Are you an associator?

I am reading a book about the birth of Islam through the eyes of John of Damascus. It is titled, John of Damascus: First Apologist to the Muslims. John lived from around 675-750 AD. At this time, Islam, although not known by that name in that time, was still developing theologically. The dominant view of the Quran during this period was that, since it contained the words of God, and God was uncreated and eternal, so was the Quran. Of course, for Christians, the uncreated Word of God is not the Bible, which is the created word a la creation, but Jesus Christ. Because Muslims are strict monotheists, unitarians in fact, they accused Christians of being associators. This meant that they associated Jesus, who they saw as created, with the uncreated God and thus committed the heinous sin of shirk.
John, in his turn, accused Muslims of being mutilators by separating God from His spirit and His word. For an explanation of this, I will quote from John himself in his Disputation between a Christian and a Saracen (Muslim):

If you will be asked by a Saracen, "What do you say the Christ is?" say to him, "Word of God." And do not suppose that you commit a sin, because in the Scripture he is called Word and wisdom and arm and power of God and many other similar things, for he has many names. And you also return the question to him and ask "What is Christ called in your Scripture?" If he tries to avoid the question and wants to question you on another subject, do not answer him before he has answered your question. He will be compelled to answer you, "In my Scripture Christ is called Spirit and Word of God." [This can be found in Surahs 4:171 and 5:110] And then ask him again, "According to your Scripture, are the Spirit of God and the Word said to be uncreated or created?" If he says they are uncreated, tell him: "Behold, you agree with me, for that which is not created by someone must be God who creates!" If he is actually bold enough to say that they are created, say to him, "And who created the Spirit and the Word of God?" And if, out of perplexity, he tells you that God created them, say to him: "a little before you were saying that God created them. Well, if I told you the same thing, you would have said to me, 'You have destroyed your testimony, and whatever you say from now on, I will not believe you.' Nevertheless, I will ask you this, 'Before God created the Spirit and the Word did he have neither Spirit nor Word?'" And he will flee from you, having nothing to say in answer to you. For those who say such things among the Saracens are regarded as heretics and are rejected and detested by other Saracens. And if you wnat to denounce him to other Saracens he will be very much afraid of you. (John of Damascus, Disputation between a Christian and a Saracen, 5:1-22)

The thrust of John's apologetic is easy to see. If the Word is uncreated, then He is God, but if the Word is created, then the Muslim is a heretic based on the orthodoxy of the day and his testimony is invalid. In other writings, John carried this argument further by questioning them about how God could be without His Word and Spirit for eternity. Thus we have the accusatory names that Christians and Muslims exchanged at this time: associators and mutilators.