Voltaire attacked Christian stereotypes of Islam as projections of Christian idolatry

Evidence

Voltaire’s play Le Fanatisme ou Mahomet le Prophete, despite its title, represents Muhammad as a rational thinker and a romantic figure. In his Philosophical Dictionary, Voltaire was strongly critical of the stereotypes surrounding Islam as a sensual religion, “I tell you again, ignorant imbeciles, whom other ignoramuses have made believe that the Mohammedan religion is voluptuous and sensual, there is not a word of truth in it; you have been deceived on this point as on so many others.” He also charged that Christians have projected their own idolatrous practices on Muslims: “I conclude by noting that in the times we named the Middle Ages, we called the country of the Mohammedans heathendom. We qualified as idolaters, image-worshippers, a people who have a horror of images. We must admit once more that the Turks would be more pardonable to take us for idolaters when they see our altars loaded with images and statues.” — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 366

Categorization

• DEFINE: This is a sharp, early articulation of the projection thesis — Christians accusing Muslims of the very idolatry Christians themselves practiced — which is core to the reader’s inquiry.
• XREF: The mirror/contradiction structure here — accusing the other of what you yourself do — echoes the ‘immodesty’ moral panics where accusers policed their own anxieties. Also a pre-modern instance of what the reader calls the manufactured monster as ‘container for what the West cannot face in itself.’ — connects to: Enlightenment reason politics drove attacks on Christianity as irrational — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 158; Encyclopedists used Islam as a disguised symbol for criticizing Christianity; Enlightenment thinkers produced contradictory, instrumentally motivated views of Islam — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 91 (+3 more)
• SHARE: A specific person researching Voltaire or the Enlightenment’s use of Islam would appreciate this direct quote of Voltaire attacking Christian projection.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 366

Broader Connections

• Encyclopedists used Islam as a disguised symbol for criticizing Christianity #corroborates (0.75)
• Muslim depictions served as foils for unrelated domestic critiques #expands (0.70) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 106
• Secularists and Christians alike deployed Muslims as foils #expands (0.65)
• Enlightenment thinkers produced contradictory, instrumentally motivated views of Islam #corroborates (0.60) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 91