Demonizing Islam grew from anxiety over its uncomfortable similarity to Christianity

Evidence

Doubtless Islam was a real provocation in many ways. It lay uneasily close to Christianity, geographically and culturally. It drew on the Judeo-Hellenic traditions, it borrowed creatively from Christianity, it could boast of unrivaled military and political successes. Nor was this all. The Islamic lands sit adjacent to and even on top of the Biblical lands; moreover, the heart of the Islamic domain has always been the region closest to Europe, what has been called the Near Orient or Near East. Arabic and Hebrew are Semitic languages, and together they dispose and redispose of material that is urgently important to Christianity. From the end of the seventh century until the battle of Lepanto in 1571, Islam in either its Arab, Ottoman, or North African and Spanish form dominated or effectively threatened European Christianity. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 194 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Christian horror at Muslim divorce masked an unspoken fear of polyandry; Lull saw Muslim and Christian fears of misbelief as mirror images; Islam’s proximity to Christianity’s heartland produced a uniquely intense European anxiety — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 194 (+18 more)

Broader Connections

• Islam’s proximity to Christianity’s heartland produced a uniquely intense European anxiety #corroborates (1.00) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 194
• Christianity constituted Islam as a threat to its core unexamined beliefs #expands (0.95) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1397
• Christian thinking forced Islam into Christian analogical categories, misrepresenting it #expands (0.95)
• Islamophobia has shifted from security threat to cultural-threat framing #expands (0.95)
• Real theological differences, not only prejudice, fueled Christian hostility toward Islam. #qualifies (0.95) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1481
• Anxiety about appearing prejudiced, not hostility, drives discomfort around Muslims #complicates (0.85) — Patricia Hopkins, Developing an Intergroup Anxiety toward…, 1274
• Islam’s demonization varied with its military threat to Christendom #complicates (0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 65
• Western hostility to Islam shifted from theological to political rationales across the centuries #complicates (0.85) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 106
• The essay critically assesses the contemporary scholarship on Christian Islamophobia, arguing that it often overlooks the internal Christian divisions and portrays Christianity as a monolithic… #complicates (0.80)
• Hostile Christian descriptions of Islam repeated themselves virtually unchanged across centuries #complicates (0.80) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1574
• Islamophobia is a largely unwarranted social anxiety about Islam and Muslims #complicates (0.75)
• Treating Islamophobia as religious misunderstanding leaves root causes untouched #complicates (0.75)
• Anti-Muslim terrorism converts Muslim religious observance into recurring fear #complicates (0.70) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 893
• Islam is portrayed as an unchanging mass phenomenon driven by irrational hatreds #complicates (0.70) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 807