Medieval Christian Tropes Inflaming Islamophobic Iran War Debate

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Tolan and other historians show how these hostile depictions developed in time in monasteries and royal courts. In popular culture, epic poems called“chansons de geste” glorified Christian heroes vanquishing Muslim foes.

Notably, medieval Muslim theologians also produced cutting critiques of Christian doctrines such as the Trinity, which they viewed as polytheistic. However, these writings circulated largely within scholarly circles. In Christian Europe, however, anti-Muslim writings were often used to justify the Crusades. Pope Urban II urged in 1095 that Holy Land be wrested from those who inhabited it and brought under Christian control.

Similarly, the Second, Third and Fourth Crusades were preceded by papal letters that depicted Muslims as enemies of the faith and called on Christians to reclaim Palestine.

The eventual military failure of the Crusades posed a new theological problem to Christian thinkers.

Medieval Christians believed history reflected God's judgment. As a result, they struggled to explain the military success of Muslim armies in theological terms, since such victories in the Holy Land would imply divine favor for Muslims. In order to reconcile this, some medieval Christians developed the idea that the defeats were a punishment for Christian sin.

Accordingly, medieval epic poems and art often depicted Muslims as near-demonic, bloodthirsty figures wearing turbans and strange robes.

Christian missionary narratives

In later centuries, these anti-Muslim depictions were reworked to justify colonialism. Scholar Edward Said famously critiqued early modern narratives about people and cultures from the Middle East and Arab world in his foundational 1978 work,“Orientalism.”

He argued that Orientalist stereotypes reduced diverse peoples to a set of mostly negative traits: barbaric, violent, incomprehensible, but also lazy, gullible and mysterious. While not held by all Christians, these ideas circulated broadly within Christian and Western intellectual traditions, shaping durable representations of Muslims in literature, art, theology and politics.

Scholar Deepa Kumar, who recognized this tension, wrote that“while ordinary people can and do resist dominant ideas, those who rule the society tend to set the terms of discussion.”

Anti-Muslim tropes were reflected in Christian missionary narratives. In the 19th century, figures such as David Livingstone promoted what later came to be known as the “three C's” of colonial expansion: christianity, commerce and civilization, all portrayed as benefiting the colonized peoples.

Over time, these ideas became part of a broader moral justification for European imperial expansion, framing colonial rule as a civilizing mission. As part of this effort, missionaries often contrasted the moral authority of Christianity with Islam, which they portrayed as a morally stagnant and simplistic.

Islamophobia today

While these hostile themes have been adapted over centuries to fit new contexts, they are recognizable in political and media rhetoric today. This rhetoric shapes popular understandings of Islam in troubling ways.

In a survey of American Baptist clergy conducted for my 2026 book,“Confronting Islamophobia in the Church,” with co-author and Baptist pastor Michael Woolf, I found that many pastors describe Islam and Muslims as inherently violent, blasphemous, oppressive toward women, or incompatible with Western society.

These pastors have adapted old Christian tropes to contemporary moral language. Theological accusations of Islamic“heresy” have morphed into concerns about apparent Muslim violence and women's oppression.