“The tenets of Mormonism are not a threat to America or to Western Civilization, AFAIK, unlike mohammedism.”
Um, are you aware that Mormonism, since its founding by Joseph Smith Jr, has consistently compared itself favorably to Islam and claimed to be the bridge between Christianity and Islam?
Are you aware that the two religions have close ties and that as recently as last Spring both Mormon and Islamic religious scholars gathered for a joint conference in Utah?
Are you aware that up until the Oklahoma bombing, the biggest act of domestic terrorism, which happened on September 11 by the way, was the Mountain Meadow Massacre perpetuated by Mormons?
I know a lot of Mormons who are good people. I also have a lot of Muslim friends who I consider good people. But in terms of comparing Islam and Mormonism - with the exception of Islam being monotheistic - there are way more similarities between the two religions than there are between either religion and Christianity.
Sorry, that is just not accurate.
The LDS Church spoke out forcefully against radical Islam both before, and particularly after 911.
Many LDS have gone off to fight (my son in law is one of them) and many have been injured and died. Service in the Armed forces of the US is respected and encouraged in the Chruch and there are many who serve.
There are church members who do seek ways to speak with what they deem as peaceful Muslims who are open to discussion and try and find common ground so there can be understanding and peaceful reltions...but the two belief systems at their core or diamterically opposed. Fundamental Islam seeks world domination at the point of a sword, either you join, are enslaved, or die.
The LDS Church prosilytes through pure free choice and tries to speak with and discuss with people and let them make up their own mind...and does not seak to “rule the world”. We believe Christ will rule the world when he returns.
The LDS Church proclaims Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Atoner for all mankind and the only path for mankind back to God. Islam denies the divinity of Jesus Christ and the Atonement.
One quote is repeatedly used by Joseph Smith when he indicated that if persecutions continued at the time (when He and Far West Missouri, a town of several thousand Mormons that were surrounded by Militia and Regular Armies of the State of Missouri in the 1830s acting under the infamous Mormon Extermination order by Governor Boggs at the time) that he would be the next Mohammed to his enmies. Smith was emotionally involved to the extreme, facing the defeat and potential butchery of his friends and neighbors and members of his church and trying to defend them with less than 1000 men against many times that number.
He made this statement during that highly charged encounter. Most people on the western frontier did not even know of islam, and those that did were certainly not acquainted with its bloody reality as we are today. I beleive he was wrong to say it based on all of that, but I do not believe he meant at all to equate the LDS church at the time then, or now, with Islam.
As it was, he surrendered, was imprisoned and his town ransacked and all of the people, men women and children forced to give up their lawfully owned possessions, land and hoses and leave the state on foot in the dead of winter. they literally left a trail of blood as they walked across the state to Illinois and crossed the river to safety at the time.
So, I will give Joseph Smith some understanding and leeway on that quote, given the circumstances and emotions, even though I disagree with what he said.
As it is, the LDS church is not confederated with, or like fundamental islam in the least and IMHO it is a grave insult to the blood of those LDS Americans who have shed their blood in the fight against it to try and marginalize and demonize their faith in this manner.