The image of Islam as heresy, not paganism, was forged by Near Eastern dhimmis

Evidence

This caricature of Saracen paganism was untenable for those with even a rudimentary familiarity with Islam, many of whom portrayed Islam as a Christian heresy. For Guibert de Nogent, chronicling the first Crusade, Muhammad was merely the latest and most nefarious of a long line of oriental heresiarchs: the success of Islam was proof of the oriental penchant for heresy, calling for the intervention of vigorous and stolid Latins. The image of Islam as heresy, an image forged by dhimmis in the Near East and Spain, came to northern Europe at a time when Latin Christians were increasingly in contact with Muslims and when they were increasingly preoccupied with the supposedly nefarious influence of other non-Christians, Jews and heretics. The association between these various enemies of the faith is crucial for understanding the Christian perceptions of Muslims (or, for that matter, of Jews or heretics) in the following centuries. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1360

Categorization

• XREF: Genealogically grounds the vault’s Anidjar/Aziz/Razack claims about Islamophobia by locating the heresy-frame origin in dhimmi polemic migrating north; complements the reader’s existing Islam-West map.
• DEFINE: Clarifies the key distinction between two rival frames of Islam — paganism vs. heresy — and which one won the genealogy.