real expert
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Great. Now we have an apologist for anti-semitism here. This site is going down every day.
First of all, you contradict yourself out of your own mouth.
You admitted the northern kingdoms adopted Christianity BEFORE the Muslim invasion. Second of all, you don't know your own history. In the 500s most of Spain was already Christian, not pagan.
"There is some archaeological evidence of Christianity slowly penetrating the Peninsula from Rome and Roman Mauretania via major cities and ports, especially Tarragona, since the early 2nd century. The Paleo-Christian Necropolis of Tarragona, with 2,050 discovered tombs, dates back to the second half of the 3rd century. Saints like Eulalia of Mérida or Barcelona and many others are believed to have been martyred during the Decian or Diocletianic Persecutions (3rd–early 4th centuries). Bishops like Basílides of Astorga, Marcial of Mérida or the influential Hosius of Corduba were active in the same period.Theodosius I issued decrees that effectively made Nicene Christianity the official state church of the Roman Empire.,[87][88] This Christianity was already an early form of Catholicism.
The 7th-century Visigothic church of San Pedro de la Nave
As Rome declined, Germanic tribes invaded most of the lands of the former empire. In the years following 410 the Visigoths—who had converted to Arian Christianity around 360—occupied what is now Spain and Portugal. The Visigothic Kingdom established its capital in Toledo; it reached its high point during the reign of Leovigild (568-586). Visigothic rule led to a brief expansion of Arianism in Spain, however the native population remained staunchly Catholic.[citation needed] In 587 Reccared, the Visigothic king at Toledo, converted to Catholicism and launched a movement to unify doctrine. The Council of Lerida in 546 constrained the clergy and extended the power of law over them under the blessings of Rome. The multiple Councils of Toledo definitively established what would be later known as the Catholic Church in Spain and contributed to define Catholicism elsewhere."
Third of all, the reason the Jews were money lenders was because the Church at the time made borrowing money at interest a sin. Then they realized you couldn't have commerce, trade, growth of the economy without borrowing money so they told the Jews to do it. The biggest borrowers from the Jews were the Kings for their armies and for the aristocrats. Then, when they couldn't pay they fomented the riots by the ignorant poor, although the incentive to kill the people to whom you owe money when you can't pay it back is obvious. Even if money lending wasn't what they wanted to do, they had few options because they were forbidden to own land. In Italy they once had thriving estates, there's proof in my own area, but the Church forced the state to, in effect, steal them. The Visigothic rulers of Spain enforced these and other discriminatory decrees. No wonder the Jews turned on them and welcomed the Muslims; they hoped things would be better and more tolerant under them, and they were. I would have done the same thing. When you totally mistreat people, how do you have the gall to hate them for turning on you? The fault also lay with ignorant, barely literate priests preaching Jews were Christ killers without even acknowledging that the Christ and Mary and most of the saints to whom they prayed were all Jews. How could any rational interpretation of Christianity lead to the conclusion that Christ would have wanted the people into whom he was born and whose teachings sprang from Judaism killed.
It's all complete nonsense, and to try to excuse it away is an abomination.
I also think you clearly haven't looked at the yDna of the Iberian peninsula, or contemplated why the genetics of the Pais Vasco, and more so, the French Basques of whom they once probably formed a part, is different from the majority of the Spanish people. As just one example, get info on the distribution of J1 and E-M81 in Iberia. Is it huge? No, for obvious reasons, but it's there.
Before you post it would be nice if you educated yourself about the topic, including the history of your own country.
I agree with many things you've said. However, the Quran does have stories similar to that of gospel and has stories from other non-canonical, Apocrypha, such as the infant gospels, but nothing straight from the New Testament. The Quran contains more stories and rules from the Torah, though. Ancient Arabia like Northern Africa was full of unorthodox Christians, so-called heretics. Hence, Islam was most likely influenced by Arianism who was very widespread in ancient times. From the Christian perspective, Islam is an antagonistic religion because it denies the core and fundamental teachings of Christianity, such as the divinity of Christ, the Trinity, the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of the Christ.
The thing is, that when the early Christians were in a vulnerable situation and a minority the Jewish believers behaved hostile toward them. Keep in mind, that Nero or other Roman pagan emperors didn‘t persecute the Jews but the Christians that were considered a highly suspicious sect/cult from Judea. The Jews were in a much better position than the Christians in Roman times. With that being said, Claudius, the Roman emperor ordered the expulsion of the Jews from Rome. So, not only Christians but Pagan Romans also expelled the Jews, at least temporarily. Expulsion as bad as it, is about getting rid of people without killing them. Besides, the New Testament is full of clashes between the first Christians, the Jewish authority, and faithful Jews. Again there were conflicts between Christians and Jews long before Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire or the Catholic Church, the most dominant institution in Europe. Anyway, in the Golden Age of Muslim Iberia, for much of the time, the three groups/religions managed to get along together, and to some extent, to benefit from the presence of each other. With that being said, even in tolerant Muslim Spain Christians were second-class people. It appears that many liberal scholars think that somehow it was okay for Muslims back then to treat Christians as second-class people, let them pay the Jizya, and turn them into dhimmi. Furthermore, not all the Muslim rulers of Spain were tolerant. Almanzor, for example, looted churches and imposed strict restrictions. We live in times where criticizing Islam is islamophobic, calling out people who happened to be Jewish is inherently anti-Semitic (or disagreeing with people of color is racist). In contrast to that, when Christians and Christianity are bashed, their religion vilified it‘s called progressive and critical thinking. Christianity is the most attacked religion yet there is no word about Christophobia. So, if criticizing Islam, Judaism is automatically hate as the PC brigade say, why is Christianity under non-stop scrutiny by the same folks yet this doesn't mean hate? This kind of double standard bugs me a lot. Futhermore, some modern scholars have recently corrected all the exaggerated or misconstrued tales about the Spanish inquisition, witch hunts, the Catholic Church/Christianity being anti-science, and Christian Medieval Europe being dark, that for years were taught and are still being taught in many schools or colleges as factual.
Yes, the Jewish people were oppressed in Christian Europe, but anti-Semitic writings and views existed in Pagan Rome, so prior to Christianity, too. Roman and Greek writers wrote pieces that sounded like a textbook for anti-Semites. Read Tacitus, or Cicero, for instance. Besides, I totally understand where you're coming from: There is a real, dangerous, and ugly anti-Semitism and hatred towards Jews out there which has to be dealed with zero tolerance. That said, not everybody who doesn‘t only praise but says critical things about Jewish historical people or individuals is an anti-Semite by default. We need discernment here. Let Gaska bring up his arguments, we can debate him and if necessary correct him, but calling him an apologist for anti-Semitism will put him only on the corner. Who knows, maybe Gaska merely wants to protect and defend his Christian heritage that is under massive attack by the liberal leftists in Spain who romanticize the Islamic past at the expense of Christianity. To these leftists everything bad and wrong is on the side of the Christians, native Europeans and everything, noble, good and right on the side of the Muslims. For instance, one left-wing Portuguese minister said that Islam is the soul of Portugal as if Catholicism wasn't deeply rooted in Portugal.
