Medieval Christians portrayed Muslim Ka’ba worship as hidden pagan idolatry.

Evidence

John redeploys the traditional image of pagan litholatry ascribed to pre-Islamic Saracens by Jerome, Isidore, and other writers; the suggestion is that if one scratches the monotheism of the Muslim, one finds a pagan stone-worshiper. The accusation is meant to be deployed defensively, to ward off the charge that Christian veneration of Crucifixes was idolatry. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 356

Categorization

• XREF: Plausibly connects to Aziz/Anidjar/ Razack vault claims about Islam being cast as archaic premodernity vs. Christian present.
• SEED: Could ground an article on exactly how the ‘Scratch a Muslim monotheist find a pagan’ trope migrated from Jerome and Isidore to John of Damascus into modern anti-Islam polemics.