Western attitudes to Islam have shifted across history rather than forming a constant clash.

Evidence

Islam looks different in each of these regions and countries, largely because as it spread, people imbued it with their own local customs and traditions. The Sufi Islam practiced in northern India is quite different from the Shi’a Islam practiced in Lebanon, which is in turn different from the Sunni Islam practiced in Pakistan. Even within a single branch of Islam there are customs and practices that vary by region and across time. Thus, the Islam of seventh-century Arabia is different from the Wahhabism that exists today in Saudi Arabia. Religious texts may be more or less fixed, but all of the world’s religions, including Islam, have changed and adapted based on historical transformations. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 160 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

When Europe, spiritually united under the leadership of the Vatican, began to fracture along national lines, the focus shifted away from the Muslim enemy. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries therefore saw a turn away from polemic toward indifference—until the Ottoman Empire began to advance into Europe in the early sixteenth century, heralding a new threat. This time, however, the enemy was seen as a secular and political threat rather than a religious one. The Ottomans were presented as Europeans of sorts and admired for their many accomplishments; European rulers forged alliances with them against other European rivals. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 95 (#expands, via linked claim)

This chapter examines the period immediately before the formal emergence of modern Islamophobia on September 11, 2001. This era witnessed the rearticulation of the Orientalist binary that pitted Islam and the Middle East—imagined as one monolithic civilization—against the West, a geopolitical theory known as a “clash of civilizations.” The theory became an immensely influential essay-turned-book by Harvard University political scientist Samuel P. Huntington. — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 217 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Medieval theological justification for opposing Muslims has faded in Europe. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 88; Western hostility to Islam shifted from theological to political rationales across the centuries — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 106; Direct contact with Muslims shaped imperial perceptions of Islam. — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear:…, 118 (+8 more)

Related

• Western hostility to Islam shifted from theological to political rationales across the centuries (similarity 0.90)
• The fear of Islam intensified amid Ottoman decline and colonial expansion (similarity 0.86)
• Islam has varied regionally and adapted to historical transformations. (similarity 0.86)
• Islamophobia is increasingly theorized as a form of racism rather than mere religious prejudice (similarity 0.86)
• The image of Muslims shifted with military threat, not with religion per se (similarity 0.85)
• The clash of civilizations theory rearticulated the Orientalist binary of Islam versus the West. (similarity 0.85)
• British Islamophobia intensified only when Muslims ceased to be a safely declining power (similarity 0.85)
• Orientalists reframed Islam as a political system rather than a religion. (similarity 0.85)
• The clash of civilizations thesis asserts Western values are alien to Islamic societies. (similarity 0.85)
• Islamophobia descends directly from Orientalism’s civilizational divide between Islam and the West (similarity 0.84)
• Islam has been framed by passion, prejudice, and political interests since the Middle Ages (similarity 0.84)
• Islamophobia is rooted in centuries of religion-politics-warfare conflict (similarity 0.84)
• Late twentieth-century Islamophobia shifted from Orientalist exoticism toward politicised and militarised framing (similarity 0.84)
• Contemporary Islamophobia extends Orientalist blame onto all Muslims, not just Arabs (similarity 0.84)
• The West defined itself as the mirror opposite of the Muslim world. (similarity 0.84)

Broader Connections

• Islam has varied regionally and adapted to historical transformations. #corroborates (0.70) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 160
• The image of Muslims shifted with military threat, not with religion per se #expands (0.65) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 95
• The clash of civilizations theory rearticulated the Orientalist binary of Islam versus the West. #complicates (0.60) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 217
• Islam has been framed by passion, prejudice, and political interests since the Middle Ages #contradicts (0.40) — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 699