We Are All Moors: Ending Centuries of Crusades Against Muslims and Other Minorities

In his latest, University of New England professor Majid (A Call For Heresy: Why Dissent is Vital to Islam and America) traces the history of the Moors, the Muslim minority that suffered horribly for centuries in Europe, in the context of Western minority persecution throughout history. Majid begins with the 1609 edict to expel the Muslims, considered a religious threat, from Spain. European Jewry faced similar efforts in the 15th century and in WWII, and Majid finds that a national legacy of tragic discrimination makes it more likely to occur: ""The Moor... continues to haunt nations and drive them into violent outbursts of intolerance."" Majid draws much-needed comparisons between events leading to atrocities like the Spanish Inquisition and present attitudes and trends, including growing disdain for Muslims in Europe and Hispanics in the U.S. Further, he shows how nations are strengthened by the acceptance and integration of the foreign (as is the trend, following initial xenophobic fits, in the U.S.), while cultural expulsion and/or cleansing hurts people and states (as in Germany's post-WWII ""occupation and dismemberment""). With this intriguing historical analysis, Majid sounds a clear warning against the West's latest slide toward cultural scapegoating.