03 April 2008

Los Angeles Times discusses Mormons & Muslims

(This photo courtesy Meridian Magazine; in the photo are Mr. Flake, of LDS Church humanitarian services, with Mr. Shawky, his counterpart at the partner organization Islamic Relief, with tons of load of international food and medical aid.) 
(Photo courtesy a professor at Oxford who took this picture of a Muslim gentleman with two Mormon missionaries in France.)



Last night my sister-in-law showed me an article in the Los Angeles Times by David Haldane about Mormons, Muslims, and the relationship between the two groups.
The full text of the article is available here.

Recently I attended an event held at UCLA featuring a panel discussion of representatives from Islam and Mormonism.  I wrote on the event here.  The reporter responsible for yesterday's L.A. Times article, David Haldane, was at that event as well.

The Los Angeles Times article addresses the interaction of Arabic scholars at Brigham Young University and the Islamic clerical community.  BYU has become a sort of center for Arabic text translation.  Also, while I was a student at BYU, the school partnered with the FBI to become an official Arabic language training location for the agency.  

The relationship between the Mormons and Muslims demonstrate just how much the two peoples and religions have in common.

The late LDS scholar, Dr. Hugh Nibley, wrote extensively about the similarities between Islam and the Restored Gospel (LDS), citing among other things, the religions' dedication to humanitarian service and prophetic visions.  In fact, many in the LDS Church have recognized that Mohammed was called by God and received divine inspiration.  

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