Islam’s demonization varied with its military threat to Christendom

Evidence

However, Jews weren’t marching armies into Christian capitals. They were not a threat to the elites in the way the Muslim empires were. Thus, as Richard Southern suggests, it was easy for Christianity to dismiss the Jewish challenge because of the “economic and social inferiority of the Jews.” In other words, Jews did not have the social, economic, or political power to threaten Christendom. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 65

Categorization

• XREF: Prefigures Kumar’s point that contemporary Islamophobia tracks material threats; links to Grosfoguel’s coloniality framework. — connects to: Medieval Christendom defined itself by expelling threatening forces beyond its perimeter; Christians read celestial portents as harbingers of Muslim invasion.; Muslim dog-men outnumbered Jewish ones because Islam posed a military threat (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• The image of Muslims shifted with military threat, not with religion per se #corroborates (0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 95
• Ottomans were seen as a political threat rather than a religious one #qualifies (0.70) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 76
• Western hostility to Islam shifted from theological to political rationales across the centuries #expands (0.65) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 106
• Islam threatened Christianity because it mounted a rival revelatory claim #contradicts (0.60) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 64
• Islam became the convenient enemy to mobilize Europe’s territorial ambitions #expands (0.55) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 60
• Church persecution as doctrine caused the emergence of Muslim monsters #expands (0.40)