WHY IS ISLAM COMPARED TO MORMONISM?
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U.S. Muslims and Mormons share deepening ties
The connection is based not on theology but on shared values and a
sense of isolation from mainstream America.
By David Haldane,
Los Angeles Times
April 2, 2008
The Mormon Church has to be among the most outgoing on earth; in
recent years its leaders have reached out to, among others, Latinos,
Koreans, Catholics and Jews.
One of the most enthusiastic responses, however, has come from what
some might consider a surprising source: U.S. Muslims.
"We are very aware of the history of Mormons as a group that was
chastised in America," says Maher Hathout, a senior advisor to the
Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles. "They can be a good
model for any group that feels alienated."
Which perhaps explains an open-mosque day held last fall at the
Islamic Center of Irvine. More than half the guests were Mormons.
"A Mormon living in an Islamic society would be very comfortable,"
said Steve Young, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints attending the event.
The sentiment is echoed by Muslims. "When I go to a Mormon church I
feel at ease," said Haitham Bundakji, former chairman of the Islamic
Society of Orange County. "When I heard the president [of LDS] speak a
few years ago, if I'd closed my eyes I'd have thought he was an imam."
Though the relationship has raised eyebrows and provided ammunition
for critics of both religions, Mormons and Muslims have deepening ties
in the United States.
What binds them has little to do with theology: Mormons venerate Jesus
as interpreted by founder Joseph Smith, while Muslims view Muhammad as
god's prophet. Based on shared values and a sense of isolation from
mainstream America, the connection was intensified by 9/11 and
cemented by the Southeast Asia tsunami. It is especially evident in
Southern California, with large Mormons and Muslim populations.
The Mormon Church has become the biggest contributor to Buena Park-
based Islamic Relief, touted by its administrators as the West's
largest Muslim-based charity. Relief officials say the church has
donated $20 million in goods and services since the 2004 tsunami,
equal to about 20% of the charity's annual budget.
Brigham Young University in Utah, the church's major institution of
higher learning, features what is thought to be one of the world's
best programs for translating classic Islamic works from Arabic to
English. Though created primarily for academic purposes, the results
have impressed Muslims flattered by the close attention.
"It shows they have a keen interest in the Muslim world," said Levent
Akbarut, a member of the Islamic Congregation of La Cañada-Flintridge.
And Mormons and Muslims say they often are co-hosts of educational and
social programs at which, though some may be angling for long-term
doctrinal influence, very little open proselytizing of each other
seems to take place. "We have a very close and friendly relationship,"
said Keith Atkinson, West Coast LDS spokesman. Mormons "explain our
faith to anyone who will listen" and "treat Muslims like anybody
else," said Elder Dallin H. Oaks, a member of the Quorum of the 12
Apostles, one of the church's top governing bodies in Salt Lake City.
But Oaks added that "we don't preach to people who would be
disenfranchised" or likely offended by the effort.
Arnold H. Green, a history professor at BYU, has traced how early
Mormons in the 19th century were hounded by accusations that church
founder Smith was the American Muhammad. The first Mormons angrily
denied any connection to the Muslim prophet but gradually accepted
some comparisons, particularly that both religions were founded by
post-Christian prophets with strong sectarian views. "As the church
grew into a global faith," Green wrote in a 2001 essay, "its posture
toward Islam became . . . more positive" until, today, "the two faiths
have become associated in several ways, including Mormonism's being
called the Islam of America."
Both religions strongly emphasize family. They tend toward patriarchy,
believing in feminine modesty, chastity and virtue. And although Islam
discourages dancing involving both sexes, Mormons report that church-
sponsored "modesty proms" commonly draw Islamic youths.
Both faiths adhere to religion-based health codes, including
prohibitions against alcohol, but Mormons and Muslims share something
more: membership in quickly growing minority religions that many other
Americans have sometimes viewed with suspicion and scorn.
"We both come from traditions where there has been persecution in the
past and continues to be prejudice," said Steve Gilliland, LDS
director of Muslim relations for Southern California. "That helps us
Mormons identify with Muslims."
A recent national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People &
the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that
although a thin majority of those polled expressed positive opinions
of Muslims and Mormons, the number was significantly less than those
favoring Roman Catholics or Jews.
More than half the respondents said they had little or no awareness of
the precepts and practices of either faith. But 45% saw Islam as more
likely than other religions to encourage violence, and 31% said that
Mormons weren't Christian.
Armand L. Mauss, a Mormon and professor emeritus of sociology at
Washington State University specializing in religious movements, said
that unlike mainstream Christians and Jews, Muslims and Mormons "tend
to make fairly stringent demands for religious conformity on their
members." These practices, he said, include discouraging marriage
outside the religion and observing dietary laws, such as the Mormon
prohibition against tobacco, alcohol and caffeine.
But the clincher, according to Mauss, is that both communities "have
been stung in recent years by the recurrence of scandals over which
they have no control." For Muslims, the obvious example is 9/11.
For Mormons, Mauss says, the problem is polygamy, which, though
rejected by the mainstream church more than a century ago, is still
the first thing that occurs to many Americans when they think about
the religion.
The relationship between the two religions has sometimes drawn ire.
Scattered throughout the Internet are numerous tracts, many by
evangelical Christians, comparing the two religions in less-than-
complimentary terms. "Modern Mohammedanism has its Mecca in Salt
Lake," reads one. "Clearly the Koran was Joseph Smith's model, so
closely followed as to exclude even the poor pretension of originality
in his foul 'revelations.' "
In Southern California, the relationship between the two religions
became closer after the Los Angeles riots in 1992, when the Mormon
Church, hoping to promote diversity, invited several ethnic and
religious groups to attend the opening of its new temple in San Diego.
Muslims responded in higher numbers and with greater enthusiasm than
most others.
The church later feted prominent Muslims in Salt Lake City.
"We were treated as dignitaries," said Shabbir Mansuri, founding
director of the Muslim-based Institute on Religion and Civic Values in
Fountain Valley, which encourages tolerance through research and
education. "I met with the president of LDS and the governor of Utah.
We were sitting in the front row of the Tabernacle. Mormons would give
their right arms to be there."
The relationship deepened on Sept. 11, 2001. The first call Mansuri
received that day came from Elder Oaks. "He was concerned and wanted
to send us a very clear message that we were in their prayers,"
Mansuri recalls. "It was like having someone who loves and cares for
you; not so much a Mormon reaching out to me as a fellow believer
reaching out."
Oaks said he was primarily motivated by friendship. "I consider
Shabbir Mansuri a brother," he said. "He's a good man who's doing good
work. We try to be friendly to all people, and in the days after 9/11,
lots of Muslims felt rejected."
In the months that followed, Mormons nationwide opened their churches
to Islamic worshipers fearful of reprisals in their mosques. When
Muslims needed a cannery to process the Bosnia-bound beef slaughtered
for the annual Eid al-Adha observance, the Mormons offered theirs in
Utah.
Following the tsunami that devastated many Islamic communities, the
Mormon church, which has a history of contributing to a wide range of
charities, began working closely with Islamic Relief. Though LDS had
helped Muslims before -- providing 195 tons of powdered milk, hygiene
kits, medical supplies and other provisions -- it had never previously
worked with this major Islamic agency, or on such a scale.
And though the church continues to aid non-Muslim causes, only two of
the six major disaster assistance efforts listed on its website since
2004 -- Hurricane Katrina and Africa measles vaccination campaigns --
did not primarily affect Islamic nations.
Locally, LDS helped the Islamic Society of Orange County's Al-Rahman
Mosque in Garden Grove develop its library with a $15,000 donation.
"Their beliefs are similar to ours," Robert Bremmer, a Mormon bishop,
said at that facility's open-mosque day in 2005. "They have modest
dress, and so do we. They believe in all the [Old Testament] prophets,
as do we."
During Al-Rahman's most recent open house in August, attended by many
Mormon elders and dignitaries, a tribute was paid to a deceased LDS
official supportive of the mosque.
The effects of Muslim-Mormon interaction are showing in subtle ways
too. Spending time with Mormons, Bundakji says, has inspired him to
stop drinking coffee. "I thought they had a good idea," he says. "Now
I don't drink caffeine and I don't have headaches anymore."
Woody Brison
"WHY IS ISLAM COMPARED TO MORMONISM?"
On Apr 3, Lance Ferm the Anti-Mormon Poster boy wrote:
"WHY IS ISLAM COMPARED TO MORMONISM?"
Maybe if you'd read the article yourself you might find
out?
Anti-Mormon
Yes, mormons had problems with U.S. officials and with normal U.S.
citizens in the 19th century. Likewise, Muslims are having problems
now due to their loyalties being elsewhere. Check out the link below
for mormon crimes of the 19th century.