A week after Spain ruled that Sephardic Jews who are descendants of the Moriscos and were evicted out of southern Spain between 1492 and 1609 can claim citizenship, a Muslim group has demanded that Spain gives Muslims the same rights, reports said on February 19. Muslims ruled Andalus in southern Spain from the 8th century till the 15th century, when the Spanish inquisition gave Muslim and Jewish residents three choices: to leave, convert to Catholicism or be killed. While many were slaughtered, those Muslims and Jews who were able to escape fled to North Africa and parts of the Ottoman Empire.
The law potentially allows an estimated 3.5 million residents of countries where many Sephardic Jews eventually settled, such as Israel, France, the United States, Turkey, Mexico, Argentina and Chile, to apply for Spanish nationality. However, Muslims who were also expelled from Andalus have questioned why the same right has not been given to them. Bayi Loubaris, president of the Association for Historical Legacy of Al-Andalus, said the decision presents a confession of the “guilt of the Spanish State in expelling its own citizens,” before calling for Muslims to be given the same rights. Spain’s 1.6 million Muslims make up around 3.4% of the overall population, but only 464,978 are Spanish citizens.