Although Britons in India differed from Americans because of the active (if exaggerated) threat to their political order, both shared a conviction regarding two alleged qualities of Islam that made it a perennial menace: the proclivity of Muslims to spread their religion and to do so violently. In their reflections on the proselytizing power of Muslims – an issue among Europeans since at least the eighth century when predominantly Christian north Africa and Spain converted almost entirely to Islam – Americans and Britons almost universally explained mass conversion as the result of coercion.
Evidence
Although Britons in India differed from Americans because of the active (if exaggerated) threat to their political order, both shared a conviction regarding two alleged qualities of Islam that made it a perennial menace: the proclivity of Muslims to spread their religion and to do so violently. In their reflections on the proselytizing power of Muslims – an issue among Europeans since at least the eighth century when predominantly Christian north Africa and Spain converted almost entirely to Islam – Americans and Britons almost universally explained mass conversion as the result of coercion. — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear, 81 (
#corroborates, via linked claim)
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims
Related
- Britons in India, unlike Americans, faced an active (if exaggerated) Muslim threat to their political order, yet both shared convictions regarding Islam’s coercive proselytizing and violent spread. (similarity 0.97)
- Anglo-American observers explained Muslim expansion as violent coercion. (similarity 0.91)
- Nineteenth-century Americans and Britons attributed Islam’s spread to coercion rather than persuasion. (similarity 0.87)
- Americans and Britons alike viewed Islam as inherently expansionist and violent. (similarity 0.86)
- Most Americans and Britons seemingly accepted that the inherent fanaticism of (male) Muslims produced their violent success. (similarity 0.83)
- British India feared pan-Islamism later than America did (similarity 0.83)
- While these Americans and Britons avoided any suggestion that someone, drawn by a positive characteristic of the religion, might willingly accept Islam, others argued that, if there had been a… (similarity 0.82)
- Americans derived much of their Islamophobia from British colonial sources. (similarity 0.81)
- Britons in India refashioned inherited Islamophobia to serve colonial governance needs (similarity 0.81)
- Mass Christian conversion to Islam forced Christians to view Muslims as religious rivals (similarity 0.81)
- Anglo-American Islamophobia is not new, its roots demonstrated by an historical exploration of British and American literature between 1690 and 1947. (similarity 0.81)
- Both Americans and Britons held Islam a perennial menace by its proselytizing and violence (similarity 0.81)
- Western commentators blamed Eastern sensuality, not coercion, for early Muslim conversions (similarity 0.80)
- Some colonial figures warned forced conversion would provoke unrelenting hostility. (similarity 0.80)
- American commentators read the 1857 uprising as a religious awakening of Islam against Britain (similarity 0.80)
Broader Connections
- Nineteenth-century Americans and Britons attributed Islam’s spread to coercion rather than persuasion.
#corroborates(0.95) — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear, 81