Imperial Dreams Die Hard In Muslim Lands

If a Western commentator were to connect the pro-Palestinian protests seen on American universities over the past year to Muslim attempts to conquer the world one might consider that commentator to be Islamophobic or ignorant or both. But that is the connection that Kuwaiti Muslim Brotherhood leader Tareq Al-Suwaidan made in a recent speech. He wanted to boast that it was Muslim youth that had led the protests in the West and had mobilized non-Muslims to join. Al-Suwaidan used the occasion to not only remind Muslims that they would fight the Jews during the End Times but that they would also conquer Rome, "the real Rome, in Italy" as promised by Muhammad.[1]

Turkish Religious Affairs Minister Ali Erbaş delivers a sermon with an Ottoman sword at the Hagia Sophia Mosque, July 2020.

The contemporary language of Islamic and Islamist discourse is rife with dreams of conquest, not just spiritual conquest but physical, real ones. You can find instances of such language in the broadcasts of Al-Jazeera as well as in the discourse of religious figures. While some in the West look at domestic politics and raise the alarm about nationalist or supremacist or blood-and-soil language in Western lands, they seem less interested when it comes in the languages of the Middle East.

In January 2024, the influential International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) held a symposium at the Sheraton Doha Hotel (IUMS is funded by Qatar) on the "Al-Aqsa Flood and the Role of the Umma." Among the speakers was Turkish cleric Mehmet Görmez, who spoke on "From Granada To Gaza: The Reasons For The Backwardness Of Muslims In Supporting The Besieged." Görmez contrasted the plight of the Gazans with that of the Muslims of Southern Spain (Al-Andalus) in the 15th and 16th centuries who expected help from their North African Muslim brethren that never came and from the Ottoman Turks who made several insufficient military efforts to help the Muslims of Granada. The Turkish cleric hoped that the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, which so galvanized the world's Muslims, would ensure that the Muslims of Gaza will not be studied in the future by "our grandchildren" as "our failure in Granada and Al-Andalus are." Görmez is not just any Turkish cleric but was from 2010 to 2017 the head of Diyanet, the powerful Turkish government Directorate of Religious Affairs, and a close ally of Turkey's Islamist President Erdogan. Under Görmez, Diyanet's budget quadrupled and its influence both inside Turkey and overseas strengthened. In 2020, he attacked Orthodox Christians and Pope Francis for "feeling pain" at the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque.[2]

Not surprising given the close ties between Qatari-funded IUMS and Qatari-funded Al-Jazeera, the pan-Arab network drew upon the same Al-Andalus-Gaza comparison in an article posted on Al-Jazeera's website on May 11, 2024, by Mohamed Shaaban Ayoub titled "Between Palestine and Al-Andalus...Moriscos Facing Genocide and the Inquisition."[3] Ayoub compares the Catholic kings of Spain to the Jews of Palestine, both wiping out the local Muslims, in what he calls "the Tragedy of Al-Andalus" (Osama bin Laden used the same phrase). In the past it was the Pope and Catholic rulers, today it is the United States and the Jews who persecute Islam. For Ayoub the comparisons are apt: "The Moriscos ' experience has provided us with many painful historical details about the collapse and withering of a civilization, but it has also provided us with an important historical experience through which we can foresee the fate of the future in this West's dealing with the Palestinian issue, which it wants to completely erase from the map of existence in favor of the West's stepdaughter and servant of its goals (Israel)."[4]

This is, of course, a skewed version of history. The Muslims invaded and conquered Spain and were eventually expelled from Spain by Spanish Christians. Most of the Jews of Israel are themselves of Middle Eastern origin and expelled from Middle East countries by their Muslim rulers. But this is neither journalism nor scholarship but advocacy. The same author wrote a piece for Al-Jazeera celebrating the slave girls of Al-Andalus, a Muslim society largely built on the enslavement of non-Muslims.[5]

The spirit of conquest and Islamic supremacism is even to be found in the most innocuous of places. The ostensibly non-political Egyptian YouTuber Mohamed Eid, with more than 2.3 million subscribers on his YouTube channel dedicated to "stories of the beauties of our planet" recorded a video travelogue in March 2024 visiting the Spanish city of Cordoba, once capital of the Umayyad Caliphate of Al-Andalus. The video, which has 1.7 million views, features his sarcastic commentary on not being allowed to pray in the Catholic cathedral at Cordoba – once a mosque – and on the Christian "polytheism" (shirk) taking place in the former mosque.[6]

For Gaza, or Palestine, "to fall" would be like Al-Andalus falling all over again.[7] But even though Al-Andalus fell, some harbor hopes for its recovery from the infidel. Once again, Al-Jazeera leads the way. Al-Jazeera devoted an entire episode of their popular "Atheer" podcast to a Spanish Andalusian family, the Romeros, "reverting" to Islam, an event made possible by Spain's religious freedom laws after 1978 – after Franco regime restrictions were removed. Of course, Qatar and most Muslim countries have no such religious freedom laws. But here again the producers make the dubious connection of the Spanish Inquisition persecuting crypto Muslims with "the Israeli occupation" supposedly doing the same to the Palestinian Muslims of today.[8]

In the eyes of these Islamists – Turkish, Qatari, Egyptian, whatever – not only are both occupations linked, both are equally illegitimate and, no matter how long ago they took place, they are a reality that should not only be mourned but should be reversed. The "Muslims" in question – Moors or Palestinians – are always the victims, never the invaders or aggressors. These are the loveliest of imperial dreams, for they are fantasies.

*Alberto M. Fernandez is Vice President of MEMRI.