Originally posted by Ebusitanus
To speak about the Iberian experience along its "Reconquista" you would see how a very easy choice was given to the conquered civilian population (if there was any left) or inmediate conversion or outright expulsion across the new border. In very few instances (specialitzed labor) were the muslims allowed to remain in the newly taken lands and christian "colonists" came shortly after to take over where the true muslims had left.
In the Iberian case since most of the rural population was composed by Muladies (Hispano-Roman Muslims) the conversion went ethnically easier than in the major towns where the cosmopolitan reality of Berbers, Arabs, Iberians and Slavs had taken more root.