By Sarah-Ann Smith, Asheville Citizen-Times
Dec. 11, 2004 11:10 a.m.

My recent trip to Spain has prompted some thoughts about our post-Sept. 11, 2001, relationship to the Islamic world. A wonderful book, "The Ornament of the World" by Maria Rosa Menocal, had excited my interest in Spain's medieval Islamic period, and I had to see the relics of that beautiful culture for myself.

The highlight of my visit was the awe-inspiring Cordoba mosque. Now a Christian cathedral, it is so vast that its mysterious Islamic flavor still dominates. This immense space, the equivalent of about four city blocks, reflects the best in the religious tradition of Spain's Islamic rulers.

The structure's history symbolizes the universality of the human need to connect with the divine. The Islamic - and now once again Christian - edifice rests on and incorporates the remains of a Roman temple which had been converted into a Christian church by the Visigoths who ruled that part of Spain until they were defeated by the invading Muslims in the 8th century.

The mosque's dominant feature is a forest of horseshoe- shaped arches of alternating red brick and white stone which define and separate the aisles. They go on and on, seemingly into an endless space. Standing in the midst of them, one is caught up in the timelessness and universality of the spiritual impulse, deeper than any specific religious tradition.

The experience recalled my visit to the only living mosques I've ever entered, in Indonesia. The tall, open architecture, punctuated by columns, filled with kneeling worshipers, shoeless to show respect for the space and the God beyond it, evokes a sense of calm and peace that is quite extraordinary in contrast to the dominant idea we have of the Muslim religion, based on political events of the past several years.

It is often difficult to reach beyond those events to recognize the human, and even religious, bonds that connect us to the best in the Islamic tradition. In this respect, perhaps we can learn something from Spain's experience.

The other great remnant of the Islamic Spanish culture is the Alhambra, the collection of palaces, gardens and fortresses that stands high above the city of Granada. The buildings' open style, peaceful spaces and still-working fountains, Muslim hallmarks, reflect the style and underlying philosophy of the architecture of the mosques themselves.

More important than the remains of the buildings is the culture they recall. In Islamic Spain adherents of all the three great Western religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - coexisted under a government that recognized their common biblical foundations. The Islamic system protected and gave each a place in the society as a whole - a place more tolerant by far than that accorded Jews and Muslims in the succeeding Christian era, dominated by the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition.

As Menocal notes, "This was the chapter of Europe's culture when Jews, Christians and Muslims lived side by side and, despite their intractable differences and enduring hostilities, nourished a complex culture of tolerance ... it found expression in the often unconscious acceptance that contradictions ... could be positive and productive."

The era ended in 1492, with the Spanish Christian monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand conquering the Alhambra, the last Muslim stronghold, and also expelling the Jews from Spain (as well as financing Christopher Columbus's journey of discovery).

Some Jews remained, perhaps as many as half the total number, along with an Islamic remnant, both being required to convert to Christianity. But, for the Jews at least, as contemporary Spanish writer Antonio Munoz Molina notes, "those who stayed behind ended up as alien in their homeland as those who left ... scorned not only by those who should have been their brothers in their new religion but also by those who remained loyal to the abandoned faith."

Thus, Molina demonstrates, present-day Spain continues to struggle with a past characterized by a diversity that its Christian rulers spurned 500 years ago. The Muslim issue has again become one that must be dealt with, and not only in terms of the terrorist threat demonstrated so tragically in last spring's train bombings that killed 192 people.

Spain currently has an active Islamic population, reaching close to a million, whose needs the Spanish authorities realize they must consider. Spanish Prime Minister Zapatera has called for "an alliance of cultures" between the West and the Islamic world, to isolate the violent fringe.

In 2003 a new mosque was opened in Granada to serve the city's estimated 15,000 Muslims. It was financed in large part by a United Arab Emirates sheik, to show, in the aftermath of Sept. 11, he reportedly said, "that Islam is fundamentally moral rather than political in nature." At the opening ceremony Granada's deputy mayor expressed the hope that the mosque would promote the religious tolerance that characterized the city in the past.

This event was far from free of controversy. The mosque's construction was delayed for years, partly by the opposition and lawsuits of local residents. And since the March bombings, many Spaniards have been even more nervous about the increasing numbers of North African Muslim immigrants, since the main suspects in the bombings are Moroccans. Others, however, recognize the importance of a dialogue with moderate Muslims. Spaniards' ambivalence is currently being played out in the trial of suspected terrorists, at which the former and current prime ministers are testifying.

From the point of view of an ordinary traveler, it appears that the understandable nervousness in the wake of the March bombings has not resulted in a paranoid anticipation of repeated terrorist acts. And the tourist industry at least is more than happy to highlight the magnificence of the remains of Spain's Islamic past.

Back home, I keep thinking of Spain's experience, contemporary and historical, in all its complexity, and realize that, for better or worse, we're all in this post- Sept. 11 world together - Christian, Muslim, Jew and, yes, secularist.

And the only way to genuine peace and security, and freedom from fear, is through tolerant acceptance and appreciation of our differences and mutual encouragement of the best in all our traditions. We could do far worse in this respect than imitating Spain's Islamic era at its best.

Sarah-Ann Smith, a former diplomat, holds graduate degrees in international politics and in theology. She is currently a community member of the Citizen-Times editorial board.

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© 2004 Asheville Citizen-Times