Religious disputation could itself be framed as defensive aggression

Evidence

Lull’s personal taste was for disputation rather than for the use of force. His account of his personal invasion of Bujaya was that he went to defend the Trinity, a theme that he introduced by publicly attacking Islam in the market-place. This sort of ‘defence’ seems parallel to treating military aggression in the Crusades as defensive. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 673

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The reframing of verbal attack as ‘defence’ of the Trinity mirrors how violence gets sanctioned through defensive rhetoric — a live mechanism worth sitting with.
• XREF: connects to: Religious polemic repels the home audience more than the described adversary; A protective-war doctrine legitimizes violence when Buddhism is deemed threatened. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 78; Anti-conversion violence targets Catholics who do not actively proselytize. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 254