Anti-Islamic polemic emerged only once Islam became a real conversion threat

Evidence

Over time, however, it became clear that the new Muslim rulers were here to stay. Muslims affirmed their power, proselytized among Christians and Jews, and dotted the landscape with new mosques; only then did Christians begin to take Islam seriously as a religious rival and to attempt to define it in Christian terms. Some authors ascribed an apocalyptic role to Islam; its rise and its winning of new Christian converts were proof that it was the religion of Antichrist and that the last days were at hand. Some authors branded Islam as heresy, falsely derived from Christian doctrine. In an attempt to stem the tide of conversions to Islam, they denigrated it using the familiar traditions of antiheretical polemics. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 287

Categorization

• SEED: Christian denigration of Islam began as a defensive conversion-stemming tactic — useful genealogy for the claim that anti-Islam discourse originates in rivalry and anxiety, not genuine inquiry.
• XREF: Grounds the genealogical claim in Anidjar that the West defines Islam theologically as heresy/Antichrist rather than as a religion proper.