Relationship between Religion and Place
The failure of most societies and populations is pegged on the immense effect created by the diverse cultures from different places. Over the past century, there has been an increased concern by most of scholars in the historical and the religious sector onto the idea that the development and progress across the world is considerably pegged on the issue related to global flattening. The term global flattening simply describes the suggestion that as the technology in the world progresses, corporations and governments are actually very ready to exchange commodities on a global scale. This then simply implies that these places lose their uniqueness and distinctiveness ( Oviedo & Garre, 2015) . This factor is actually linked to the religious and other cultural practices that may as well get eroded based on the idea of globalization that has clearly dominated all sectors of the economy in the world. Indeed, the whole idea is threatening the world peace as most nations tend to depend on each other not only on economical issues, but in other spheres such as religion, culture, politics, social life, and democracy among others.
It is thus significant to note that individual location and niche is equally very important in the globalization era. The confines that a place clearly places on a person bring in some form of limits in the same region and thereby continue to create some limits on the action and thoughts of the same individual ( Hirschman, 2013) . This factor then continually engenders some form of inherent qualities. It is thus very clear that no matter our religious inclination, the place still stands to be very important. Based on the professional and personal instances, it is significant to note the existence of intellectual exercises that range in scale right from the local level to the global perspective as laid down by Blij ( De Blij, 2010) . There are ten exercises that try to bring out the importance of place to any humanity. In terms of the world’s total population, very few individuals would understand and even assume the global perspective of events in the world. On the other hand, a majority of the world population will still remain to act and think at the local level. This actually brings out the importance of place to a greater extent just based on the population of the world.
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Other factors related to the habitual occupation or the aspects of place include religion, health factors, and language patterns. These actually affect the cultural adaptation and the actual ability for an individual to survive as some form of organized units of people. Jeopardy could also be associated with this factor and helps in the analysis of risks in the environment. Other factors such as environmental challenges that include tsunamis, volcanoes, and floods in the plains could be coupled up to give a clear image of what is actually happening between religion and place. This is due to the fact that these issues tend to either bring people together or just push them away from each other thus building of destroying the religious inclination and beliefs among the members of a society ( Oviedo & Garre, 2015) . It is quite clear that the power of place can adversely affect the settlement patterns of a people in a certain place or in some form of life. Religion and place can never be separated based on the factors illustrated above. This is because the two entities go hand in hand as an effect or change in place of residence clearly influences the religious inclination and future of the person involved.
History of Religion in Spain
The religious history of Spain is actually based on the dominance by the Catholics. This dominance of the Roman Catholicism in the country has been specifically propagated by the violent battles with Judaism, Protestantism, and Islamism. It is also believed to have been propagated by the vast Christian denominations in the same country. During the first centuries of the human age, the vast part of the Iberian Roman Province was dominated by the Christians. Immediately after the Visigoth Invasion, the politics surrounding the stratum converted the area to Arian Christianity ( Hirschman, 2013) . This stayed long until King Reccared was then converted to Catholicism in the year 587 AD. This was the beginning of the process of religious unification when the rule of Rome commenced. In 1711 AD, the Arabs invaded the Iberian Peninsula to introduce Islamism. Though there were a number of difficulties during the middle ages, there still flourished an extremely rich encounter between the Christians, Jews, and the Muslims.
After the establishment of the catholic Kings, the court ruled that there was the need to purify the young Spanish Empire. The Roman Catholic then used Spain as the bastion toward Catholicism and the counter reform strategies used by the Catholic Kings to subdue any other religion in the region. This led to the Roman Catholic spreading its wings and strength and managed to extend Catholicism to the New World. During the 18th C, the Vatican and Spain signed the first Concordat that was then later revoked in 1931. This was considered as one of the first anticlerical measures by the Republican ( De Blij, 2010) . The Civil War that took place between the years 1936 and 1939 plus the dictatorship between 1939 and 1975 was characterized by the fact that the church supported Franco. This helped it restore its privileges and hegemony. This was a close collaboration that was formalized by the new Concordat in the year 1953. In the year 1978, the democratic constitution declared Spain a non confessional state even not by lay.
Based on the population estimates, it is quite clear to say that Spain is over 77% Christian specifically the Catholic Church. Only a paltry 1% belongs to the protestant group ( De Blij, 2010) . It is quite amazing that most of the world’s philosophical and religious groups have established their religious centers and other meeting places in major cities across the world other than in Spain. These include the American and the European countries and churches. As much as the right to freedom of worship is upheld in the Spanish constitution, there are some extreme sects that are actually prohibited in one way or the other. Spain has had a long standing close relationship between the church and state ( Astor, 2014) . Currently Catholicism is no longer the state religion and the same church has lost much of the influence it had under the Franco reign. Indeed, the country is fast turning its back against the catholic laws and trying to be independent. For example, the country just legalized the homosexual bill that has been a great issue within the catholic community and is even threatening to tear the church into pieces. Indeed, the Catholic community in the country is finding it had to recruit new members to the priesthood and thus resorted to importing priests from the areas in Latin America to help meet the demands of the catholic community in the country. At the same time convents try to import nuns from India to help replace the retiring nuns in the country.
Muslim Rule in Spain
The history of the entry of the Muslims in Spain is dated back to 711 AD when the Arabs first conquered the Iberian Peninsula. This was after the request of a single side of the civil war raging in the region of Visigoth. Most Spaniards accepted the Muslim rule and even a good number of the Spaniards joined the Muslim Community. In 732 AD that was 100 years after the death of their prophet, Muslim troops quickly crossed the Pyrenees in a bid to make their deepest advance toward Western Europe ( De Blij, 2010) . They were then stopped at Poitiers ad tried to battle their way out, but were defeated and decided to remain within Spain. Within this territory, they were then called the Al-Andalus. This is because the formed community was more heterogeneous and tolerant as they were a blend of both Berber and the Arabs who were living side by side with the Christians, Jews, and the Spanish Muslims. This clearly indicates that intermarriage was fairly common.
Al-Andalus was actually ruled by the Umayyad Caliphs in Damascus until the year 750 AD. There was a drift in the dynasty as Abbasid dynasty came to power toward the East with only one Umayyad Prince present during this time. Some of them escaped and fled back to Spain and established an independent Umayyad state. This was in the year 756 AD. However, they still valued the political, religious, and social power of the Andalusian rulers for close to over 200 years. With the rise in the fight for supremacy in the dynasty, a number of weak and unruly rulers came up to lead the empire. This led to the dissolution of the Umayyad state. This even further led to the emergence of several other Monarchs that were called the party kings or the taifas in Spanish language meaning party ( Conant, 2015) . This period of party brought in a different scenario in the overall episode as most of these kings were keen at learning the ideas and the political tactics used by the other king. Other stakeholders such as artists, scholars also gained importance as each ruler was interested in using them in his own benefit and this meant one artist or scholar could be used by two opposing rulers in order to bring down each other in a political dwell. With the continued strife coupled with the treacherous double deals made between the rulers plus the moral decadence in the society, the taifa kings gave some considerable portion of the land to the Christian Kingdoms leading to a series of decline in their political power to hold on to the lands.
The development and growth of the Muslim community in the country took a dwindling avenue as they received stiff opposition from the already established Catholic community that was actually running the country. The year 1492 was a very important and great year in the history of religion in Spain. This is because this was the year that marked the fall of the Muslim Empire in the region. This implies that this year has been a political and religious milestone based on the history of the events held therein ( Astor, 2014) . This the beginning of the fall of the Muslim City after eight centuries rules over the Iberian Peninsula. The forces belonging to the Catholic Kings castle forcefully evicted the Muslims from this region after several centuries of rule. This closed one of the most glorious and turbulent chapters in the history of Islam.
Expulsion of the Jews
The Jews were a very important aspect of the religious history in Spain. This is because they played an important role in the classification of religious groups in the country. In the year 1492 just after the Moors had been forced out of Granada, Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain decided to expel the Jews from Spain. Just by just signing this declaration, they put an end to the settlement of the Jewish population that was the largest and most powerful in Europe. The whole scenario was seen as a way in which the nation was angered and needed to take the root of nationalism that was only geared toward the ensuring that both the Moors and other religious groups left the country ( Conant, 2015) . Indeed, most rulers only did this due to their personal greed and ambitions at the expense of the peace of the citizens as a single unit. The actual motive was the religious zeal that both the Queen and the Church wanted to create using the masses. The main reason was that these Jews were encouraged to persist on their Jewishness and thus could not allow them to become part of the Christian community. They were required to abide to the doctrines of the Catholics and take the catholic vows without their consent.
References
Astor, A. (2014). Religious governance and the accommodation of Islam in contemporary Spain. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies , 40 (11), 1716-1735.
Conant, J. P. (2015). The Politics of Identity in Visigothic Spain. Religion and Power in the Histories of Isidore of Seville. By Jamie Wood. Brill's Series on the Early Middle Ages 21. Leiden and Boston: Brill. 2012. xii+ 275 pp.€ 110. US $151. ISBN 978 90 04 20990 9 (hardback).
De Blij, H. (2010). The power of place: Geography, destiny, and globalizations rough landscape . Oxford University Press.
Hirschman, E. C. (2013). Back to the future Islamic Spain as a model for marketing efflorescence. Marketing Theory , 13 (4), 513-520.
Oviedo, L., & Garre, A. (2015). The interaction between religion and science in Catholic Southern Europe (Italy, Spain, Portugal). Zygon® , 50 (1), 172-193.
