A coherent internal image of Islam survived because it was internally consistent

Evidence

In religion, there was no compromise, or exchange of views or intermixture of ideas. It may well be that the internal consistency and integrity of the Christian concept of Islam was one reason for its long survival in the European consciousness. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1506

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Edward Said’s Orientalism thesis about how the West constructs its own image of the East. — connects to: The Western view of Islam was fixed by 1350 and persists today