Study in Mutual Respect | Spencer J. Palmer, ed., Mormons and Muslims: Spiritual Foundations and Modern Manifestations

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It may well be true, as Arnold H. Green, professor of Near Eastern history at American University (Cairo), pointed out at a conference devoted to Mormons and Muslims in October 1981, that Protestants like to recite the similarities between Islam and Mormonism to degrade Mormonism. But when such comparisons were made in a sympathic setting, the experience appeared to be quite rewarding. The purpose of the conference was to help bridge the distance between the two faiths in the present world. Mormons and Muslims is a compilation of papers given by seventeen participants including Spencer J. Palmer, director of world religions in the Religious Studies Center at Brigham Young University, who edited the book and wrote the introduction. The book is the eighth volume of the Religious Studies Monograph Series published by the Religious Studies Center at Brigham Young University. 

Several of the participants, writing from a Mormon perspective, went to considerable lengths to show parallels with Islam. In welcoming the participants, the associate academic vice president of Brig ham Young University, Noel B. Reynolds, asserted that there are ways in which Mor mons ”would feel closer to the followers of Muhammed than to the contemporary Christian culture” (p. 44). William J. Hamblin, a graduate student at the University of Michigan in the History Department, went as far as to speculate, although with considerable caution, that the pre Islamic tradition of the prophet Hud so closely parallels that the Mormon prophet Lehi that Lehi’s teachings might have been the basis of the Hud tradition. Palmer found many points of similarity between the two faiths, including the lifestyle required of the members; but he pointed out that there is a significant difference in their respective approaches to God. For the Muslim, God “is unapproachable,” while Joseph Smith “talked with God face to face as a man might communicate with his friend” (p. 41). The high priority given to education was yet another value held in common according to Orin D. Parker, of the American-Mideast Educational and Training Service. Carlos E. Asay, representing the Presidency of the First Quorum of the Seventy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, made a humanistic contribution by the way of a quote from the First Presidency of the LDS Church in 1978 proclaiming that such religious leaders as Muhammed and Confucius and “philosophers including Socrates, Plato and others” (p. 208) all had truths given to them by God. 

A major paper by the Indonesian Minister of Religion, Haji Alamsjah Ratu Perwiranegara (read by another due to the absence of the author), gave considerable attention to the character of Islam including its uniqueness. Alamsjah believes that “Islam is the last religion, the religion for all mankind” (pp. 29-30). After giving a general discussion of Islam, he turned to the condition of Islam in his home country of Indonesia, noting some of the consequences of Dutch colonialism. It was his contention that Islam could adjust to a world of diverse philosophies and maintain the basic tenets of the faith. A rather curious statement appeared in his paper refer ring to the eighteenth century as the end of the “Dark Ages” (p. 37). A subsequent participant, Frederich M. Denny, chairman of religious studies at the University of Colorado, portrayed Indonesia as having developed its Islamic faith from mixed origins. His point was that the diversity of religions in Indonesia and the great geo graphical sweep of the nation including thousands of islands had resulted in a significant flexibility for Islam. 

Umar F. Add-Allah, who presides over Islamic Studies at the University of Michigan, gave a long, detailed, and scholarly discussion of Islamic doctrine regarding “the perceptable and the unseen.” Since the “unseen” is an important aspect of reality, the role of the prophet was crucial. God can be known by intuitive knowledge and therein lies the importance of the unseen. 

Three papers on Muslim women from different Islamic countries were presented by Jane I. Smith, lecturer in comparative religion and associate dean of academic affairs at Harvard University, Anne H. Betteridge, a former faculty member at Pahlavi University in Shiroz, Iran, and presently a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology at the University of Chicago, and Donna Lee Bowen, from the Department of Government at Brigham Young University. They discussed such subjects as birth control, the freedom found in the Islamic religion from male domination, and the importance of the family for Muslim women. These papers rewarded the reader for the insights they gave, yet they failed to find analogies with the corresponding conditions among Mormon women, even though the subjects suggest the values of such a study. In like fashion, Robert J. Staab, from the Middle East Center at the University of Utah, presented a study of a small Muslim town in Turkey. He considered the importance of the mosque, the nontheologically trained religious leaders, the issue of separation of church and state, the hospitality of Islam, and the developing equality between men and women. But he fell short of making the application of these provocative characteristics to a small Mormon town. 

Two very brief statements of a personal nature by David M. Kennedy, an LDS church leader and former United States Ambassador (to NATO and at large), and David C. Montgomery, coordinator of the Near Eastern Studies Program at Brigham Young University, were also included in the book. 

The subject matter of this small book encompassed far more diverse ideas than can be properly commented on in a review. Anyone interested in the subject of these studies will be amply served by reading the book. A capstone to the book may well be best expressed by two of the participants. The first, Mahamand Mustafa Ayouba, from the Centre for Religious Studies at the University of Toronto, had returned to his former Muslim faith after several years as a fundamentalist Protestant who had “shouted more amens and hallelujahs than any of you.” From his point of view, Mormons would not succeed in “con verting Muslims” any more than others who have tried. But he felt that Mormons could succeed in creating “an important dialogue that will lead to a fellowship of faith between you and us” (pp. 116). The second, Omar Kader, who now teaches at BYU and is a Mormon convert from Islam, observed that Brigham Young University was well suited as a place “to reduce the spots of ignorance within our own thinking” (p. 61). 

Mormons and Muslims: Spiritual Foundations and Modern Manifestation, edited with an introduction by Spencer J. Palmer (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1983), xii, 225 pp., $12.95.