Tag Archives: history

Muslims and Mormons: A case study in deception

Leave a reply

Muslims and Mormons: A case study in deception by Peter Burrows 6/24/25 

“Muslims and Latter-day Saints: Beliefs, Values and Lifestyles,” is a 35-page pamphlet published in January of 2022 by the Mormon church. Its stated purpose is to introduce Muslims and Mormons to each other.  

www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/muslims-and-latter-day-saints?lang=eng 

As is typical of interfaith efforts between non-Muslims and Muslims, there’s not one word criticizing Islam. The Muslims have done a wonderful job convincing members of other faiths that to be critical of Islam is to be a bigot or a racist, facts be damned. I think this pamphlet shows the Mormons are no exception.  

The introduction tells us pretty much everything we need to know about the pamphlet, namely, it’s an attempt to ingratiate Mormons with Muslims and foreclose any criticism of Islam by Mormons. It lists these important points about the pamphlet: 

  1. It is “a conscientious effort to provide dignity and tolerance” for Muslims; 
  1. “Does not interpret the Qur’an” but instead relies on “Muslim scholars and religious leaders” to explain the tenets of Islam; 
  1.  It seeks “– to portray these tenets in a positive and engaging manner.” 
  1. It “– does not make judgments regarding these beliefs or practices.” 
  1. It requests “forbearance and patience if any of its words or efforts fall short” of satisfying Muslims that Mormons are not doing their best to understand Islam in the way Muslims want them to. 

As I read the above, Mormons are virtually begging to be deceived. They won’t question anything Muslims assert, and by some strange reasoning they seem to think that’s a virtue. This raises a fundamental question, one we can ask of all Muslim apologists: at what point does willful ignorance turn into stupidity?  

The Mormons are making two fundamental mistakes, the first being to rely on Muslims to explain Islam, something that should NEVER be done because Islam obligates Muslims to lie to achieve Islam’s primary goal: a world ruled by Islam. (See Reliance of the Traveller(sic) A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law, pgs. 745 and 600.) 

In that world there would be no Mormon temples. The Tabernacle in Salt Lake City would be turned into a mosque, and its magnificent organ smashed into a million pieces and spread in front of the new mosque so that Muslims can show their contempt for The Latter-Day Saints as they walk in to pray. That’s what conquering Muslims did to Hindu Temples and their contents when Muslims invaded India. (See Robert Spencer’s book, “The History of Jihad,” pgs. 177-178.)  

The second fundamental mistake is to stress apparent commonalities of Islam and Mormonism instead of the differences. This is like comparing a garter snake to a rattle snake. Yes, they have a great deal in common, but don’t you think we should concentrate on how they differ? In fact, don’t you think NOT being aware of the differences could be, literally, a matter of life and death?   

That’s very much true with Islam. If Mormons read the Koran, they would learn that Allah sent Muhammad the True Religion, Islam, with the guidance to “make it prevail over all religions, howsoever those who associate others with Allah in His Divinity might detest it.” (Verse 9:33) That’s probably an understatement, since Verse 9:5 directs Muslims to KILL such people “wherever you find them” unless they become Muslims.  

Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians and other “people of the book,” i.e., the Bible, get a third option. Since they follow Allah’s pre-Koran revelations and Allah’s pre-Muhammad prophets, those backward souls are allowed to live in an Islamic society if they adhere to a very strict set of rules. 

This life-saving option, however, does not extend to “those who do not have a Sacred Book or something that could have been a Book. — As for the psuedoscriptures of cults that have appeared since Islam, such as the Mormons, they neither are nor could be a Book since the Koran is the final revelation.” (Reliance of the Traveller – pg. 607, slightly edited for brevity.) 

So, Islamic Sacred Law considers Mormons a cult and The Book of Mormon a psuedoscripture. I doubt if this little detail was mentioned in the “hours of conversation and study by religious scholars and others” that went into the making of “Muslims and Latter-Day Saints.”  

Admittedly, that’s not something that reading just the Koran would have revealed. However, the Koran is all anybody needs to show Muslim deceit in a couple of verses quoted in the pamphlet section, “Love for God and Humanity:”  

“Muslims and Latter-day Saints believe that by loving God and all humankind, peace and goodness will ultimately prevail. They devote their lives to living and teaching these principles. The Qur’an teaches Muslims, “Whoever saves a life, it will be as if they saved all of humanity” (5:32) and “Indeed, God is with those who are of service to others” (29:69).” 

Quoting Verse 5:32 out of context is one of the oldest tricks in the Muslim book. That they would do so shows their confidence in the gullibility of the Mormons. Here’s the quotation in context of both the complete verse AND THE FOLLOWING VERSE, slightly edited for brevity, my emphasis: 

Verse 5:32:  “We ordained for the Children of Israel that he who slays a soul unless it be in punishment for murder or for spreading mischief on Earth shall be as if he had slain all mankind; and he who saves a life shall be as if he had given life to all mankind. And indeed, again and again did our Messengers come to them with clear directives, yet many of them continued to commit excesses on earth.” 

Verse 5:33: “Those who wage war against Allah and his Messenger and go about the earth spreading mischief – indeed their recompense is that they either be done to death or be crucified” or have their hands and feet cut off.  

In other words, Allah warned the JEWS not to kill without reason, and Muhammad also gave them “clear directives,” which means he told the Jews to accept Islam. Most Jews refused and fought the Muslims. Muslims can kill anybody who wages “war against Allah and His Messenger” and have been doing so for 1400 years, not showing any love whatsoever for “all humankind.”   

Verse 29:69 also has a different meaning when quoted in full: “As for those who strive in Our cause, We shall surely guide them to Our Ways. Indeed, Allah is with those who do good.” “OUR cause” and” OUR Ways” refers to Islam.   “Strive in our cause” includes jihad in the name of Allah.  In other words, Muslims will kill Mormons when the time comes because that will be doing “good.”   

As an aside, in three of my four translations, 29:69 ends with “Allah is with those who do good,” the fourth ends with “Allah is with those who do right.”  I don’t know which translation the pamphlet quoted to get “God is with those who are of service to others,” but regardless, you can be sure “others” means “other Muslims.” Allah, you see, does not “love all humankind,” only Muslims. (See Verses 3:31 and 3:32.) 

Allah also warns Muslims not to befriend non-Muslims such as Mormons: “Believers!  Do nor take the unbelievers as your allies in preference to the believers.” (V4:144) That includes “People of the Book”: “Believers! Do not take Jews and Christians for your allies!” (V5:51) That’s understandable. After all, Jews and Christians are “the worst of creatures.”  (V98:6) 

I could find fault with many more things about the pamphlet, but I’m afraid it would be a waste of time. People briming with Beatific self-righteousness are fact-proof.  Hopefully, a Mormon here and there will learn the reality of Islam and begin the long process of educating other Mormons. We need strong religious as well as secular opposition to the spread of Islam. 

The Koran is a good place to start. I strongly recommend the translation by Pakistani scholar and political leader Sayyid Mawdudi. It has extensive explanations of many verses from the perspective of a devout Muslim, not gullible non-Muslims, of whom Mormons are only a tiny fraction. It’s available on Amazon. It helps greatly if you know HOW to read the Koran. For that, go to Amazon and look for my book “How to read the Koran (and understand Islam).” 

On a personal note, my wife and I had never met any Mormons until we moved to Silver City. One of the first people we met was the Mormon lady across the street, the late Sharon Anderson. She quickly became the best friend we’ve ever had and we miss her every day. Other Mormons we’ve met are also wonderful people, and it’s distressing to see their church led astray.  

Addendum: Here’s a 30-minute video of two Elders in the Mormon church introducing the pamphlet when it was published. If you can find 30 minutes of sanctimonious ignorance that equals this, please don’t share it with me. This is enough to last a lifetime or two. 

www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/video/interfaith-relations-videos?lang=eng 

Remembering The Pulse Massacre

Leave a reply

Remembering The Pulse massacre  

Today marks 9th anniversary of the most murderous act of hatred in the history of this country. In the early morning hours of June 12, 2015, Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old American born Muslim, shot and killed 49 people and injured another 53 at The Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. 

As I scan the newspapers today, I don’t see any mention of this. Why not? If a white supremacist had gone into a black church and killed 49 people and wounded 53 more, there would be Memorial services all over the country, and politicians of both parties  would be gravely warning us of the moral imperative for America to stamp out bigotry, racism, etc., etc., ad nauseum.  

The reason The Pulse nightclub massacre is not being commemorated reflects the moral hierarchy of both victim and victimizer in woke America, as well as rank hypocrisy. Black victims and a white shooter, we’d be hearing a lot about it. So, too, if the gays had been shot by a straight, white Christian. Considering June is “Pride Month,” we can be sure that straight white Christians would be demonized.  

As it was, the shooter was a Muslim, and Muslims killing white gays will not be remembered in the press or from the pulpit, because Muslims, along with gays, are oppressed victims in America, and in fact are even MORE oppressed. Just a mentally disturbed individual who happened to be a Muslim. Move along folks, nothing to see here. 

This, despite Mateen declaring himself a devout Muslim on a 911 call while he was doing the shooting: “Praise be to God and prayers as well as peace be upon the prophet of God.” On his Facebook page, he pledged allegiance to the leader of the then nascent state of ISIS, and wrote, “may Allah accept me.”    

Over the next two days ISIS declared Mateen an “Islamic State fighter” and “one of the soldiers of the Caliphate in America” who had “attacked a nightclub for homosexuals.” In this, he was only obeying Muhammad: “Kill the one who sodomizes and the one who lets it be done to him.” (Reliance of the Traveller(sic), A Classic Manuel of Islamic Sacred Law, page 665.) 

I’m reminded of all this because less than two weeks ago in Boulder, CO, Muhamed Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian-born Muslim, threw Molotov cocktails at a group of elderly Jews who were marching to free hostages held by Hamas, injuring 15. Soliman, like Mateen, left no doubt about his motivation, telling his family: “I attest before Allah and before you that Allah, His Messenger, and Jihad for Alice’s sake are more beloved to me than you and the whole world are.”     

Soliman, 45, had attempted to buy a gun but couldn’t because he is not a citizen. The background check worked and probably saved a lot of lives.  Soliman has lived in America since 2022 with his wife and five children, who now face deportation as their visas expired on March 28.  

There was nothing about Soliman’s behavior that suggested that he might be a threat to anybody, EXCEPT FOR THE FACT THAT HE IS A MUSLIM. Right on cue, the Boulder police chief said, “We are not calling it a terror attack at this point. It is way too early to speculate on a motive.”  

What is there to speculate about when the attacker has made his motive perfectly clear?  I have wondered for many years when we’re going to start believing the Muslims. I’ve come to the conclusion that we never will, and that the only option for people who feel threatened by Muslims is to protect themselves.   

This is especially true for American Jews, most of whom, unfortunately, live in New York state, where it is extremely difficult to get a permit to carry a concealed gun. There are 26 states in which a concealed carry permit is not required for law abiding citizens, but New York is not one of them. (Nor is New Mexico.) 

To circumvent this, I would suggest to President Trump that he issue an Executive Order authorizing the FBI to grant concealed carry permits. This would bypass state laws that essentially make self-defense illegal. Self-defense should not be something law-abiding citizens forfeit to criminals, ever.   

Sadly. I’m afraid many liberal Jews would oppose this.     

If Iran gets nuclear weapons, they will use them

Leave a reply

If Iran gets nuclear weapons, they will use them by Peter Burrows 4/30/25 elburropete@gmail.com 

On August 8, 2006, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by Bernard Lewis, a British American historian who was regarded as one of the foremost experts on the Middle East. In that article, published almost 19 years ago, Lewis pointed out the dangers inherit in Iran having nuclear weapons. 

Namely, while other nations are deterred from using nuclear weapons because of the threat of nuclear retaliation, known as the MAD doctrine, mutually assured destruction, this is NOT a deterrence for Iran.  In fact, given Iran’s Islamic dogma, “MAD is not a constraint; it is an inducement.”  (Emphasis in original.) (1)  

This is as true today as it was then, and the fact that so many Western leaders still think it is possible to negotiate a lasting peace with Iran shows how little we’ve learned. The results could be catastrophic.  

One of the rules of warfare, emphasized 2500 years ago by Sun Tzu in The Art of War, is to know your enemy. I don’t know of any Western leader who has said anything that indicates they know our enemy. This is what they should know: 

Our enemies in Iran are Shia Muslims who believe that the twelfth and last Shia Imam was 5-year-old Muhammad al-Mahdi, a direct descendent of Muhammad, who was rescued from Sunni persecution by Allah in 854 A.D. The still living Mahdi, now 1,160 years old, has been in a state of occultation waiting for Allah to send him back to lead the Shias in their conquest of the world.   

Sometimes called the Hidden Imam, his followers are known as Mahdaviats or Twelvers. Millions of them have made a pilgrimage to a well at the Jamkaran Mosque near the city of Qom, where it is believed Allah hid him.  

The sad truth is that the little boy was probably kidnapped and murdered by the Sunnis as part of the nascent Sunni-Shia struggle for dominance, and perhaps his remains were thrown down that well. We’ll never know. The Shias and Sunnis have been fighting each other ever since, something non-Muslims can be thankful for. 

The Shias are only about 15 percent of all Muslims in the world but virtually 100% of the Muslims in Iran, of which about 90% would be considered Mahdaviats. Whatever theological differences might exist between Sunnis and Shias or between different sects of Shias, is irrelevant considering it’s the Mahdaviats who could have their finger on the nuclear trigger.  

That is why it is so important that we know that the Mahdaviates believe the return of the Twelfth Imam will occur in a time of great chaos, and if they can initiate that chaos, they will be simply hastening the day of Shia rule and world salvation. What better way to be proactive in such a holy cause than to use nuclear weapons against the unbelievers, starting with Israel? 

It is immaterial if this results in the death of the Iranians because they will be in Paradise, their promised reward for dying in the cause of Allah, something true for all Muslims, not just Shias. From the Quran, Mawdudi translation: 

Verse 9:38: “Believers! What is amiss with you that when it is said to you: “March forth in the cause of Allah,” you cling heavily to the earth? Do you prefer the worldly life to the Hereafter? Know well that all the enjoyment of this world, in comparison with the Hereafter, is trivial.” 

Verse 9:111: “Surely Allah has purchased of the Believers their lives and their belongings and in return has promised that they shall have Paradise. They fight in the Way of Allah and slay and are slain. Such is the promise He has made incumbent upon Himself —. Rejoice then in the bargain you have made with Him.” (Slightly edited for brevity.) 

While those verses apply to all Muslims, the Mahdaviates believe in a specific apocalyptic event, the return of the Hidden Imam, believed by no other Islamic sect. This means they are uniquely dangerous. To that point, here’s what the founder of the Iranian Shia theocracy, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, is quoted as saying: 

“I am decisively announcing to the whole world that if the world-devourers (the infidel powers) wish to stand against our religion, we will stand against their whole world and will not cease until the annihilation of all them. Either we all become free, or we will go to the greater freedom which is martyrdom. Either we shake one another’s hand in joy at the victory of Islam in the world, or all of us will turn to eternal life and martyrdom.  In both cases, victory and success are ours.” (2) 

Let that sink in: “IN BOTH CASES, VICTORY AND SUCCESS ARE OURS.” I don’t think it’s necessary to note that in both cases, whether defeated or not, a helluva lot of death and destruction will be visited upon the non-Muslims, us infidels, by these fanatically religious Muslims. 

The Ayatollah Khomeini died in 1989, but his successors have not deviated from Mahdi orthodoxy.  The current Supreme Leader of Iran is the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who last year said that any retreat from punishing Israel for assassinating a Hamas leader when he was in Tehran would risk “divine wrath.” (3)  

Trump has been elected since then and is spouting a lot of tough talk about Iran’s nuclear program. He says it’s unacceptable for them to ever get a nuclear weapon, yet he’s negotiating with them. Why? There’s nothing to negotiate.  Is his rhetoric merely a gambit in “the art of the deal?” 

In the short run, risking Trump’s decidedly undivine wrath may be something the Ayatollah wants to avoid, but in the long run we can be sure that it’s avoiding the “Divine wrath” that matters. This means he’ll play Trump’s ego and negotiate a deal for the self-anointed world’s greatest deal maker, a deal which might even get Trump nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. All that such a deal will do, unless it has on-site monitoring and on-demand access to anyplace in Iran, is buy more time for the Iranians to continue developing nuclear weapons.   

After all, they have been waiting for almost 1,200 years for Muhammad al-Mahdi to lead the Shias to eternal victory in the cause of Allah, so a few more years or decades is of little consequence. As one Muslim famously said, “You’ve got the watches, we’ve got the time.” 

I haven’t given up hope, though. Trump just appointed Mark Levin to the Homeland Security Advisory Council, and Levin is smart, tough and Jewish. You probably know him from his TV show, “Life liberty and Levin” which airs twice a week on Fox. This past Sunday, April 27, his guest was Alan Dershowitz, another smart, tough, Jew, and they talked about the danger that a nuclear armed Iran would pose to Israel. 

They both agreed that Iran should never have nuclear weapons, that negotiating is a mistake, and that anybody advising Trump to make a deal is simply wrong. I hope Trump takes their advice.  

1) www.wsj.com/articles/SB115500154638829470  

2)  ibid  

3) www.iranintl.com/en/202408148230 

Other sources: 

www.raymondibrahim.com/2023/12/21/mahdism-the-apocalyptic-ideology-behind-irans-nuclear-program/ 

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-401858/Why-man-nightmares.html 

www.americanthinker.com/articles/2006/01/ahmadinejad_awaits_the_hidden.html  

en.radiofarda.com/a/ap-was-there-iran-s-1979-islamic-revolution-sweeps-nation/29765359.html 

www.breakpoint.org/preparing-for-the-mahdi/