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32 Arrington Mormon History Lecture This, as noted above, had been going on for a long time. Upon leaving Salt Lake City in the 1850s, Mormon leader Hosea Stout observed that a “light cloudy fog rested on it, in which we could see President Young’s House, like Solomon’s Temple in the midst of the glory of God.”45 Such references to biblical history were common among Mormons and nonMormons . In 1875, Nelson’s popular travel book described the steaming hot springs north of Ogden in biblical terms as “clouds of vapour [that] rise far away at the foot of the mountains, reminding one of the ‘cloud’ which protected the Israelites by day on their march through the weary wilderness.”46 Those Israelites, of course, had a modern day counterpart —the Mormons. Mormons as Muslims In addition to ancient Egypt and Judea, however, Arabia and much of the area claimed by Islam also loomed as a reference point to the newlycreated Mormon faith in the 1800s. Those outside of the faith found it tempting indeed to brand Mormons as neo-Muslims, so to speak. In fact, no aspect of Mormon identity linked it more palpably to the Orient than its supposed similarities to Islam. Certainly, some superficial or perhaps coincidental factors helped conflate Mormon and Muslim identity, not the least of which was the name “Mormon” itself, which subliminally resonates as “Moorman,” the name commonly given to Moors, or Muslims from North Africa. Then, too, both the Mormons and the Muslims prohibited their followers from imbibing alcohol (wine, in particular , is mentioned by the latter). In a remarkable convergence, smoking tobacco was recently named as haram—that is prohibited, in Islam. In the earliest years of the Mormon Church, some of these similarities were apparently coincidental, though there is evidence that Joseph Smith himself was aware of Islam and its theology, and in the latter part of the nineteenth century, Brigham Young even more so. There are some noteworthy similarities between the two faiths that demand closer scrutiny. Consider again the honey bee, which only 45. Hosea Stout, On the Mormon Frontier: The Diary of Hosea Stout, 1844-1861, ed. Juanita Brooks (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1964), Vol. 2, 456. 46. Nelson’s Pictorial Guide-Books, the Central Pacific Railroad: A Trip Across the North American Continent from Ogden to San Francisco (Also published with a paper cover, entitled The Scenery of the Central Pacific Railroad (New York: T. Nelson and Sons, 1871). 33 "Like the Hajis of Meccah and Jerusalem" appears in the Bible as something that will sting, but about which chapter (sura) 16 (“The Bee”) in the Qur’an states: “And the Lord taught the bee to build its cells [hive] on hills [mountains], on trees, and in men’s habitations [thatch].” To the Muslims, the honey bee is one of God’s/ Allah’s creatures that not only provides sustenance (honey) but also symbolizes the power of collective action. The hive mentioned in the Qur’an symbolizes the omnipresence of the bee’s industriousness and, perhaps by coincidence, the beehive also became an important symbol to western culture at the dawn of the industrial revolution in northern Europe. As a 1724 Masonic catechism put it, the beehive was a “Grand Hieroglyphick” [sic] because the industrious honey bee “excels all living creatures in the Contrivance and Commodiousness of its Habitation or Combe.” For their part, the Mormons thought so too. The point to remember here, however, is that claims linking Mormons and Muslims need to be based on more than shared symbols or theological similarities . Rather, smoking guns such as actual quotes by church leaders are needed to substantiate any alleged connections. Again, though, the point to remember is that what people believe becomes real if they believe it fervently enough. Let us now look more closely at the many alleged connections between Mormons and Muslims. A BYU-sponsored conference in the early 1980s on the subject of “Mormons and Muslims: Spiritual Foundations and Modern Manifestations” did just that. In the resulting book from those lectures, Spencer Palmer concluded that there was indeed “Common Ground” between both faiths. As Palmer noted, both require total commitment of their worshippers, demand obedience to a living God “with retribution and judgment for the sinner,” share “the common belief in the physical resurrection of the dead,” and “…greatly emphasize the importance of prophets” who reveal new written scriptures (the Qur’an and Book of Mormon), restore the...

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