Western views of Islam were cemented through colonialism and Orientalism. [causal]
The positive and even romantic treatments of Muslims are, however, trivial when considered alongside the grand narrative about Islam, an overwhelmingly negative and dehumanizing treatment that has its origins in the Middle Ages, sees its development in pre-modernity, and is cemented into the Western consciousness through colonialism and Orientalism.
Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imag…, loc. 36