Given the lack of contact with Muslims except in moments of crisis and through missionaries, Americans often relied on British views to inform their apprehensions about Islam. Thus, Thomas S. Kidd has observed, "Although one should hesitate to describe early Americans as conversant with Islam, they certainly conversed about Islam regularly."

XREF: Connects to broader histories of American orientalism and how colonial-era intellectual frameworks were inherited from Britain. Builds on: "British and American Islamophobia diverged due to differing societal contexts"

Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon F…, loc. 40