Shared monotheistic traits make Islam and Christianity uniquely prone to conflict

Evidence

If we look at them in a wider global perspective, Judaism, Christianity and Islam are different branches of the same religion. Their resemblances are far greater than their differences. Compared with the religions of India, of China and of other places, they are as alike as peas in a pod. This of course is what gives particular virulence to the conflicts between them. When Christians and Muslims argued in the Middle Ages and continued into modern times and each said to the other: “You are an infidel and you will burn in hell,” they understood each other perfectly. Such an argument would have been impossible between either a Christian or a Muslim on one side and a Buddhist or a Hindu on the other. They would not have known what they were talking about. Christians and Muslims understood each other because they both meant the same thing. Their heavens are significantly different but their hells are almost identical. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1036 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The theoretic assessment remains clear. Islam was a falling away from the truth which the Christian Church preserves; and in this way was paralleled the Islamic concept of Christianity as a falling short from the truth preserved in Islam. On both sides it was the extent of disagreement, not of shared beliefs, on which men concentrated their attention. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1080 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Having seen the dissenting attitudes present during the fall of Constantinople, we can see the theological divisions within Christianity were so great, not even the threat of a Muslim invasion would convince them to accept theological compromise. With this information, I will now show how it bears significance on the discussion found in modern scholarship on Islamophobia, which, when describing the history of Islamophobia, often and frequently ignore such tensions. These authors end up reading Christianity as being more unified than it is. By examining these historical portrayals of Islamophobia, I hope to argue that while Islam has been viewed as an enemy by Christendom, the theological dissension within Christianity sometimes caused Christian churches to view each other as worse than a foreign enemy. Relative to the threat of a Muslim invasion, the thought of accepting another’s creed could be seen as more disruptive. — Ali Qureshi, The Fall of Constantinople, 45 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Christians expected Muslims to ally with them in asserting monotheism against Buddhists; Islam and Christianity have been locked in rivalry far longer than the Cold War; Half of all interreligious wars from 1820-1929 pitted Muslims against Christians (+13 more)

Broader Connections

• Shared religious premises make inter-Abrahamic conflicts more virulent than cross-civilizational ones #corroborates (0.92) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1036
• Both medieval Christianity and Islam defined each other by disagreement, not overlap #complicates (0.85) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1080
• Medieval Christian infighting outweighed the shared threat of Islam #complicates (0.82) — Ali Qureshi, The Fall of Constantinople, 45
• Medieval Christians could align with Muslims against pagans over monotheism #complicates (0.77) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 265
• Islam’s selective agreement with Christianity defied medieval categorization #complicates (0.76) — R. W. Southern, Western Views of Islam in the Middle…, 29
• Islam was judged deficient for differing from Christian structures #complicates (0.75) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1266
• Both Christians and Muslims internalized the moral-contrast trope about their two faiths #complicates (0.74) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1483
• Religion bundles separable traits whose conflict roles must be disaggregated #complicates (0.72)
• Medieval Christians assumed Muslims shared common ground on monotheism #complicates (0.71) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1135