Secularists and Christians alike weaponized Islam as a foil despite opposite agendas.
Evidence
Second, the perception of Muslims and Islam as a threat pervaded so broadly that even the most ardent secularists and Christians (these groups were not mutually exclusive) could utilize them as foils serving quite divergent agendas. Prideaux saw Islam as the anti-Christian product of a power hungry imposter. Voltaire viewed Muhammad’s excesses as a warning to governments that espoused religion. As we shall see, secularists like Thomas Jefferson often included Muslims as an extreme example marking the lengths to which toleration should be practiced. Simultaneously, Christians often viewed Islam as – if not the greatest threat to Christianity – the largest obstacle to its universal expansion. — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear, 30
Second, the perception of Muslims and Islam as a threat pervaded so broadly that even the most ardent secularists and Christians (these groups were not mutually exclusive) could utilize them as foils serving quite divergent agendas. Prideaux saw Islam as the anti-Christian product of a power hungry imposter. Voltaire viewed Muhammad’s excesses as a warning to governments that espoused religion. As we shall see, secularists like Thomas Jefferson often included Muslims as an extreme example marking the lengths to which toleration should be practiced. Simultaneously, Christians often viewed Islam as – if not the greatest threat to Christianity – the largest obstacle to its universal expansion. — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear, 30
Categorization
- XREF: Points to Thomas Jefferson’s use of Muslims in toleration debates — worth cross-referencing later in the book and with the historical record of Jefferson’s 1797 letter citing Ottoman tolerance. — connects to: Anti-Muslim rhetoric still targets Islam as a religion, not just its adherents. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 89; Secularists and Christians alike deployed Muslims as foils; Islam threatened Christianity because it mounted a rival revelatory claim — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 64 (+6 more)
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear:…, 30
Broader Connections
- Islam functioned as an opposing foil shared by secularists and Christians alike.
#corroborates(1.00) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 107 - Secularists and Christians alike deployed Muslims as foils
#expands(0.95) - Centrist religious conservatives ally with Muslims against a shared secularist enemy.
#complicates(0.80) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 994 - Muslims came to condemn Western secularism more than its Christianity
#corroborates(0.75) - Anti-Islamic polemic was shaped to repel Christians, not Muslims
#expands(0.72) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1471 - Islam threatened Christianity because it mounted a rival revelatory claim
#contradicts(0.50) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 64 - Anti-Muslim rhetoric served to police the doctrinal boundary of true Christianity.
#qualifies-own(0.50) — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear, 96 - Islamophobia operated at multiple political and theological levels for both audiences.
#builds-on(0.50) — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear, 41