Mormons, Muslims

The Mormon Church has to be among the most outgoing on Earth. In recent years, its leaders have reached out to, among others, Hispanics, 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 adviser to the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles. “They can be a good model for any group that feels alienated.”

That perhaps explains an open-mosque day held last fall at the Islamic Center of Irvine, Calif. More than half of the guests were Mormons.

“A Mormon living in an Islamic society would be very comfortable,” says 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,” says Haitham Bundakji, former chairman of the Islamic Society of Orange County. “When I heard the (LDS) president speak a few years ago, if I’d closed my eyes I’d have thought he was an imam.”

What binds the religions has little to do with theology: Mormons venerate Jesus as interpreted by founder Joseph Smith, while Muslims view Muhammad as God’s prophet.

Yet there are similarities. 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.

Both faiths strongly emphasize family and tend toward patriarchy, believing in feminine modesty, chastity and virtue.

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 the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 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.

“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 and the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion and 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.

Arnold H. Green, a history professor at Brigham Young University, has traced how early Mormons in the 19th century were hounded by accusations that church founder Smith was the American Muhammad.

“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.”

Brigham Young University, the Mormon church’s major institute 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.

“It shows they have a keen interest in the Muslim world,” said Levent Akbarut, a member of the Islamic Congregation of La Canada Flintridge, Calif.

The relationship deepened following Sept. 11, 2001, when Mormons nationwide opened their churches to Islamic worshippers fearful of reprisals in their mosques.

Following the 2004 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.

The effects of Muslim-Mormon interaction are showing in more subtle ways. Spending time with Mormons has inspired him to stop drinking coffee, Bundakji says.

“I thought they had a good idea,” he says. “Now I don’t drink caffeine, and I don’t have headaches anymore.”