Accusations of sodomy and lechery were deployed to justify crusading warfare.
Evidence
For the reader who is left unconvinced, Fidentius argues that hostility to the Christian faith is not all that makes the Saracens implacable enemies. He claims that they are lecherous “from the soles of their feet to the tops of their heads”; their sodomy alone, he says, would be justification enough for Christians to fight them. He says they are cruel, greedy, crafty, and stupid. He also argues that they are untrustworthy, citing examples where various Muslim rulers, he claims, broke truces with Christians; war, rather than negotiation, is the answer, for Fidentius. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1085
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims
- XREF: Connects to the pattern of moral-panic rhetoric in medieval polemic; echoes the immodesty moral panics theme from the Complaints About Immodesty article in how group vices are weaponized against enemies.