Religious polemicists attack enemies hardest on desires they fear within themselves

Evidence

Great attention was paid to all these aspects of Muhammad’s life. Both as to facts and as to motives, the worst was always believed. The picture of the licentious hypocrite took shape inevitably. What clerical writers, always aware of the problems of moral and pastoral theology, most feared was the doctrinal justification of sexual acts which are already attractive to men who believe them to be wrong. This explains the virulence of educated Christian feeling about Muhammad, which always excluded charity and usually excluded the complete truth. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 587

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The psychological mechanism — attacking an enemy for sins the attacker already finds attractive and fears being justified in indulging — explains polemic’s cruelty and selects for its content better than simple bigotry does.
• XREF: connects to: Religious polemic uses enemies’ moral example as a mirror for self-criticism; Anti-Semitic violence is driven by fear that one’s own deeds are corrupt. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1284