Medieval Christians chose distorted Islam stories even when accurate sources existed

Evidence

I wish also to examine some of the reasons that caused this image of Islam to be deformed, rather than reasonably accurate, as it might equally well have been; that led men to prefer, sometimes nonsensical, and often unpleasant and untrue versions of the history of Muhammad and of the tenets and practices of Islam; and that did so even when sound information was available and when better might easily have been obtained. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 78

Categorization

• QUESTION: The load-bearing puzzle of the whole book: what function did preferring deformed versions serve, when accurate knowledge was on hand? This is the mechanism question the vault cluster should answer.
• SEED: Angle: the preference for distorted out-group narratives over available accurate ones as a structural feature of identity maintenance — could be a high-yield essay connecting medieval polemic to contemporary misinformation research.