Medieval Christians under Muslim rule found apostasy tempting for worldly gain

Evidence

Yet, in its near-obsession with sordid detail, the West had not lost the capacity to generalise. The comprehensive contrast between the religion of indulgence and that of asceticism and sacrifice was crucial. It had wide application. Among Christians living under Muslim rule apostasy, both for fleshly and for worldly reasons, must have been a considerable temptation, and presumably contributed to the gradual Islamisation of Christian provinces. The criticism of it as a ‘broad way’ of perdition was bound to develop almost as soon as the Islamic state was first founded, and to have flourished wherever Islamic government obtained. In so far as this is not said inimically, Muslims may agree, may even claim, that their religion rejects some forms, at least, of asceticism: ‘no monasticism in Islam’. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 849 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Apostasy from Christianity to Islam fueled the gradual Islamisation of Christian provinces — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 849; Historically apostasy was executed in Islamic and Christian societies alike

Related

• Apostasy from Christianity to Islam fueled the gradual Islamisation of Christian provinces (similarity 0.93)
• Mediaeval Christian polemics arose in response to real apostasy pressures under Muslim rule. (similarity 0.87)
• Medieval accounts attributed Christian apostasy to Islam to poverty and coercion, not conviction (similarity 0.83)
• Medieval Christians imagined Islam as apostasy from Christianity, not a pagan-native faith (similarity 0.83)
• Medieval Christians recognized Islam as morally demanding, not merely permissive (similarity 0.81)
• Medieval polemic had Muslims convert from Islam to escape austerity (similarity 0.80)
• Both Christians and Muslims internalized the moral-contrast trope about their two faiths (similarity 0.80)
• Medieval Christians interpreted Muslim prayer as corrupted monachism. (similarity 0.80)
• Medieval Christians saw Muslims as stubbornly resistant to conversion (similarity 0.80)
• The West’s defining critique of Islam centered on a contrast of indulgence versus asceticism. (similarity 0.80)
• Medieval Christian shock targeted Islamic toleration of sins more than the sins themselves (similarity 0.80)
• Medieval Christians understood Islam only as a distorted copy of Christianity (similarity 0.80)
• Executions for apostasy ceased long ago in the Muslim world (similarity 0.79)
• Medieval Christians missed Islam’s consciously unpriestly religious structure. (similarity 0.79)
• Medieval Christian polemics could only read Islam as affirming or negating Christianity (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Apostasy from Christianity to Islam fueled the gradual Islamisation of Christian provinces #contradicts (0.75) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 849
• Historically apostasy was executed in Islamic and Christian societies alike #complicates (0.70)