Christian polemicists doubted Muslims really believed their own stated faith

Evidence

While there was no question about what Islam believed itself to believe, there was some attack on the Islamic belief itself. Thus Peter the Venerable, in recognising the profession of faith, the shahadah, wished to distinguish between what Muslims believed and what they thought they believed. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 253

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the vault thread on ‘Islam’ as constructed/performed for an external observer: Peter the Venerable denying Muslims know their own belief echoes how Orientalist and racial constructions grant outsiders authority over Islam’s meaning rather than Muslims themselves. — connects to: Theologians’ claims of religion-politics fusion served their own credibility, not historical reality.