Muslim societies’ traits were all explained by recourse to religious texts

Evidence

As Abdel-Malek argues, Homo islamicus (Latin for “Islamic man”) stood in contrast to the “normal man” or European man (and it was men that they wrote about, not women) defined by an essence that had shaped him from Greek antiquity to the present. Muslims as a subspecies were fundamentally different from and opposed to the “western man.” By reading the Quran and other religious, moral, or legal writings, Orientalists believed that they could determine how Muslims think and behave. Their essential character could be understood from the texts of their civilization. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 179 (#expands, via linked claim)

As Islam spread, it adopted the cultural practices of various empires, including those of the neighboring Persian and Byzantine empires. The Christians who populated the Middle East and the Mediterranean had more rigid customs associated with women. In the Christian Byzantine Empire, the sexes were segregated. Women were not to be seen in public, were veiled, and were given only rudimentary education. As the expanding Islamic empire incorporated these regions, it also assimilated these cultural and social practices. In other words, the particular misogynistic practices that Islam came to adopt were largely inherited from the Christian and Jewish religious customs of the neighboring societies Muslims conquered. The significant point here is that sexist attitudes toward women, far from being unique to Islam, were prevalent among Christians and Jews as well. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 172 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Textual Islam became the catch-all explanation for every attributed lack in Muslim societies; Orientalists claimed textual reading revealed the fixed essence of Muslims — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 179; Medieval Christian views of Muslims grew directly out of Isidore’s frameworks — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 92 (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Orientalists claimed textual reading revealed the fixed essence of Muslims #expands (0.93) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 179
• Islam’s misogynistic practices were inherited from conquered Christian and Jewish society #complicates (0.82) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 172
• Islam adapted flexibly to diverse societies, like Christianity did. #complicates (0.80)
• Medieval crusading ideology constructed Muslims as collectively guilty #complicates (0.78) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 644