Christian anti-Islamic polemic was a defensive reaction to Muslim power and prestige

Evidence

What Christians now confronted was a religion that was similar to theirs but that challenged the primacy of their belief system. The God of Christianity is the same God of Abraham worshiped in Islam, but Christianity claims that God’s revelation in Jesus marked the end of revelation and of prophecy. Islam makes a similar claim but argues that Muhammad was the last prophet who received the final and correct Word of God. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 64 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

San Pedro was willing to admit the difficulties of the Christian position about predestination. He had said that the goodness of God could not be reconciled with the Muslim belief; he agreed that it was equally hard to reconcile it with the creation of souls whose damnation God foresees. His answers only partly satisfied him; in the last resort he had to fall back upon pious agnosticism: God has given men as much understanding of things as it pleased Him to give, and all knowledge He has not given; Christ said we were not to know the times or moments; it is the universal experience that spiritual creatures can know only as much of the future as God has made manifest. This is a sensible attitude, but to be consistent he must imply that Muslims cannot adopt the same attitude, and this San Pedro did not attempt to show. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 883 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The claim that Muslims refuse to dispute became Christian dogma; Lull saw Muslim and Christian fears of misbelief as mirror images; Muslim anti-Christian polemics emerged as reactions to crusade and mission (+21 more)

Broader Connections

• Islam threatened Christianity because it mounted a rival revelatory claim #qualifies (1.00) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 64
• Christian polemicists conceded Islam’s stronger defense of God’s prerogatives #contradicts (0.95) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 883
• Medieval anti-Islamic polemics aimed to fortify Christians rather than convert Muslims #complicates (0.85)