The Eternal Glass Ceiling :: The Neo-Reconquista

The Spaniards Attack

Nearly an hour passed as they journeyed through the narrow passage causing Ashiq to grow weary of the close quarters. They were so deep inside the temple that the only sounds they could hear were their footsteps tapping along the stone foundation. The silence was so unsettling for the young boy so he tried to occupy his thoughts with the memorable moments that he spent in Spain before the social unrest of The Reconquista. Ashiq had made many Spanish friends. His parents allowed him to play with Arabs, Africans, Jews and Europeans without any discrimination despite the rumors that were circulating around Europe, courtesy of the high church. The clergyman perpetuated rumors stating that the Jews were the cause of the black plague epidemic. They also spread rumors that God was punishing Europe because Europeans were harboring the Jews; the people that they believed to be responsible for the death of The Lord's son, Jesus Christ.

When those rumors were not fully acknowledged by the public, they perpetuated even more frightening propaganda such as the Jews were a race of demonic beings who ritually sacrificed and consumed the blood of Christian men, women and children. The manufacturing of these canards became even more prevalent when the European church fell in great debt to the Jewish financiers that came to Spain under the jurisdiction of the Moors. To avoid paying the hefty debts, the high priests needed the Jews banished from Europe along with the Moors; which included Africans and Arabs. It was just a matter of when and how it would be executed as they constantly sought justification to carry out their actions.

Nevertheless, the Jews ate over at the Zamora residence and went fishing with them regularly. They did almost everything together except religious rituals. Which was understandable because of the opposing beliefs that Jews and Muslims upheld. Some times Ashiq wished that their were no religious barriers between the Jews, the Arabs and the Europeans. But centuries of traditional practices could never be revoked with just one simple paradigm shift. It would take a long tedious process that would span for generations, and even still there would be those who would still maintain their dogmatic beliefs.

When the social unrest of The Reconquista had escalated. Even more barriers were drawn between The Arabs, The Jews and The Europeans. The only friends Ashiq retained were the Jews, and the Africans. Mainly because they were both discriminated against. The canards about the Jews were egregious, but the myths propagated about the darker skinned Africans were even worst. The Europeans thought the darkness of the African's pigment to not just be a product of geographical location and exposure to the sunlight, but a linkage to sin itself. Thus utilizing the biblical text to attribute the curse of Ham upon the Africans.

They believed that the descendants of Ham were cursed by God for looking upon the nakedness of his father, Noah. This curse would forever force the descendants of Ham to be as servants to his brethren, Shem and Japeth. The iconography of this story was not just viewed as a religious one, but as one that conveyed the markers of race. These factors would later be used as a justification to enslave many African peoples. As for the Muslims, it was evident that many European christians disagreed with their religious beliefs, however they two could not evade the color-coding parallels. In some medieval romance epics, the good Muslims were often described as white and bad ones as black-skinned. The "white muslims" that were deemed as the "good muslims" were permitted to intermarriage in European society, whereas the "black muslims" were frowned upon, and viewed as vile, repulsive, villainous, brutes. The racial lines were being drawn as social constructs formulated.

The presence of Ashiq's Spanish friends began to dwindle more and more as the social tension grew worst. His mother, Nazia Zamora grew skeptical of his Spaniard company. Even still, Ashiq never adopted her prejudice views towards the Spanish because he realized the true reason that his mother was bitter towards The Europeans could be traced back prior to the reconquista. This reason had nothing to do with the high church, politics or anything outside of their household. This reason was because his father had a adopted a European concubine [surriyya].