For Christ's Sake

For Christ's Sake is the first of the two books - the second of the two books being entitled Islam in Andalus - which constitute the revised edition of Blood on the Cross which was originally written between 1977 and 1979 and first published in 1989. The main purpose of both the original and revised edition has been to explore the history of that extraordinary period during which the Muslims first flourished and then perished in the Iberian peninsula - which used to be called Andalus but which now comprises Spain and Portugal. It was largely due to the muslims' presence and illumination there that the Dark Ages in Europe came to an end, and their influence remains with us today in countless ways.
When research into this project first began, it soon became clear that the history of Islam in Andalus could only really be understood if the reader was aware of how the official religion of Christianity developed in Europe, especially as regards the interaction between the Unitarian and the Trinitarian Christians. In order, therefore, to fully realise how it was that the Muslims in Spain eventually came to be almost completely eliminated by the notorious Spanish Inquisition, For Christ's Sake deals principally with the history of Christianity in Europe, with particular reference to Spain, tracing the movement of the original Unitarian followers of Jesus, peace be upon him, from North Africa and the Middle East up into Europe and Spain, describing the formation and expansion of the Trinitarian Church in Italy and rest of Europe, and outlining the almost total annihilation of the Unitarian Christians at the hands of the Trinitarian Church by means of the Mediaeval Inquisition. This then leads naturally on to Islam in Andalus which deals principally with the history of the Muslims in Spain.
Without this analysis of the interaction between the Unitarian and Trinitarian Christians, it is virtually impossible to understand how it was that the inhabitants of the Iberian peninsula in the eighth centu ry AD embraced Islam so readily and rapidly, and how it was that the Jews and the Muslims of Spain and Portugal in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were either exterminated by the spanish Inquisition or forced to flee for their lives.