What if the descendants of Moors who had been expelled from Spain stayed Catholic, resulting in a substantial Christian Arab population in Morocco rivaling that of Lebanon?

After returning to Morocco, it's likely that Christian Moors would have lived in relative peace with the already diverse Berber Moorish Caliphate. This peace would end in mid 16th century after the Arab Saadi Dynasty takes over and starts to oppress and enslave the Christian, Berber and Jewish populations. At this point, minorities would constitute about 30 to 40% (very rough guess) of the population and might be able to fight back. Odds are the Pope and Catholic nations in Europe would not aide the Moorish Christians after seeing the mess that the crusades caused and the increasing split between the Vatican, Jews and other Christian groups. At the same time, the Moorish caliphate would have a hard time getting support from the Ottomans or other Muslim allies, so after a couple decades of fighting, a deal is struck putting historically Christian and Jewish areas in a semi autonomous state spanning from Northern Fes to the Ceuta coast. This small state would probably be very profitable as a trade hub between the Caliphate and Europe and would westernize at a faster rate compared to it's neighbors. In the 18th century after Mohamed the 3rd, who is comparatively liberal, starts ruling Morocco, ties between the Christian/Jewish state improve and expands the rights of minorities in his nation. The state would continue to prosper into the 19th century; In the 20th century, after Morocco is taken over by France, Christians and Jews would gain much political power over the country (just as in Lebanon during colonialism) and would be compliant or even accepting of their French rulers. During WW2 Morocco would descend into chaos after the fall of France; though the holocaust was much less brutal for North Africa there would be a lot of fighting and resentment between the Jews, Christians and Muslims. After the war, many Jews would come to Morocco that already has an established Jewish population, rather than go to Palestine which is mostly Arab. In 1956 after gaining independence, Morocco would become a confessional democracy rather than a kingdom. All this is only assuming that the Jews and Christians are able to cooperate and stick together. If the Christians try to do their own thing, they would suffer the exact same fate that the Jews did in Morocco and end up immigrating away slowly until they were irrelevant in Moroccan politics and society.

/r/HistoryWhatIf Thread