Religious justification of action, not the action itself, gave Christian scandal

Evidence

Muhammad, always moved by religious considerations, shocked Christians for this very reason, which made him always appear hypocritical. It was less that wrong practices gave scandal, than that their justification by religion did so. This is seen most clearly when the Christian interpretation of events is furthest from the truth. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 571

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that religious justification is more scandalous than the act itself is a genuinely subtle inversion — the scandal isn’t the behavior, it’s that religion sanctifies it. Applies well beyond this case to any ideology that legitimates transgression.
• XREF: connects to: Religious justification of practices scandalized Christians more than the practices themselves