Muslim expulsion from Sicily

Reading about Republican proposals to ban Muslims from immigrating to America recalls the various efforts in the Middle Ages to do the same thing in other lands. For over 400 years in the Early Middle Ages, Muslims controlled the Middle East, Jerusalem and Constantinople, destroying Christian shrines and temples and murdering pilgrims. Conflict reigned between the religious groups for centuries. In the 1090's the Seljuk Turks overran Arab Constantinople and in 1098, the Fatimid dynasty of Egypt conquered the Turks. By 1099, Pope Urban II was calling for the first Crusade to return the Holy Land to Christian control, and to unite the eastern and western branches of the church. In a series of 7 major Crusades over the next 200 years, Europeans streamed into the Holy Land to kill the "infidels", and in the process, be absolved of their sins and have a chance to acquire wealth and position. Crusaders breached the walls of Jerusalem on July 15, 1099, killing the residents indiscriminately. Contemporary sources said the streets of the city ran with "blood up to the ankles".

Against the background of the Great Schism, the Pope sanctioned the Norman conquest of the Muslim Emirate of Sicily in 1066. For about 100 years thereafter, contrary to other kingdoms, Muslims were accepted on the island. Mulsims served in government posts and the army. However, vilification of Muslims gradually took hold in Sicily as well as in other parts of Europe, and their royal protection ended with the death of William the Good in 1189. Frederick II then enacted many repressive measures against the Muslims to please the Pope. Eventually there was a failed Muslim rebellion on the island, leading to formal expulsion in 1224 of 15-20,000 Muslims to Lucera, a town on the southern end of the mainland. There the Muslim population could be isolated and controlled, but also taxed. King Charles (the Angevin ruler in our mysteries) finally decimated the colony of Muslims in 1300 before his final defeat by Peter of Aragon.Those Muslims that weren't killed in his pogrom were exiled. Estimates are that about 10,000 of them were sold into slavery.

...And the beat goes on...