Jews and Muslims in Contemporary Spain by Martina L. Weisz

Author:Martina L. Weisz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Published: 2019-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

5.2 Islamophobia and Border Anxiety

According to Christiane Stallaert, the “Moor” is the “Other catalyst of Spanish ethnic conscience,” the “quintessence of the foreigner.” In her opinion, the year 711, in which the Christian forces from the north of the Iberian Peninsula initiated the eight centuries long “Reconquista” (Re-conquest) of the southern territories under Muslim control, marked the starting point of Spanish ethno-genesis. Since then, “in situations of contact with Islam, the Spaniard keeps defining himself as essentially Christian.”458

Like the Jews, Iberian Muslims had to choose between conversion and exile at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Unlike the Jews, those who had converted as well as their descendants (the Moriscos) were also expelled from Spanish territory between 1609 and 1614.459 As observed by Stallaert, this decision, taken against the will of the Vatican, was “unique in the history of Christianity since it was the expulsion of a Christian community from Christian territory.”460 This policy was reinforced during the years that followed through ‘blood purity statutes’ (estatutos de limpieza de sangre) that explicitly discriminated against the descendants of Muslims and Jews until the nineteenth century. It structured a “biological Catholicism” that was officially sanctioned in Spain for the last time during the Franco dictatorship (1939–1975).461 According to Joshua Goode, Spain was in fact the “first racial state.”462

Although the descendants of both Jews and Muslims were considered “impure” and unredeemable, the otherness of each group has historically been differentiated in some important aspects. According to Christiane Stallaert, the principle of blood purity was based on the theological argument that baptism could not clean the “stain” of Jews nor Muslims’ “original sin.” In the case of the Jews, their “perverse morality” had manifested in the act of deicide. As for the Muslims, they were considered descendants of Hagar the slave, and therefore seen as a “bastard lineage, slave, unworthy of ruling or filling important positions.”463 This theological framework corresponded with the marginal place that Muslims and Moriscos had in Christian Spain from the Middle Ages until their expulsion. Unlike the case of the Jews, the lifting of the social and economic restrictions through baptism did not lead to an outstanding accession of Muslim converts to the highest socio-economic positions. The Moriscos, like their Muslim ancestors, filled mainly the role of a cheap labor force in the agrarian sector and the small trades.464

These early forms of Muslim otherness were reinforced with “Orientalist” elements during Spain’s expansionist program in northern Africa, particularly during the 19th and 20th centuries. The Spanish version of European Orientalism perpetuated and reinforced a series of preconceptions concerning Muslims that were already prevalent. Seen as exotic, the darkness of their skin was often symbolically associated with the darkness of evil. Muslims were often perceived as inferior to the Spaniards, and yet considered a dangerous threat. They were seen as fanatic, wild, lascivious and cruel. Also, the societies they formed were described as backward and repressive, particularly towards women.465

However, the negative images and stereotypes have historically coexisted with changing forms of Islamophilia.

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