Dominican missionaries pragmatically targeted Muslims and Jews over Cathars to avoid martyrdom

Evidence

The Dominican order had been from its outset a missionary order, whose initial purpose was to bring Cathars back into the Catholic fold. Dominican missionaries, moved more by a desire to convert (or perhaps less of a desire to meet a martyr’s end) soon found it expedient to focus their efforts on the Muslim and Jewish subjects of Christian rulers: even if the latter’s active support could not be secured, they certainly wouldn’t put the missionaries to death. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1180

Categorization

• QUESTION: The scare-quoted pragmatism is striking — missionary orders chose targets by martyrdom risk. Worth comparing with how other missionary movements rationalize target selection.
• XREF: connects to: Missionaries sought martyrdom through provoking Muslim violence when war was unavailable