Thursday, January 20, 2011

Islam's Mormonism?

I found an article in my AP News app about a Palestinian couple who were divorced for being "apostates". I immediately thought of Mormonism, though the relation was loose (and I don't mean by religious affiliation).

But while I was reading the article, I felt more and more like the Islamic government took the place of the Southern Baptist/fundamentalist role and the Islamic sect taking Mormonism. It fell apart in a few ways, but there were some interesting similarities. I recommend reading the article to see what I mean, but here are a few contact points from the article (replace the words "Muslim" and "Islam" with the fundamentalist Christian denomination of your choice):

The sect is "rejected by many mainstream Muslims",
"Followers of the Islamic Ahmadi Community are shunned by many mainstream Muslims because they recognize a 19th-century cleric as their prophet",

and of course, "A central tenet of Islam is that the Muhammad was the last prophet sent by God."

This next part seems like a fusion of Christian fundamentalism and Mormon temple marriage:
"Then last year, a prosecutor in the local Islamic court, which regulates Muslim marriages, filed a complaint against them, accusing them of apostasy. They were found guilty in August, according to documents the couple showed The Associated Press." And so they were divorced.

The final parallel is one to Joseph Smith: the former wife was angry at her husband for attempting to marry another woman. It played out in the woman's favor this time (she was the one who made the complaint).

Anyways, I think it'd be interesting to look into this Ahmadi sect that rose from a 19th-century prophet. Wonder how similar it is to Mormonism's upbringing.

EDIT: you should check out the Wikipedia article for it.

Sneak peek, one of the distinct beliefs:
"The continuation of divine revelation. Although the Qur'an is the final message of God for mankind, He continues to communicate with his chosen individuals in the same way he is believed to have done in the past. All of God's attributes are eternal."

2 comments:

  1. Or, maybe this is an example of how God reaches out to many different people across the world to spread his truths? Clearly, the independent developments of similar sects is evidence of divine inspiration ;)

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  2. Ha, oh god. Well I guess I can't turn down the possibility of that happening.

    I remember Jon Adam's post about some bigfoot believers at that cinema fest. I'd say God definitely has some variety when it comes to inspiration ;)

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