Medieval anti-Muslim rhetoric borrowed bodily-debility tropes from anti-Jewish writing

Evidence

This is just one example of how hate against Muslims is not only burning out of control in the United States, but also how it threatens to (and does) jump from group to group, in the same way a wild fire can jump from house to house. … According to award-winning British columnist Jeff Sparrow, one reason for this phenomenon is that the ongoing “war on terror” global narrative has effectively normalized anti-Muslim rhetoric, and this rhetoric has replicated “all the traditional tropes of anti-Semitism” that white supremacists had used before. It’s just directed against Muslims now. — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 210 (#expands, via linked claim)

Both Jews and Muslims appeared as dog-headed men in a number of medieval texts and paintings that identified them as monsters associated with the devil. The association of dogs with Jews continues to the modern period; and while I do not provide a complete anthropology here, I would like to point to the importance of this particular anti-Semitic hate sign, which contributes to, and is supported by, Muslim dog-headed monsters. The association of dogs with Satan informs this relationship: The dog was interpreted as a manifestation of the Devil, especially in medieval times. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 226 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Medieval depictions of Islam as heresy served to justify violence and resist conversion — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 139; Abu Ghraib abuses stem from centuries of anti-Muslim discourse; Anti-Muslim rhetoric was founded in the Middle Ages and persists into today (+8 more)

Related

• Medieval writers represented Jewish and Muslim bodies as jointly diseased and degenerate (similarity 0.86)
• Jews and Muslims shared a canine monstrous identity in medieval literature (similarity 0.82)
• Dog-headed men served medieval art as both Jew and Muslim monsters of evil (similarity 0.81)
• Anti-Muslim rhetoric was founded in the Middle Ages and persists into today (similarity 0.81)
• Medieval passion plays made Muhammad the god of Christ’s Jewish and Roman tormentors (similarity 0.80)
• Muslims were ideologically collapsed into heretics, Jews, and the devil by Christian writers. (similarity 0.80)
• Fantasy tropes shaped how Orientalism constructed Jewish and Muslim men (similarity 0.80)
• Medieval art and text conflated Jews and Muslims into a single Saracen body (similarity 0.80)
• Anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim imagery differed in frequency because of political threat levels (similarity 0.80)
• Jews and Muslims shared the dog-headed monster linked to the devil in Christendom (similarity 0.80)
• Torturers’ animalization of detainees mirrored the medieval monster image of Muslims (similarity 0.79)
• Islam’s military threat explains why Muslim dog-men outnumber Jewish ones in medieval texts (similarity 0.79)
• Bestiaries transferred Jewish monstrous symbols onto Muslim characters (similarity 0.79)
• Medieval theology framed Jews and Muslims as heretical collaborators in anti-Christian violence. (similarity 0.79)
• Anti-Semitic imagery transfers smoothly from Jewish to Arab targets (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Medieval writers represented Jewish and Muslim bodies as jointly diseased and degenerate #corroborates (0.90)
• Anti-Muslim hate replicates anti-Semitic tropes and spreads between targeted groups #expands (0.70) — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 210
• Jews and Muslims shared a canine monstrous identity in medieval literature #exemplifies (0.60) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 226
• Fantasy tropes shaped how Orientalism constructed Jewish and Muslim men #corroborates (0.55)
• Anti-Muhammad tropes were repurposed to attack domestic political figures #expands (0.50)