Enlightenment rationalists framed Muslims as intellectually incapable due to their religion.

Evidence

The Enlightenment, however, did not witness the abandonment of older prejudices. In both philosophical and popular writings, unflattering images of Muslims and Islam persisted. In fact, we have plenty of examples of Enlightenment philosophers who reiterated negative stereotypes even as they articulated more positive appraisals. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 161 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

For Enlightenment philosophers, there is evidence of what Benedict Robinson has called a “crisis of representation,” the struggle between humanism and the imagination evident in the treatment of Muhammad and Islam in general, which wavers between a measured rationalism and polemical superstition. Leibniz was one of several philosophers who faced this crisis in his writings: Was Muhammad an enlightened thinker, a medieval humanist, or a force of destruction and evil? — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 360 (#expands, via linked claim)

The Enlightenment saw the birth of scholarship on Islam that was both realistic and sympathetic. For instance, in contrast to the vicious medieval demonization of Muhammad, several philosophers published tracts arguing that Muhammad was not an impostor. Voltaire defended Muhammad as a great thinker and founder of a rational religion even as he (and other Enlightenment critics of organized religion) condemned Islam quite acerbically. Daniel explains Voltaire’s contradictory stances: “We must say that Voltaire first thought an attack on Islam useful for an attack on religion generally; and later saw the advantage of treating the facts less passionately, in order to recommend natural religion at the expense of Christian belief.” — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 91 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Enlightenment thinkers produced contradictory, instrumentally motivated views of Islam — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 91; Islamic empires hosted rationalist thinkers who questioned even the Quran; Enlightenment philosophers wavered between rational and superstitious treatments of Muhammad — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 360 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Enlightenment philosophers wavered between rational and superstitious treatments of Muhammad #expands (0.80) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 360
• Enlightenment thinkers retained older anti-Muslim stereotypes #corroborates (0.80) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 161
• Enlightenment thinkers produced contradictory, instrumentally motivated views of Islam #complicates (0.78) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 91
• Orientalist scholarship framed Islam as an antihuman civilization lacking self-knowledge #expands (0.78) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 751
• Islamic empires hosted rationalist thinkers who questioned even the Quran #contradicts (0.75)
• Political frustration drives orientalists to produce reductive intellectual claims about Islam #contradicts (0.75)
• Christian polemicists repeatedly charged Islam with being fundamentally irrational #corroborates (0.74)
• The Arab mind is allegedly incapable of abstract law-like reasoning. #expands (0.72) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 296