Christian polemic against Islam rooted in Muhammad’s military success endured from the seventh century

Evidence

Things look different from the perspective of early Islam. God crowned Muslims with success from the beginning, it seemed: there was no need to vilify earthly power or to explain away political and miliary success. Christian writers from the seventh century to the twentieth reproach the Prophet for his political and military success, arguing that prophets do not spread the Word through the sword. While Muslim texts portray Muhammad as passive in his role of messenger, humbly transmitting the word of God, he is aggressive in pursuing the interests of Islam, in forging the Muslim state. There is no contradiction here: one must humbly submit to God’s will but firmly and unhesitatingly serve his law. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 233

Categorization

• XREF: Directly grounds the vault’s Anidjar/Aziz/Razack claims about the durable Islam-West opposition: this shows the exact polemical trope (prophets must not spread faith by the sword) that recurs in modern Islamophobic discourse.
• ADDENDUM: Could support the immodesty/complaints article’s underlying method: moral critique of the religious other as durable political signaling across centuries.