Christians attacked Islam as a religion only after mass conversion began

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 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

It was only after a significant number of Christians converted to Islam that Christian authors began to view Muslims not simply as God-ordained military adversaries but as religious rivals. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 124 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The invasions could look quite different depending on one’s perspective: an orthodox Christian safe in Constantinople bewailing the loss of territory, a Melkite thrust into the role of dhimmi by the new masters, or a Monophysite happy to be liberated from Byzantine oppression. Yet members of all the Christian communities eventually had to face an unpleasant fact: Islam was here to stay. God’s scourge showed no signs of wishing to go away or to convert to Christianity. On the contrary, society was becoming slowly Arabized, in language and in social customs, and more and more Christians were converting to Islam. Greekand Syriac-speaking Christians had begun to feel like foreigners in their own lands. Gradually, Islam came to be seen as a religious, and not merely military, threat. Christian writers needed to come to terms with it and offer arguments to refute it, not in order to convert Muslims to Christianity but to slow down the tide of conversions from Christianity to Islam. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 314 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: First Christian reactions to Muslim conquests ignored the invaders’ religion entirely; Mass Christian conversion to Islam forced Christians to view Muslims as religious rivals — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 124; Mass Christian conversion to Islam triggered theological response against Islam — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 488 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Mass Christian conversion to Islam forced Christians to view Muslims as religious rivals #corroborates (0.95) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 124
• Mass Christian conversion to Islam triggered theological response against Islam #corroborates (0.95) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 488
• Christians treated Islam as a religious rival only after Muslims settled in to stay #corroborates (0.95) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 287
• Early Christian responses to Islam aimed to slow conversions away from Christianity #corroborates (0.95) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 314
• Seventh-century Christians perceived mass conversion to Islam as a threat #corroborates (0.95) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1507
• Anti-Islamic polemic emerged only once Islam became a real conversion threat #corroborates (0.95) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 287