Thirteenth-century papal policy treated Muslims as both convertible subjects and security threats.

Evidence

Innocent’s reaction (and that of many Christian Europeans) to this situation was mixed. On the one hand, euphoria and optimism fueled hopes that Muslim subjects could be converted and the frontiers of Christendom pushed ever further through fresh conquest. On the other hand, the new Muslim subject was feared: his sympathies might lie with Muslim rulers outside the Christian kingdom, and contact with Christians could lead to the latter’s becoming Muslim, rather than the Muslim becoming Christian. Innocent was a lawyer and legislator, and one of his major concerns was to forge a coherent and effective policy toward non-Catholics: Greek and oriental Christians, heretics, Jews, and Muslims. In his letters to Muslim rulers, Innocent (like his predecessors) invited them to embrace the Christian faith. Toward Islam, Innocent was relentless in urging a three-pronged attack: crusade against Muslim principalities, legal restrictions on Muslims living in Christian territories, and mission to Muslims everywhere. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1007

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the double posture of medieval papal Islam policy — mission plus legal restriction plus crusade — that structures later church/state treatment of Muslim minorities.
• XREF: This bifurcation — the Muslim subject as both potential convert and internal threat whose loyalties lie with outside rulers — directly prefigures the suspicion of Muslim citizens under modern secular states mapped in Razack/Anidjar vault claims.