The founding stories of both religions are really similar.

2 dudes of dubious character receive revelation from an angel, and in a flury of revelation produce new scripture.

Both men become increasingly more authoritarian, and ambitious.

Each book contains a "promise" of its authenticity, where if the reader prays "wrong" he is either a liar or posessed by the devil.

I wonder how aware the average mormon is, of how similiar the two really are.

Joseph Smith did.

“If the people let us alone, we will preach the gospel in peace. But if they come on us to molest us, we will establish our religion with the sword. We will trample down our enemies and make it one gore of blood…from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. I will be to this generation a 2nd Muhammad, whose motto in treating for peace was ‘the Al-Qur’an or the sword.’ So shall it be with us — ‘Joseph Smith or the sword!’ (See History of the Church, Vol. 3, p. 167).” [emphasis in original]

Jim Huston Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Joseph Smith did.
>
> “If the people let us alone, we will preach the
> gospel in peace. But if they come on us to molest
> us, we will establish our religion with the sword.
> We will trample down our enemies and make it one
> gore of blood…from the Rocky Mountains to the
> Atlantic Ocean. I will be to this generation a 2nd
> Muhammad, whose motto in treating for peace was
> ‘the Al-Qur’an or the sword.’ So shall it be
> with us — ‘Joseph Smith or the sword!’ (See
> History of the Church, Vol. 3, p. 167).”




WOW!!! I came up with the Islam-Mormonism parallel with no knowledge of that....it's amazing what a little but of thinking will lead to.

Is there anyone who has done any kind of research on this that I can read?

I did years ago, but probably couldn't find it now.

Here are a few sites. It is very interesting research.

http://www.bible.ca/islam/islamic-mormonism-similarities.htm
http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/ETD/image/etd2067.pdf
http://mrm.org/second-muhammad
http://nowscape.com/mormon/mormon_islam_similarities.htm
http://emp.byui.edu/andersenj/default_files/Supplemental%20Readings/Islam_and_Mormonism.pdf

This is a mixed bag of sites. One is Hugh Nibley, another is a BYU paper. The others fill a spectrum of reasonable to wacky, but it will give you a feel for how close they are. Write something and put it out. I would like a copy of your findings.

These mormon guys do not even begin to know the half of it.

Check out the details of sharia law if you don't believe me.

Like the fact that it's not advisable for a muslim to wish a non-muslim good-morning, or good-day, because to do so would mean invoking the blessings of muhamed and it's a bad thing to offer the blessings of muhamed (and allah, for the obvious tie-in) to an infidel. Those blessings ought only be reserved for a true-believer. To even discuss this would be to open oneself up to execution.

To our knowlege, mormons have not ordered executions for a long time now, but that organization is so keen on secrecy, who knows?

Oh my goodness. That's interesting.

I'm actually in love with a Muslim man, and sometimes it drives me nuts how similar he is to a Mormon, lol.

We had a friend once who married a Muslim man. They had children. One day he took off for his Islamic home in Iran and she never saw her children again.

In both they are seen as rather "dark"

The other is a cheap knock-off.

Amen sister, they both suck big time.

I've read the Koran several times and only bits of the BOM, but I would bet that at least the BOM does not exhort Mormons to forcibly convert or slaughter all non-Mormons. In that way, at least, it would be a big improvement over much of the Koran. But I really don't know the BOM, so if someone can correct me on that, please do.

BTW, somewhat O/T, but someone forgot to note another parallel between the two religious leaders, if not between the two scriptures: Muhammed and Joseph Smith both used their religious power to bed lots of women and girls, including underage ones and women who were married to others. M forced his nephew, I believe, to divorce his wife so that he could marry her himself; he also took a lot of men's wives for himself after having killed their husbands. Finally, he married a nine-year-old when in his 50s.

... which of course only mimics the xenophobic example set by gawd's children in the Bible (under gawd's instruction).

The book of Mormon has many calls to violence. It glorifies violence when defending country, land, or ideals. However, the worst thing about it is that it glorifies and calls people to violence to defend one's own religion.

Both books do it.

muhammed also married a 6 year old girl named aisha, muhammed was in his 50's, the girl was a daughter of a friend, this is not in the quran but in a book of recorded stories of the profit called the ahadith, oh, but he did not consumate the marriage until aisha was 9

Pedophile....creeps me out big time!

Another parallel between the two, but alas I have not found the documentation though I have searched. If someone does please post it.

I got this from a presentation on Islam by a visiting professor during my mission in Belgium. I hoodwinked my district into attending the presentation as a good missionary opportunity.

Anywho, after Mohammed's death there were several editorial changes to the Qur'an as it was organized into it's present form over the century after his death. There were quite a few things added and deleted from the originals.

Of course having us in the audience the professor than went on about how the same thing happened with the Book of Mormon and the teachings of Joseph Smith and other early prophets.

And here is the most ironic part. The professor's name was Joseph Smith. But I can't find his work anywhere on the web. Too many other references to prophet Joseph Smith. I just remember that he was from the USA and was researching at a University in London.

Mohammed never wrote the Qu'ran. The Caliphs that came after him ordered it to be written based on the memories of everybody who knew him.

I haven't seen any evidence that since then there have been any changes. In fact, the original Qu'ran is still here (apparently, Moroni forgot to take them up into heaven haha). According to Islam, there have been zero changes.

Of course, they are all full of BS, so I don't 100% believe them on that point :)

Both books are also just bad copies of the Bible.

The BOM has more fun stories in it. The Qu'ran just reads like somebody was reciting all of the "morals" in the Bible and claiming that those "morals" came from their religious sect and not the Jews or the Christians.

There are a lot of similarities between how Joseph Smith manipulated people and how Mohammed manipulated people. Both the early Islamic organization and the early Mormon organization could easily be classified as a cult.

All have been altered and skewed for the benefit of those who wanted to be in power and stay in power.

Another similarity is that the religions started by Smith and Mohammed loved to seize on obscure references of Christianity and then build them into slightly different mythologies.

Mormons did that with baptism for the dead, three kingdoms. Islam does that with all of its Jesus tales (most of which are from obvious forgeries that are of much later origin than the rest of the Bible), and also with certain tales about Abraham.

There are many other examples of this that you can find if you look them up.

Actually Muhammad was playing to the Jews. He tried to get his people (sons of Ishmael) to be accepted as part of the Jewish people. The Jews rejected him. That is the basis of generations of strife.

Muslims initially prayed towards Jerusalem, not Jeddah. The change was made when the Jews rejected Muhammad.

After completing the entire Bible recently for the first time, I thought, I think I will read the Koran, because I have never done that before.

So I downloaded a copy to my smartphone and started reading...

The Book of Mormon has a semblance of a plot line, interesting stories, and a theme.

I'm sorry, but the Koran makes the Book of Mormon look like high literature. After reading about 20 verses, I couldn't take it anymore. They say getting through 2nd Nephi is hard.

I can actually sometimes get into the Book of Mormon and stay captivated, even knowing what I know. The Koran is the REAL chloroform in print. Praise Allah.

What I find interesting about the book is the alternate story line to the myths in the Bible. There are parts of it that do read like the Bible or the BOM.

There is just nothing there that is familiar or interests me. I was brought up with the Bible and Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon at least is kind of like a fake history of ancient America. But that isn't really saying much - I'd rather read a Star Trek novel than the Book of Mormon. One of the Bantam books even.

There are lots of similarities between Mormons and Muslims. A few more that come to mind:

Both forbid alcohol.
Both teach polygamy on earth and in heaven.
Both founded by a "prophet" who was supposed to correct the errors in the Bible.
Both preach modesty for women.
Both became more than just a religion, they both are a way of life that permeates government, culture, etc.
Both had a schism after the death of the prophet - Islam it was Shia/Sunni, Mormons it became reorganized/brighamite.

The BOM is supposed to be the most correct book, the Qur'an is supposed to contain no errors. It is the word of Allah.

The proof of the truth of each religion is supposedly the books that were revealed. In Islam it is the miracle of the Qur'an (which no one is supposedly able to mimic). In Mormonism it is the book of Mormon that is a marvelous work and a wonder and the tool to bring people to the church.

It goes on and on, I'm sure there are lots more.

I have to agree with those who have tried to read the Qur'an. It is tough to plow through and much of it is incomprehensible. Muslims claim that you have to know Arabic to appreciate it. But I have also heard that in Arabic there are lots of things in it that still can't be understood even if you know Arabic.

I read Daniel Dennett's book Breaking the Spell.
He argues that there are natural reasons why religion evolved.
He uses a concept he calls a "good trick" to mean something that has some inherent biological stability, such as the observed phenomena of independently evolving analogous traits (as opposed to homologous, for example, all wings are analogous to each other, but bird and bat wings are homologous to other vertebrate's limbs whereas insect wings aren't). Anyway, there seems to be a "good trick" that the Koran and Book of Mormon share in common.
Maybe it was intentional (and thereby homologous). Maybe not.
But I think there's a pattern that "works" (ie is inherently persuasive and manipulative), a psychosocial "good trick".
What that is I can only guess.
But, my guess is simple...the age old prophet scam combined with the test-of-faith scam. It's a self-contained circular feedback loop.
Only the prophet is privy to God because the commoner is the subject of a test. The test is that the subject needs to suspend empirical reason and believe for its own sake (Dennett calls this "belief in belief"). Some absurdities will be thrown at you, just to test whether you're using pure faith or still falling back on some reason. The more you suspend reason, the more absurdities you buy, a positive feedback loop that can lead to a final state where absurdity is reality and reality is absurdity.
Meanwhile, the prophet is collecting a dividend, which represents an equilibrating or stabilizing factor. If the absurdity goes too far, you get Koresh and Jones-like outcomes that naturally limit the reproductive "fitness" of that religion. If the absurdity doesn't go far enough, subjects haven't been sufficiently stripped of reason and aren't captured in the feedback loop. If the absurdity is "just right", you get a balance where the subjects are captured but don't crash, and the dividend to the prophet supports a virtual R&D operation where a priest-class is a self-justifying occupation.
Religions stabilize at this bench...until something comes along and breaks the feedback loop. For example, Catholicism is still around but it's never been the same since the printing press. After 500 years of exposition it's no longer vastly imminent over governments and militaries, and it's safe almost anywhere to criticize and reject it. It is widely disbelieved by its own members, and resorting to a very soft-handed existence.
Mormonism is heading down the same road. No doubt it will be around for centuries, but not as the authoritarian regime it has been and still is. The new printing press of the internet is spilling all the beans, and Mormonism increasingly, albeit stubbornly, has to stand in its own excrement in the open, no longer able to ignore absurdities that are increasingly apparent.
Islam, on the other hand, is going to be a tough trunk to dig up. It is still imminent over governments and militaries, and still has a monopoly on the cultural paradigm in Islamic countries.
But it's not in a vacuum. The culture clash between Islam and the rest of the world will reach an equilibrium, inevitably, but how many will suffer and die first?

About ten percent of your income...