Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
after Muslims from North Africa conquered Catholic Spain, Spain eventually triumphed,
but was irrevocably changed in the process. Where civilizations meet, there are risks…and
rewards. It can be dangerous, it can be fertile, and it shapes history.
Later that day—still pondering Islam and Christendom rubbing like tectonic plates—I
stepped into a small Catholic church. Throughout Spain, churches display statues of a
hero called “St. James the Moor-Slayer.” And every Sunday, good 21st-century Christians
sit—probably listening to sermons about tolerance—under this statue of James, his sword
raised, heroic on his rearing horse, with the severed heads of Muslims tumbling all around
him. It becomes even more poignant when you realize that the church is built upon the
ruins of a mosque, which was built upon the ruins of a church, which was built upon the
ruins of a Roman temple, which was built upon the ruins of an earlier pagan holy place.
Standing in that church, it occurred to me that friction between Christendom and Islam is
nothing new—and nothing we can't overcome. But it's more than the simple shoot-'em-
up with good guys and bad guys, as often presented to us by politicians and the media.
Travel, along with a sense of history, helps us better understand its full complexity.
