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by Bishop Oppas, a brother of Witiza. Nobody knows what happened to Roderick, who
seems to have vanished into thin air.

The marauding expedition of Tariq succeeded in occupying half of Spain within
one year. It glorified the name of Tariq, the freedman; he had achieved this historical
brilliance with an army of Berbers who had begun to envy the Arabian splendor,
superiority and supremacy. Jealousy of Musa, the Arab governor, was aroused by the
phenomenal success of Tariq. He raised an army of 10,000 pure Arabs with a view to
dimming the Berber's shine of arms and hurried to Spain in June 712. Here one can see
an element of racial jealousy, which explodes the myth of Islamic brotherhood. It also
demonstrates that the Arab military excursions had nothing to do with the glory of Allah:
they were rooted in the lust of loot and imperialism, and Allah's name was used as a
means to make the viciousness of misdeed and murders look as righteousness of pious
and proud actions.

The true color of this campaign emerged with full intensity when Musa met Tariq
in Toledo. Charging him with insubordination for not halting in the early stages of the
expedition as ordered, he spanked and reviled Tariq publicly and then scourged him
mercilessly and finally put him in chains as an ignominious prisoner to magnify his guilt.
Having humbled his lieutenant, Musa proceeded to complete the conquest of Spain for
decorating himself with the laurels of the triumph. What is really amazing is that, after all
this disgrace, Tariq still served such an arrogant and egoistic master in his campaign.
Obviously, Tariq's misconduct was a stunt, otherwise he could not have been trusted.

At this point one ought to note the irony of fate: during autumn of the same year,
the Caliph al-Walid summoned Musa to appear before him in distant Damascus. He had
been charged with the same offense as Tariq -- exceeding his authority by invading a
foreign country without the consent of his superior i.e. the Caliph.

Lust for power overrides all considerations. The Caliph, whose dominions Musa
had extended, forgot all his services to demonstrate who held the real power and thus
privileged to decide the matters of peace and war. With a view to expressing the size of
his benefits to the Imperial cause, Musa took with him a huge train of spoils, which
included four hundred Gothic nobles fully dressed in gold coronets and girdles; a sign of
the Divine blessings, the train also included thirty thousand most delicate European
women, whose beauty was more radiant than the jewelry they wore; among them were
also handsome young boys of exquisite white and pink hues destined to embellish the
male seraglios of the Caliph and other Muslim notables. Nobody knows the exact size of
the treasures that Musa carried with him to appease and please his master but they were
certainly enormous and had been bestowed by Allah upon His servants, the Muslims, as a
sign of mercy, which was an act of extreme misery to those who had been robbed,
ravaged and ruined. Well, then this is what Jehad is all about.

As the train of spoils entered Tiberias (Palestine), Musa received a secret message
from Suleman, the brother and heir-apparent, that as Al Walid, the Caliph, was seriously
ill, he must delay his entry into the Capital. It was Suleman's ploy to claim the glory of