Direct exposure during the Crusades did not reduce anti-Muslim mythmaking

Evidence

Despite spending many years in the Middle east, the Crusades brought about little improved knowledge or understanding about Islam and Muslims. Instead, folk stories and myths returned from the Holy Lands with the Crusaders, many of which did little more than reinforce the misconceptions and misunderstandings already in existence about Muslims and Islam. Lurid tales of pagan and idolatrous practices mixed with legends about great warriors such as Saladin (Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi), supplemented by fantastically inspired stories about the promiscuity, wealth and luxury of Muslims were all given credibility as they were retold by those who seen such things with their own eyes. — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 175

Categorization

• XREF: Directly speaks to the reader’s core question of whether Islamophobia is contact-dependent or drives on fantasy; echoes the ‘Other constructed in absentia’ claim above. — connects to: The Crusades were less coherent religious triumph than convenient enemy-making; Accurate knowledge of Islam did not soften early Christian hostility toward it — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 132; Anti-Islamic discourse in Europe was codified in absence of direct contact — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 171 (+7 more)

Related

• Crusader contact reinforced fantasy rather than correcting misconceptions (similarity 0.92)
• The Crusades were less coherent religious triumph than convenient enemy-making (similarity 0.86)
• The Crusades introduced the figure of Muhammad as the anti-Christ into European thought (similarity 0.83)
• Historical memory of the Crusades drives Europeans’ anti-Muslim votes and stares (similarity 0.82)
• European travelogues about the Middle East resembled Crusade-era mythic returns (similarity 0.82)
• The Crusades were tied to enduring European xenophobia rooted in Greek thought (similarity 0.81)
• Anti-Islamic discourse in Europe was codified in absence of direct contact (similarity 0.81)
• The violence-of-Islam myth traces to the Crusades and shapes coverage of the Danish cartoons. (similarity 0.80)
• Many historians trace the structural distortions of Islam represented by modern Islamophobia to medieval Europe, and aversive portrayals emerged nearly as early as Islam itself. (similarity 0.80)
• Positive depictions of Islam emerged only where real daily contact occurred. (similarity 0.80)
• Distance from the Islamic border allowed increasingly extravagant anti-Islamic claims to be accepted (similarity 0.79)
• Physical contact with Muslims forced medieval authors toward greater accuracy (similarity 0.79)
• Christian depictions of Islam emerged from literary mythology, not lived contact (similarity 0.79)
• Sustained daily contact tempered hostile European images of Muslims. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Crusader contact reinforced fantasy rather than correcting misconceptions #corroborates (0.95) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 175
• Accurate knowledge of Islam did not soften early Christian hostility toward it #corroborates (0.85) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 132
• Anti-Islamic discourse in Europe was codified in absence of direct contact #corroborates (0.82) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 171
• The Crusades introduced the figure of Muhammad as the anti-Christ into European thought #expands (0.78) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 179
• The violence-of-Islam myth traces to the Crusades and shapes coverage of the Danish cartoons. #expands (0.75) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 193