Anti-Islam symbol worn by spanish troops in Iraq

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
1

A row broke out in Spain yesterday after the country sent its first troops to patrol Iraq wearing on their shoulders the Cross of St James of Compostela - popularly known in Spain as “the Moor Killer”.

Patches bearing the cross, the symbol of a saint who allegedly guided the medieval Christian re conquista of Spain from the Muslims, are to be worn by a 2,000-strong Spanish brigade in central Iraq, who will patrol the sacred Shia city of Najaf.

While newspapers and radio stations reacted with astonishment at the choice of symbol, politicians avoided the argument.

“If we start debating this subject the risks surrounding the mission will only be increased,” said a spokesman from the opposition Socialist party, Jesus Caldera.

Spaniards, unaccustomed to seeing their soldiers take part in what many see as an army of occupation, already view the Iraq mission with concern.

The deaths of more than 40 US and British soldiers since the Iraq war was officially declared over has increased worries about the prime minister Jose Maria Aznar’s willingness to help the countries whose troops ousted Saddam Hussein.

“To put the Cross of St James of Compostela on the uniforms of Spanish soldiers supposes an absolute ignorance of the society in which they will have to carry out their mission,” fumed El Mundo newspaper in an editorial.

“It would be difficult to come up with any symbol more offensive to the Shia population than this cross.”

Comment:

How nice to see that the non muslim crusaders are making clear to everyone who follows the news that they are here for certain objectives:

To divide and occupy muslim land

To stop the resurgence of Islam as a political ideology

To steal the resources of the muslims

To spread western ideas into the muslim ummah

And finally to kill as many muslims as possible.

2

The Spanish must of been taught by the Americans and told that the badge is a goodwill gesture!

Let's see how many survive out there.

3

:konfused: Weren’t Muslims the crusaders who invaded and conquered Spain before they were kicked back out?

4

No it were the Mus-lim Moors under whom the Jews and Christians lived peacefully and prosfered and that was the time in which the great city of Cordoba became the educational center of Europe.

But ofcourse the Spanish Inquisition happened by the crus-aders, and the Jews and Moors were ex-terminated by european christians

And please read the article below = before you talk about something you don’t know.
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/society/A0858834.html

Proud history of Europeans = Cru-sades, Colonialism, Slavery, Impe-rialism, Spanish Inquisition, Holo-caust etc

5

hahahha :smiley: Cru-saders were christians who fought on the order of the Catholic pope. There is no such thing as a Mus-lim Crusa-der. :slight_smile: That just shows that you don’t know what your talking about.

Read this http://www.infoplease.com/ipd/A0394504.html

6

Thanks for the uneeded vocabulary lesson. Terms are used usely around here and I’m just following the trend. I find violence in the name or the spread of religion to possibly be the worst sin.

The term Crusader is used a lot to criticize the violence in Christianity’s past. I use the term to show the equivalence to the violence sometimes employed in the spread of Islam. If the American government can be called terrorist then surely Muslim armies can be referred to as Crusaders.

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Nice way to try and derail the subject with semantics.

The fundamental question - does anyone here deny that Spain has chosen to send forces to Iraq wearing a symbol that celebrates the defeat of Muslims, and the complete replacement of Islam in a land with a different belief system?

What kind of statement does that give regarding Coalition intentions for Iraq, when a portion of the Coalition patrols is wandering around proudly wearing symbols celebrating the defeat of Muslims and their (often forced) conversion to Christianity?

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i agree you are confused . So muslims invaded spain centuries ago lets invade muslims countries now? I hope only your politicians come out with that statement, it will make things so much easier.

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I see nothing wrong with the spanish identifying with someone who kicked beacisally foreigners out of their country. what is hub, bub?

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Matsui: *
I see nothing wrong with the spanish identifying with someone who kicked beacisally foreigners out of their country. what is hub, bub?
[/QUOTE]

Then you should see nothing wrong with the Ir-aqis identifying with someone who are kicking bacisally foreigners(white boys) out of their country. Fair enough ?

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They are not trying to defeat the Muslims (as they did when kicking out the foreign invaders from Spain). They are trying to help defeat the thugs and terrorists for the benefit of Iraqi people. Something no one else has taken the responsibility to do.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Matsui: *
I see nothing wrong with the spanish identifying with someone who kicked beacisally foreigners out of their country. what is hub, bub?
[/QUOTE]

so is it fair enough for parvaiz musharraf to wear osamabin ladin t-shirt while visiting america............

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Seminole,

Mus-lims were not trying to defeat the christians in spain. They were trying to help defeat the thugs and evil people for the benefit of spanish people. Something no one else had taken the responsibility to do. :D

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The purpose is to give the country and a representative government to the people of Iraq, something they've never had. The purpose of kicking the Moors out of Spain was to gain their country back. If you can't see the difference, sorry, I can't hold your eyelids open.

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seminole,

I can't hold your eyelids open, if you can't recognize your colonial mentality. Your excuses are the exact one which the colonial people gave to native people.

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Not to ruin this victimolgoy thread, but we have more important things to worry about then patches on spanish uniforms.

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Seminole, may be you want to polish up on your history, Muslims were never called crusaders. This term has been exclusively used for the christians.

Kicked back out or slaughtered ? Again ignornat comment.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Seminole: *
The purpose is to give the country and a representative government to the people of Iraq, something they've never had. The purpose of kicking the Moors out of Spain was to gain their country back. If you can't see the difference, sorry, I can't hold your eyelids open.
[/QUOTE]

Semi-mole, What exactly do you say when Iraqis say we want to kick US out of the country so we can have our country back?

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Imdad Ali: *
Not to ruin this victimolgoy thread, but we have more important things to worry about then patches on spanish uniforms.
[/QUOTE]

Oh no dont raise a voice of concern. If it was something related to a shia , Imdad sahib will be all over it. He will try to tell us how insensitive this behavior is agianst the supressed people. Just because it does not meet his "victim mentality" he has other things to worry about.

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Majority of Iraqis are Shias, so I don't know what you mean.

It's just that I don't think Spanish troops will go there and start killing people left and right because of their patch.