Excerpt:
Former U.S. Rep. Allen West celebrated Columbus Day on Monday by noting the link between Spanish exploration and their war against the Moors.
Wishing visitors a "Happy Politically Incorrect Columbus Day," West took to Facebook and pointed toward a "link between Islamic conquest and Columbus' discovery of the New World."
"In 711, an Islamic force invaded the Iberian peninsula, defeated the Visigoths and pushed on to France," West wrote. "In France, they were turned back by Charles Martel at the battle of Tours in 732. But the Islamic Moors ruled in present-day Spain for some 700 years. Later, during the Spanish 'Reconquista,' they were pushed into southern Spain in what they called Al Andalusia and established the Umayyad Caliphate consisting of cities such as Toledo, Granada, Seville, and Cordoba. The last Moorish city of Granada fell in 1492 under Spanish rulers Ferdinand I and Isabella I, of Aragon and Castile.