Building Bridges among the Family of the Book

[zionic]

One example of how Mormons are building bridges with Muslims.

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/02/local/me-morlims2

[Mario]

That's wonderful. Thank you for posting this.

And, here is something many might not be aware of:

Rumor has it that inside the Dome of the library of Congress, "ISLAM" is clearly featured as one of the cultures representative of the (then) new Nation's ideals.

Furthermore, in the frieze of the Supreme Court building, we might see a high relief of the Koran carved in stone (evidently, the ideas of Mohammed inspired people like Thomas Jefferson who had a Koran).

Incidentally, the word "Muslim" means a person who had delivered himself to ALLAH (Actually, it's pronounced "Allaaah").

"Allah" means "GOD"...

In the Arabic version of the Bible and New Testament, for example, we read "ALLAH" ...

Here are is the beginning of Genesis: "In the beginning, GOD created the Heavens and Earth..."

فِي الْبَدْءِ خَلَقَ اللهُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالارْضَ

Those who kept up with the Daheshist Symbol Movies should recognize (by now) which Arabic word in the sentence above means "GOD"

I am bringing this up because I see far too many instances of TV Evangelists and Christian-Rightists get on their soapbox and mock or criticize the Muslim "ALLAH"...

That is why, I am glad to know what the Mormons are doing as far as building bridges with Muslims.

[WingedPaladin]

Thank you for posting this.

There has been much humanitarian outreach by the church in some predominantly Muslim countries such as Indonesia.

I had a sister visit Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand as part of a school program to serve at the orphanage and teach English. She said she met a Muslim girl there and they started discussing their faiths. My sister said she was surprised by some of the similarities LDS had with her friend's Muslim sect, sacred dress in particular.

[zionic]

There has been much humanitarian outreach by the church in some predominantly Muslim countries such as Indonesia.

I had a sister visit Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand as part of a school program to serve at the orphanage and teach English. She said she met a Muslim girl there and they started discussing their faiths. My sister said she was surprised by some of the similarities LDS had with her friend's Muslim sect, sacred dress in particular.

I'm just kind of shooting the breeze here. No notes, no references. So I might go just a little out on a limb here....be warned!

There are certainly a lot more similiarities than meets the eye at first blush. Naturally the first things that come to mind are some of the moral, cultural and historical parallels between the two. But the more profound things that Islam and Mormonism share are hardly talked about, neither by the media nor the detractors of Islam and Mormonism. Hardly talked about, but talked about by some...there are in fact Mormons that have no problem thinking of themselves as being Muslim as well, such as Dr. Lloyd Miller at the BYU, who has a video on YouTube (it's in Farsi) titled "Mormonism:The Islam of America" or some such. Many parallels drawn between Baha'ism and Mormonism can just as well apply to the Shi'a Islam from which Baha'ism sprang.

For example, the LDS endowment is quite straightforwardly constructed on a free masonry template....and there is considerable evidence that free masonry itself has its origins in the more peaceful interaction that occurred ocassionally between crusaders and Ismaili Shi'a. The Ismaili Shi'a in turn created the context for Islamic sects like the Druze and the Alawites (Syria, Lebanon) and Alevis (Turkey, Bulgaria) ( both named for their exceeding honour of Ali), who continue to keep their doctrines and rituals away from the prying eyes of the merely curious. (there is a video of an Alevi initiation ritual on YouTube that its more than enough to make a Mormon wanna say "hmmmmm.")

There's a lot of parallels concerning their ritual and teaching that I could engage in here, but here's the most important thing that may tie Mormonism and Islam (especially Shi'a Islam) together and needs much more examination. Here at Daheshville Ali is, if I'm not mistaken, referred to as "The Spirit." To refer to Ali as the Spirit is not a far-fetched idea to the Alawites nor to the Ismaili Shi'a in general. It is said by some of their number that the universe was created for Ali and that Ali is the guiding spirit of revelation for all prophets, the Spirit of Christ, the same Spirit that fell on Jesus at his baptism and at the Transfiguration. I think I can recall, but please make me run down the reference, that Ali is referred to in Ismaili gnosis as the "Tenth Intellect"..or in Mormon parlance, let's call Ali the Tenth Intelligence.

Ismaili gnostics are not shy about telling us that Ali is the Holy Spirit. Or maybe in Daheshist parlance we could call him the Tenth Spiritual Fluid (hang with me here, I don't actually know which number Dr. Dahesh may have used to designate Ali...it's somewhere in the prayer, I think). Ok. It is at this point that those of Mormon persuasion could compare Orson Pratt's work on the Holy Spirit (which introduces Mormons to the term 'spiritual fluid) to what is said concerning the Spirit that is Ali in light of the Ismaili perspective on both Ali and the Holy Spirit. Here's a link to Orson Pratt's Holy Spirit:http://www.archive.org/details/holyspirit00pratrich. When I get a little more time to burn, I'll be comparing what both Orson and his brother Parley had to say about the Holy Spirit and Spiritual Fluids with what Henry Corbin has written about the Ismaili approach to the Holy Spirit. You can learn more about Henry Corbin here:http://henrycorbinproject.blogspot.com/

[Mario]

Ismaili gnostics are not shy about telling us that Ali is the Holy Spirit. Or maybe in Daheshist parlance we could call him the Tenth Spiritual Fluid (hang with me here, I don't actually know which number Dr. Dahesh may have used to designate Ali...it's somewhere in the prayer, I think).

The Spirit of "Brother Ali" as he is known to the Daheshists, was not himself The Twentieth Fluid (which I believe you meant to say). The 20th Fluid belongs to Christ (from whom all the prophets and spiritual guides emanate — with varying degrees and according to the rankings of the Spiritual Fluids). "Brother Ali" is certainly associated with the return of 20th Fluids. He is to the Daheshists what Gabriel was to the Jesus and Mohammad.

Please refer to this thread for more information.
In particular, please look for reply #8 (in the second letter from Brax to DTE)
.

[zionic]

Slightly off topic....

One of the things I noticed after I clicked Mario's link to Dr. Brax's statements was that he tells DTE that Joseph Smith and Baha'u'llah are not spiritual guides and then later on in a subsequent email to DTE Dr. Brax reverses course and says that they are indeed spiritual guides. I have to wonder what led Dr. Brax to come to embrace them as spiritual guides.

[Daheshville]

One of the things I noticed after I clicked Mario's link to Dr. Brax's statements was that he tells DTE that Joseph Smith and Baha'u'llah are not spiritual guides and then later on in a subsequent email to DTE Dr. Brax reverses course and says that they are indeed spiritual guides. I have to wonder what led Dr. Brax to come to embrace them as spiritual guides.

We have some information that sheds some light about what opinion Doctor Dahesh offered when someone asked him about The Mormon Church.

As for the Baha'i issue... Boxfox once posted a message in which he revealed some connection between Daheshism and the Baha'i.

Since he erased some of his messages at one point, you might have to contact him directly and ask him about it...