Locke’s toleration simultaneously depicted Muslims as both dangerous and tolerable

Evidence

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 (#expands, via linked claim)

If the following historical overview demonstrates anything, it is that both discontinuity and continuity characterize the link between premodern and modern hostilities toward Islam. The most obvious discontinuity involves the overt theological interpretations of Islam at work in the Middle Ages, such as the common medieval conviction that Islam was a form of Christian heresy. By the time we reach the modern era, Western critics are much less concerned with demonizing Islam in order to promote and protect a particular version of orthodox Christianity. An important continuity pertains to the political rationale behind presenting Muslims as the ultimate enemies. From the Middle Ages to the twenty-first century, the West has feared Muslims because it has seen them as significant obstacles and threats to the building and preservation of Western empires and nations. Put simply, Western perceptions of Muslims as religious and political rivals drive most of the antagonistic renderings of Islam throughout history, with political rationales increasingly dominating religious ones in the modern period. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 106 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Early American toleration debates explicitly extended civil rights to Muslims. — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear:…, 46; Inclusive rhetoric naming Muslims simultaneously marked them as liminal outsiders. — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear:…, 47; State-perpetuated fear racializes Muslim bodies as terrorist enemies (+3 more)

Related

• Enlightenment thinkers produced contradictory, instrumentally motivated views of Islam (similarity 0.85)
• Inclusive rhetoric naming Muslims simultaneously marked them as liminal outsiders. (similarity 0.84)
• Philosophers reinscribed Muslim threat even while conceding toleration’s limits (similarity 0.84)
• Western hostility to Islam shifted from theological to political rationales across the centuries (similarity 0.83)
• Leibniz’s Islam oscillated between theological foe, barbarian, and natural philosopher (similarity 0.83)
• Enlightenment reason is used as a stick against Muslims in multicultural states (similarity 0.82)
• Early American toleration debates explicitly extended civil rights to Muslims. (similarity 0.80)
• Enlightenment rationalists framed Muslims as intellectually incapable due to their religion. (similarity 0.80)
• Secularists and Christians alike weaponized Islam as a foil despite opposite agendas. (similarity 0.80)
• Enlightenment thought held contradictory views of Muhammad (similarity 0.80)
• Anti-Muslim rhetoric still targets Islam as a religion, not just its adherents. (similarity 0.79)
• Enlightenment thinkers retained older anti-Muslim stereotypes (similarity 0.79)
• Islamophobia is increasingly theorized as a form of racism rather than mere religious prejudice (similarity 0.79)
• Locke’s toleration embraced Muslims as civil-rights holders despite theological differences. (similarity 0.78)
• Islamophobia includes a latent assumption of Muslim cultural inferiority to the secular West. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Enlightenment thinkers produced contradictory, instrumentally motivated views of Islam #expands (0.60) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 91
• Western hostility to Islam shifted from theological to political rationales across the centuries #qualifies (0.55) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 106
• State-perpetuated fear racializes Muslim bodies as terrorist enemies #responds-to (0.45)