apparently continued hosting Christian worship for at least a generation after that. Work on the Mosque didn't actually begin until seventy-odd years later in 784, . . .
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Muslim historians writing about the Great Mosque don't point to it as a symbol of Muslim triumph over Christians; rather, they treat it primarily as a symbol of Muslim victory over other Muslims.
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Keep in mind that when ground was broken on the Great Mosque, the vast majority of the men who had been personally responsible for conquering the Iberian peninsula were long dead and most of their sons were dead, too.
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The mosque was indeed begun in the wake of a Muslim conquest--just not the conquest of the Christians. Rather, it was ordered built by the Umayyad emir Abd-ar-Ramman I, probably in part to commemorate his successful conquest of Cordoba in the 750's, fought against other Muslim chieftains, . . .
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Most standard histories of Cordoba will note that the Great Mosque is built on the site of the Basilica of St Vincent, Martyr, a Visigothic church that was itself built on the ruins of a Roman pagan temple. Muslim historians of the late tenth century tell that Abd-ar-Ramman bought the church from the Christian congregation after sharing it with them for fifty years "following the example of Abu Ubayda and Khalid, according to the judgement of Caliph Umar in partitioning Christian churches like that of Damascus and other [cities] that were taken of peaceful accord". The Christians, we're told, took their money and relocated their church to the outskirts of Cordoba.
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[M]aybe [Newt's] his priest ought to direct him to read a little thing called "The Catholic Encyclopedia". Allow me to quote from the 1917 edition (which has the virtue of being in the public domain and easily searchable) and its entry on Cordoba: In 786 the Arab caliph, Abd-er Rahman I, began the construction of the great mosque of Cordova, now the cathedral, and compelled many Christians to take part in the preparation of the site and foundations. Though they suffered many vexations, the Christians continued to enjoy freedom of worship, and this tolerant attitude of the ameers seduced not a few Christians from their original allegiance. Both Christians and Arabs co-operated at this time to make Cordova a flourishing city, the elegant refinement of which was unequalled in Europe.
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So it's easy to see why a group of Muslims creating a community center in the heart of a majority Christian country in a city known for its large Jewish population might name it "The Cordoba House" . . . they're hoping to associate themselves with a particular time in medieval history when the largest library in Western Europe was to be found in Cordoba, a city in which scholars of all three major Abrahamic religions were free to study side-by-side.
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Knowing the real history shows all too clearly that Newt is a liar. The only question that remains is whether or not he's lying deliberately or merely parroting the lies he heard uttered by other Christianists and anti-Muslim Republicans. Of course, if Americans knew real history, they'd immediately know that Newt's a liar. There are those that question the need to study and know history. This is an example of why it is so important: if you know history, you won't be duped by liars, and as a nation we can hopefully avoid repeating history's worse aspects.