Subtle dhimmitude on the BBC?

Melvyn Bragg's BBC Radio 4 In Our Time is often a challenging listen but I find it interesting. This morning's programme on "the 14th-century Arab philosopher of history Ibn Khaldun" contained this oddly worded introduction to Ibn Khaldun's life by Hugh Kennedy Professor of Arabic at the School of Oriental and African in London:

"Born in 1322... family had long lived in Muslim Spain... these were very difficult times, the Christians were conquering more and more territory in Spain, the city of Seville.. was now under Christian rule"

Those nasty Christians invading Muslim lands and kicking out the peaceable followers of Islam would seem to be the subtext. Now maybe later on in the programme it was explained that Spain was previously ruled by the followers of Christianity known as the Visigoths until it was invaded and conquered in the early years of the 8th Century AD by Muslim armies from North Africa as part of the expansion of the Umayyad Islamic Empire. Maybe it was explained later in the programme that the Christian forces fought back soon after the initial invasion but that it took from 723AD to 1248AD to evict Islam form most of Spain and until 1492 before the whole of Spain was in Christian hands once more. Maybe it was but somehow I doubt it.

Similarly it is often striking how Christianity is portrayed as warlike for supporting the Crusades whilst not acknowledging that the Crusades were a response to Muslim armies invading Christian Europe and "the Holy Land". Remember that Judaism, Christianity and Islam are not all of the same antiquity. Judaism is obviously the oldest of the three, Christianity next oldest and then Islam. Thus the Holy Land was (and still is) significant in Christianity because of the its association as the place of birth, ministry, Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus. Following Emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity (in the 4rd Century AD) and the founding of the Byzantine Empire, the Holy Land became a predominantly Christian country. Islamic armies invaded the Holy Land in the 7th Century AD and their rule included the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (1009AD).