Medieval polemic assumed learned Muslims secretly doubted Muhammad’s prophecy

Evidence

The preacher must patiently explain these two key doctrines, proving the Trinity through forceful reasons [cogentes rationes], against which no man can argue the contrary. I already wrote these reasons for you and I declared them in my many books in Arabic and Latin, which confirm that one should believe in the Blessed Trinity. And among those Saracens who are most learned, few believe in Muhammad (since they well know that this man was a sinner and that in their law he placed many ridiculous things). And thus some learned Arabs are Christians—among which I could number myself. Once the better Saracens are converted the lesser ones can be converted by the better ones. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1332

Categorization

• XREF: Directly maps onto the modern Islamophobic trope that educated Muslims privately reject their own religion — the same move Aziz documents in CVE-era claims about ‘moderate reformed Muslims.’
• QUESTION: Does Llull’s elite-vs-masses conversion strategy anticipate the modern ‘moderate Muslim ally’ split so central to Aziz’s terror-trope critique?