Understanding Islam - Ensign Article

[QuestionAbound]

https://www.lds.org/ensign/2018/04/unde ... m?lang=eng

Did anyone else read this?

Am I missing something?
Do we know why this was included?

It read strangely to me. I mean, it was understandable, but there was something "off" about the article.
Maybe I don't understand the purpose of it?

I have only had one interaction with a Muslim family and it wasn't a positive one, so my filter is not calibrated correctly.
This family wanted to join our new girl scout troop (which was actually kind of exciting to us!), but asked that we change locations and meeting times since they could not come into our Christian home. They would not attend otherwise, and we were supposed to be inclusive, so we needed to accommodate their wishes.

The whole exchange was odd.
This article's placement was odd to me as well.

Anyone else?

As an aside and slightly off topic, one of my kids spent some time in the hospital not long ago and while I was wandering about one night, I found the chapel and stepped inside. There was a large corner for those of the Jewish faith complete with the Torah and other readings, there was a large corner with prayer rugs and directional indicators for those who practice Islam, and then there was a small shelf in the room for Christians. How do we not have equal representation? ha!

[mom3]

I already know from the get-go this article and I are going to have a problem - I don't trust the author. If he is who is name implies, he is an apologist and then some.

Considering the past 2 articles in the Ensign, I am willing to be there is a new team running the show. In a way I applaud the effort to be more multicultural (If that's a good phrase for it). However, I think we still have our white, Utah centrist glasses on. Until the barricade of Utah think is breached it's going to take us a while to get these articles and conversations right.

[dande48]

Personally, I really like Islam. If I still had a literal belief in the Abrahamic God, I might've become one. I considered it for a long time. They've got a lot of similarities with the LDS.

I think it was included, because there's a lot of Islamophobia in Western countries. But Islam is a VERY big religion, with many different denominations. If you don't belong to a religion, people tend to clump those belonging to another religion together; there are the "Jews", the "Buddhists", the "Athiests", the "Hindus"... and people who are not Christian will just as much lump Catholics and Mormons together. And then there's the case on how the FLDS give the "Mormons" a bad name. One bad sect ruins the whole group.

We've got a crisis, where many of the "good" Muslims are fleeing from the "bad" Muslims. But refugees are being turned away, because people assume all Muslims are just like the bad. I think the Church is hoping, that by understanding them a bit better, we'll have more compassion on them.

How do we not have equal representation? ha!

Most hospitals have chapels that are 110% Christian. I used to work at one that had two chapels; one chapel was Christian, and the other was for all the other religions.

[Roy]

We've got a crisis, where many of the "good" Muslims are fleeing from the "bad" Muslims. But refugees are being turned away, because people assume all Muslims are just like the bad. I think the Church is hoping, that by understanding them a bit better, we'll have more compassion on them.

I am very much in favor of this. I believe our church leadership is trying to keep our western US membership from becoming too xenophobic.

[SamBee]

It would help if the west didn't bomb the "good" Muslims out of their homes and stopped arming the bad ones.

[mom3]

I did go back and read it slower.

I think it is impressive considering how little we really talk about or engage in conversations about other religious traditions in our magazines or discourse. It would be cool if the Ensign suddenly had a regular feature highlighting the good and amazing in other churches world wide. It would do us good, and might even do the world good.

I also think we are still a right wing church. Elder Kearon delivered one of the best General Conference talks - ever - https://www.lds.org/general-conference/ ... m?lang=eng but we barely caught it. It maybe because we have unexpressed phobias. But if we are to fulfill a Christ like mandate they are the strangers we need to make room for.

Just my thoughts on the second go round read.

[DevilsAdvocate]

Am I missing something?
Do we know why this was included?

It read strangely to me. I mean, it was understandable, but there was something "off" about the article.
Maybe I don't understand the purpose of it?

It does seem a little strange that the Church would actually publish an article like this. I guess Daniel Peterson isn't just an apologist for the LDS Church but also an apologist for Islam and religion in general as well. I understand that "Islamic Studies" is his academic specialty but at the same time it is possible to study history, anthropology, etc. without necessarily sympathizing or agreeing with the beliefs and values other cultures have had so far.

To me it sounds like the general idea behind this article is more or less a way for TBMs to try to tell themselves that they are not completely alone in the world and not really all that weird in terms of having such zealous faith in God and revelation, practicing strict rules and routines in the name of religion, expecting women to dress "modestly" and know their place, and so on and so forth in the face of increasing secularism and liberalism nowadays. Why not also publish similar articles such as, "understanding Scientology" and "understanding the Jehovah's Witnesses"? I guess these other sects just don't have quite the same clout on the world scene because they don't have almost two billion followers and over a thousand years of history behind them.

For me, paying attention to some of the similarities between Islam and the LDS Church didn't help reinforce my belief in LDS doctrines at all, in fact this was actually one of the first major cracks in my shelf because I started to think, "Why should I believe Joseph Smith's story any more than Mohammad's story?" And I had to admit that I was LDS mostly because I happened to be born in Utah with LDS parents and surrounded by other Mormons so it was relatively easy for me to just go along with everyone else but if I had been born in one of these predominantly Muslim countries the odds are that I would have been Muslim instead for more or less the same reasons that I ended up LDS. After that the idea of thinking we are so special and better than others for being LDS started to seem harder and harder to take seriously any more. It reminds me of the following quote.

"The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also."

[Heber13]

After that the idea of thinking we are so special and better than others for being LDS started to seem harder and harder to take seriously any more. It reminds me of the following quote.

"The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also."

I like this!