Voltaire attacked Muhammad as a mask for criticizing Christianity itself

Evidence

In another mood Voltaire was more willing after all to learn from Boulainvilliers and Sale, and complained self-righteously of other sources of knowledge, of ‘what our historians, our rhetoricians and our prejudices tell us’. … He conceded, inconsistently with the position that he had earlier adopted, and even insisted, that Muhammad ‘deceived himself in deceiving others’; nevertheless, he really remained unconverted on the issue of hypocrisy. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1620 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Ricoldo’s rationalist arguments against Islam were later turned against Christianity itself — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 374; Voltaire used Islam as a weapon against Christianity depending on tactical needs; Voltaire’s Islam critique oscillated between polemic and sober analysis — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1620 (+2 more)

Related

• Voltaire’s Islam critique oscillated between polemic and sober analysis (similarity 0.93)
• Voltaire’s anti-Islam attacks served his campaigns against religion itself (similarity 0.90)
• Ricoldo’s rationalist arguments against Islam were later turned against Christianity itself (similarity 0.88)
• Voltaire’s attack on Muhammad served to attack revealed religion and royalty (similarity 0.87)
• Voltaire held Muhammad exploited Arab credulity to set himself up as prophet (similarity 0.83)
• Enlightenment praise of Islam extended the mediaeval attack on infidels to Christianity itself (similarity 0.83)
• Voltaire invented scurrilous legends about Muhammad because existing ones fell short (similarity 0.83)
• Medieval Christian polemicists built their case on Muhammad’s alleged self-contradiction (similarity 0.81)
• Christian thinking forced Islam into Christian analogical categories, misrepresenting it (similarity 0.81)
• Voltaire attacked Christian stereotypes of Islam as projections of Christian idolatry (similarity 0.81)
• Boulainvilliers kept mediaeval history but changed his moral verdict on Muhammad (similarity 0.81)
• Enlightenment thinkers produced contradictory, instrumentally motivated views of Islam (similarity 0.81)
• Medieval Christian polemicists misattributed beliefs to Muslims that Muslims would disown. (similarity 0.80)
• European critics praised Muhammad as a weapon against Christianity (similarity 0.80)
• Medieval Christian polemicists attributed to Muslims arguments the Muslims did not hold. (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Voltaire used Islam as a weapon against Christianity depending on tactical needs #responds-to (0.88)
• Encyclopedists used Islam as a disguised symbol for criticizing Christianity #expands (0.85)
• Voltaire’s Islam critique oscillated between polemic and sober analysis #qualifies (0.75) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1620