The Moors in Spain

Irish Jesuit Province

The Moors in SpainAuthor(s): Aileen O'BrienSource: The Irish Monthly, Vol. 65, No. 769 (Jul., 1937), pp. 469-474Published by: Irish Jesuit ProvinceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20514161 .

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469

The Moors in Spain

By AILEEN O'BRIEN.

0<NE of the side-issues which is always raked up in any discussion about the War in Spain is, the Moors. Red propaganda has been so cleverly carried out that it has

managed, in a relatively short space of time, to turn from Franco all those who are not definitely Catholic or Christian. Even these last waver and grow hysterical when they find themselves hounded from all sides with cries of Fascism, the Basques, the

Moors and the abuses of Spain in the past. Perhaps the only way to make things clear is to deal with the side-issues and hope that the only important issue will then be visible.

As so many people whom I found otherwise sound in questions of importance have told me that they could not approve of Franco because the Moors were fighting for him, I should like to throw whatever light I have been able to get on that question during my long stay in Spain.

One might, of course, retort to objectors to the Moors that, judging from their point of view, the Catholics both here and in England were not fighting for Catholic Emancipation because they had allied themselves with their old enemies, the Protestant

Liberals, in order to obtain it. The Catholics of both islands, however, were so engrossed in getting Emancipation that they gladly accepted the help of anyone who was ready to offer it. A similar question arises in Spain.

Then, vague historians object on the grounds that Spain, some time ago, was fighting the Moors and rallying or trying to rally

Europe to the defence of Christianity against the invaders of



470 THE IRISH MONTHLY

Islam. They are perfectly right in that Islam, during those times, was the enemy of Christianity and a menace to the whole of Christendom. Islam was defeated by Spain and Europe was saved. But Spain was not fighting the Moors because they were

Moors, or inhabitants of Northern Africa, or because they wore long white robes. Spain fought them because they were the enemies of Christendom, and, therefore, of everything that Spain stood for. But to-day Islam is no longer a menace to Europe. The menace is Soviet Russia, and Spain is fighting Soviet Russia to-day for the same reason that she fought Islam four centurks ago. Spain, with all her faults, which are proportionate only to her virtues, has always fought like a tiger to defend the spiritual integrity of the nation, that is, to defend the Catholic Church, and has taken on any and all enemies, whether the enemy called itself Islam, Protestantism or Communism. And that is the point everyone seems to miss. It was not what Spain was fighting against-that mattered, it was what she was ighting for.

The invasion of Communism is a far more sinister one than that of Islam because it is an invasion of the spirit and does not

use its own troops nor shed the blood of Russians in order to gain a victory. It turns the Spaniards themselves into the deadly enemies of Spain, and has succeeded so well that to say " Long live Spain" in fMadrid, the capital of Spain, is a criminal offence, punishable by death.

Another point that is not often raised is that the Moors in

Spain are fighting with their whole heart and soul to exterminate Communism. The Moor is fanatically religious, and anyone. who has read Russian papers and reviews, especially the Bezbosknik, knows that the attack of the Third Intemational is directed against Allah as well as against Christ. Its attack on

Christianity is strongest only because Christianity is the strongest religion, but the ultimate object of the Godless is to exterminate



THE MOORS IN SPAIN 471

all belief in God. The Reds committed a fatal error when they dropped a bomb on a pilgrim ship leaving Morocco for Mecca. IThe Reds may have mistaken the ship for one taking troops over to Spain, but, in any case, the effect in Morocco was tremendous.

Every able-bodied man and boy were howling to be allowed to cross to Spain and fight against the Reds, and Franco himself was obliged to pacify them and invent excuses to keep them in' Africa. But Franco will have no more Moorish troops in Spain. He accepted their help, in the first place, because they were Spanish citizens, and, secondly, because they are born warriors, disciplined, brave and experienced; and while Franco also had thousands of enthusiastic Spanish youths lacking neither bravery nor discipline, he could not, as a soldier, send them to the Front while they were not quite' sure as to which end of a gun was which. He would have been sending the flower of Spanish youth not to war, but to be massacred; so he accepted only as many inexperienced volunteers as was absolutely necessary, putting the others into intensive, training. After a few months every Spanish boy was a trained soldier and Franco accepted no more Moors.

While in Spain I came to know the Moors very well, and may as well admit that I lost my heart to them. There is no worse enemy than a Moor, but neither is there a better frierd. As a

friend, he is brave, gentle, courteous, sober and gay, and his respect for women is fantastic, simply because he considers woman to be weak. Moorish troops would not fire wittingly on battalions of women, and they have been physically ill on discovering that they had killed women on the battlefield. But while nis respect for wnomen is unique, so is his disregard for men, and, if allowed, he would not leave one Communist man alive ona the soil of Spain.

In this respect he reminds me very much of most modern intellectuals of the " broad-minded " school. Both the Moor and the intellectual are incapable of distinguishing between the




doctrine of Communism and the Communist as a man, but while the intellectual finds himself unable to condemn Communism as a doctrine because some Communists are good fellows and have suffered real grievances, the Moor can see in a Communist only the incarnation of the Communist doctrines of hate, atheism and class war. The intellectual hoists the Communist and Com

munism together on to a pedestal, and the Moor goes after the

Communist with a carving knife and murder in his eye. The results may differ, but the mental process is identical.

Oftentimes, since my return from Spain via Switzerland, France and England, I have been sorely tempted to indulge in physical violence on the persons of smug intellectuals and arm chair critics who complacently voice the opinion that Franco

can't be fighting for Christianity; with the Moors as his allies. There flash through my mind unforgettable scenes on the blood

stained earth of Spain. Moors sweating freely over the back

breaking work of clearing out the debris from sacked and burned

churches, helping the Spaniards to carry planks and stone for

the erection of temporary altars on village plazas, buving holy pictures for delighted little urchins, an4 doing it all with the simplicity of men who wish to help their friends. A tall warrior

with a curling black beard telling md that if he let the Com munists destroy my God in Spain they would come to destroy his in Tetuan. "Allah!" drowned in the death rattle of a dying

Moslem. And a boy beside him, dying also, with a Rosary in his hand. May their souls both rest in peace.

Undoubtedly, the Moor has an advantage over the intellectual and the armchair critic in that he has entered towns recently under Red rule and has been confronted with the smoky, gaping walls of rained churches, the corpses of priests, and witnessed "Death to Christ 1" scrawled on whitewashed walls. He has assisted at Mass being said for the first time in months and heard



THE MOORS IN SPAIN 478

the sobs of men and women prostrate before an improvised altar. Those who clustered about the huge pot boiling on the plaza, eager to get a succulent stew and gaze into each others happy eyes, did not care who had saved them. All they knew was that

life had returned and that the Blessed Sacrament could be taken out of its hiding place in a wine-cellar and paraded through the

streets to the sound of voices singing the Te Deum. The issue was clear enough there. The Moor has seen all that, he has seen what the "i A.B.C. of

Communism "means in practice, and no further proof is neces

sary to show him the awful reality of Bukharin's words: " Religion and Communism are incompatible both in theory and in practice." And the Moor can use his eyes even if the intel lectual cannot use his intellect. When Franco's troops take a town and order is established,

the school is reopened and there takes place a ceremony consist ing in replacing the Crucifix in the class-room whence it was expelled six years ago. I witnessed one of these ceremionies, and it was a bitter moment for me, because the town had been taken by the Moors and Moslem blood had been shed, while I, a

Christian, had been unable to risk my life that the Crucifix should return. How many intellectuals have lost their lives that children

may once again lift their eyes from their school books and gaze on the image of God.?

If the Moor receives nothing but vituperation, abuse and con tempt from those outside, Spain will not forget his help. I have often heard it said that the Spaniards despise the Moors, and this I categorically deny. Not once during all the time I spent in Spain did I witness one act, even of discourtesy, towards a Moor. In fact, it is my private opinion that, were it not that discipline and obedience are synonymous of Moro, they would have become insufferably conceited. Girls belonging, to Spain's oldest and




greatest families toiled day and night in the Moorish' hospitals, keeping them spotlessly clean and comfortable. Streams of visitors chatted with them daily, bringing presents of all sorts. I saw one solemn little boy present one of them with an orange almost as largc as himself, and learned that the Moor had brought the boy and his family to Seville from a town where the father and cider brothers had been shot by the Reds. The Moor had

given the mother all the money be had. " I am a Moor but I am a Spaniard also." This phrase, so

often repeated, set me pondering on the success of Spanish

colonisation, and I came to the conclusion that it lies in the non existence of the word " native ". Because the Spaniard is a

Catholic, the catholic idea of the equality of races has never been doubted by him either in the fifteenth century or to-day. I have seen a Moorish soldier and a man who possessed one of the proudest names in Spain embrace in the street and walk off arm in arm, to have a cup of coffee together, and I should say that one could walk many a weary mile in India to see the same scene enacted between a British officer and a " native ".

No, Spain does not despise the Moors, and if, with the help of the Moors, Franco makes Spain safe for Christianity and ensures a Catholic education and life for the generations of Spaniards to come, not only Spain but the whole Church owes them a debt of gratitude. Instead of abusing them for taking on our job at the Front, we might pray that those who have helped to reopen the churches of Spain be rewarded by the grace of coming one day to worship in them.



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