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BBC World Service episode link

The borders between Christendom and the Islamic world have shifted for over a millennium, and at several key moments has erupted into war.

The list of combatants from the past includes: Richard the Lionheart, Saladin, Suleiman the Magnificent, the Mahdi, Gordon of Khartoum and now George W Bush and Osama bin Laden.

The Crescent and the Cross, a four-part series, presented by Owen Bennett-Jones, examines several turning points in the relationship between Christianity and Islam covering Muslim Spain, the Crusades, the Ottoman Empire and the struggle for Africa.

Part One starts by look going back over 1,000 years ago, in what we now call Spain, but was then known as al-Andalus.

It has recently become fashionable to argue that the gulf between Islam and Christianity is deep and eternal. The series assesses whether such a claim can survive the scrutiny of history?

First broadcast on 09 November 2009.

This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons. Part One begins with a shocking error made by President Obama in a speech delivered in Egypt in June of 2009:

“Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance. We see it in the history of Andalucia, in Cordoba, during the Inquisition…”

As an Atheist, I find it ironic and quite sad to hear such nonsense from your average religious believer. I urge Americans especially to learn more about history and comparative religion.

The period of tolerance Obama was referring to is still in evidence in Spain; there are several places where Muslims Christians and Jews lived together peacefully, and a few of the very old places of worship are still intact.

Some 500 years ago, after 800 years of Arab presence in Spain, the Catholic church purged all non-Christians, holding “autos-da-fé,” torture extravaganzas, and forced Catholic conversions (or death).

That is what is referred to as the Spanish Inquisition. [insert Monty Python joke here]

Wikipedia: Auto de fé

The auto de fé involved a Catholic Mass; prayer; a public procession of those found guilty; and a reading of their sentences.^[2] The ritual took place in public squares or esplanades and lasted several hours with ecclesiastical and civil authorities in attendance.^[3] Artistic representations of the auto de fé usually depict torture and the burning at the stake.

But, neither torture nor burning at the stake took place during an auto de fé, which was a religious ritual.^[2] Torture was not administered after a trial concluded.^{[citation needed]} Executions were always held after and separately from the auto de fe.^[4]

The first recorded auto de fé was held in Paris in 1242, under Louis IX.^[5] The first Spanish auto de fé took place in Seville, Spain, in 1481; six of the men and women who participated in this first religious ritual were later executed.

The Portuguese Inquisition was established in 1536 and lasted officially until 1821. Its influence was much weakened by the late 1700s under the government of the Marquês of Pombal. Autos de fé also took place in Mexico, Brazil and Peru. Contemporary historians of the Conquistadors, such as Bernal Díaz del Castillo, recorded them. They were also held in the Portuguese colony of Goa, India, following the establishment of the Inquisition there in 1562-1563.