A medieval polemicist conceded that bad Christians violated Gospel pacifism

Evidence

Even more than San Pedro, Ricoldo summed up the arguments that so many others had used before him. His version of the prophesied fall of Islam was to the effect that Muhammad taught that ‘that religion shall last as long as the victory of its sword shall last’. Islam was the religion of violence and murder: /ex violenta and lex occisionis et mortis. The Qur’an said that there was no compulsion in the religion of God, ‘yet there is no greater compulsion than to compel by killing’. This was one of the contradictions characteristic of the Qur’an; he took up Pedro de Alfonso’s point, and said that the Qur’an, which forbade bitter disputation with men of other religions, yet commanded the death of infidels; in reality God does not love forced service. Compulsion, together with a general approval of murder and robbery, was part of what was carried forward from Muhammad’s personal practice into the future behaviour of Islam. In spite of his own claim to have disputed with Muslims, Ricoldo several times asserted what had now become a Christian dogma, the refusal of Muslims to dispute. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 710 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Medieval Christian polemicists framed Islam as a religion of compelled violence — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 710

Related

• Medieval Christian polemicists framed Islam as a religion of compelled violence (similarity 0.95)
• Medieval polemicists derived Islam’s violence from Muhammad’s Medina wars (similarity 0.87)
• Medieval Christian polemicists attributed to Muslims arguments the Muslims did not hold. (similarity 0.87)
• Some medieval polemicists acknowledged Christians exceeded Muslims in actual violence (similarity 0.85)
• Medieval Christian polemicists misattributed beliefs to Muslims that Muslims would disown. (similarity 0.83)
• Ricoldo’s rationalist arguments against Islam were later turned against Christianity itself (similarity 0.83)
• Medieval polemicists distinguished offenses from their justification in God’s name (similarity 0.83)
• Ricoldo’s public polemic masked a privately favorable view of Islam (similarity 0.83)
• Even hostile medieval critics admitted Muslims fell short of their founder’s worst teachings (similarity 0.82)
• Arguments deployed against Islam in medieval polemics could rebound against Christianity equally. (similarity 0.82)
• Medieval Christian polemic against Islam was ineffective self-consolation since Muslims never engaged it (similarity 0.82)
• Christian polemicists charged the Qur’an with asserting and denying the same doctrines. (similarity 0.81)
• Medieval Christian polemic framed Islam alongside heresy and Judaism (similarity 0.81)
• Ricoldo assessed Islam’s threat as operating through tyranny, doctrine, and moral example simultaneously (similarity 0.81)
• Christian polemicists read the Qur’an against its own interpretive tradition (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Medieval Christian polemicists framed Islam as a religion of compelled violence #expands (0.75) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 710