Medieval Christian writing invented sexual slanders against Muhammad that persist today. [connection]
Sexual violence, especially acts attempted or committed against the most innocent—virgins and children—is also ascribed to Muslim men. The writings of Eulogius include an invented biography of Muhammad, who "gave his soul to hell," "fills the stomach of gods," and "committed not only his own soul, but the soul of many, to hell," and who planned to rape the Virgin Mary when he reached heaven. Eulogius writes, "I will not repeat the sacrilege which that impure dog [Muhammad] dared proffer about the Blessed Virgin, Queen of the World, holy mother of our venerable Lord and Savior. He claimed. . . that in the next world he would deflower her." The fantasy of Muslim men raping women is a powerful one, and it has remained part of the social imaginary, exhibited today in anti-Muslim discourse from South Asia to Europe.
XREF: Connects to contemporary anti-Muslim rhetoric and orientalism, showing continuity across centuries.
Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imag…, loc. 133