Secularists and Christians alike deployed Muslims as foils

Evidence

These two early examples demonstrate three significant dimensions of Anglo-American Islamophobia that would be rehearsed repeatedly over succeeding centuries. First, depictions of Muslims— and of the final Islamic prophet in particular—often served as a foil serving social critiques of British and American domestic issues entirely unconnected to Islam. Just in the various editions of the two influential examples noted above, depictions of Muhammad’s life aided endeavors to warn Britons and Americans against deism, federalism, political tyranny, religious apathy, and religious zealotry. — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 106 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

This schism between Orthodox and Latin Christianity is significant for any discussion of the historical dynamics of Christianity. In contemporary scholarship about the history of Christian Islamophobia, many authors when describing the period largely ignore this inter- Christian tension. Some authors of this bent are Anidjar, Kumar, Todd, and Allen. For instance, in Anidjar’s book The Jew, the Arab: A History of the Enemy, he argues his case with the claim from another author that Muslims were a “common enemy” against all of Christendom (Anidjar 2003). — Ali Qureshi, The Fall of Constantinople, 25 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Crusaders justified conquest by recasting Muslims as pagan Roman idolaters — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 125; Christian institutions constructed the Muslim enemy to maintain their own power.; Converts to Christianity became human while Muslims were literally a lump. (+8 more)

Related

• Muslim depictions served as foils for unrelated domestic critiques (similarity 0.89)
• Encyclopedists used Islam as a disguised symbol for criticizing Christianity (similarity 0.87)
• Christians treated all non-Christian monstrous figures as interchangeable enemies (similarity 0.86)
• Secularists and Christians alike weaponized Islam as a foil despite opposite agendas. (similarity 0.85)
• Islam functioned as an opposing foil shared by secularists and Christians alike. (similarity 0.84)
• Islamophobic depictions chiefly served domestic critiques unrelated to Islam. (similarity 0.83)
• Anti-Muslim images were deployed against unrelated domestic targets (similarity 0.82)
• Islamophobia scholarship often treats medieval Christianity as a united whole against Muslims (similarity 0.82)
• Many historians trace the structural distortions of Islam represented by modern Islamophobia to medieval Europe, and aversive portrayals emerged nearly as early as Islam itself. (similarity 0.81)
• Theological explanations blamed Christian corruption and cast Muslims as God’s punishing instrument (similarity 0.80)
• The essay critically assesses the contemporary scholarship on Christian Islamophobia, arguing that it often overlooks the internal Christian divisions and portrays Christianity as a monolithic… (similarity 0.80)
• Converts to Christianity became human while Muslims were literally a lump. (similarity 0.80)
• American rhetoric repeatedly fused Muslim identity with fanaticism (similarity 0.80)
• Medieval Christendom defined itself by expelling threatening forces beyond its perimeter (similarity 0.80)
• Historical scholarship overstates Christianity’s unity against adversaries. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Muslim depictions served as foils for unrelated domestic critiques #exemplifies (0.75) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 106
• Islamophobia scholarship often treats medieval Christianity as a united whole against Muslims #qualifies (0.60) — Ali Qureshi, The Fall of Constantinople, 25