Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Mormonism does Not Find Big Love in Egypt

Mormonism is still causing controversy in its own way in the United States since the days of Joseph Smith. From polygamy to the presidential candidate to powerful lobbying to Freemasonic relations and conspiracy theories to their own sets of believes , all that made the Church a constant
Despite having a church in Maadi and organized congregation for American Mormon expats and Egyptians who joined the church abroad since 1974 , Egypt does not recognize Mormonism. In 2000 President Mubarak met LED leaders promised them to recognize Mormonism if other Christian sects recognize them , of course this is a polite apology because the other Christian sects led by the St. Mark Orthodox Church consider Mormonism as heresy. Of course according to law it is legal to perform missionary and preaching in Egypt in the first place.
Egyptians do not know Mormons or Mormonism in general but they will hear more about them after the arrest of a Mormon group preaching people in Sohag and Luxor governorates in Upper Egypt to join Mormonism. That group was headed by American writer and took Abydos temple as a center for their activities , they aroused suspicion with their strange prayers that mixed between ancient Egyptian prayers and Coptic prayers.


Before the news of arresting that group found its way in Al Shorouk , their bizarre existing in Upper Egypt had found its way in Al Wafd newspaper earlier last week in a small report about the religious groups , sects and cults that come to practice their religious rituals inspired by ancient Egyptians beliefs among which the Mormons.
Al Wafd report 
The small report in Al Wafd was speaking about their meetings Luxor governorate and that they were headed by Egyptian American writer "not American only as in Al Shorouk's report" and that they used to worship Osiris. I do not know if they were gathering at the Great Osiris temple or the temple of Seti aka Um Seti. 
First of all what brings to Mormonism to Egypt or ancient Egyptian civilization and in particular to deserted temples in Upper Egypt !!?? As far as I know and read there is some relation between Ancient Egypt and Mormonism  beside the usual biblical connection we all know , I do not know if it reaches to the level pilgrimage to ancient deserted temples and ancient Egyptian prayers or not thought.
When Joseph Smith JR had published the book of Mormon , he claimed that it had been originally written in what he called  "Reformed Egyptian". Reformed Egyptian is not recognized scientifically or historically by Egyptologists and despite some relate it to Demotic  , it is very unlikely to be related to it. The name of Mormon is originally a mix between the English word "More" and the ancient Egyptian deity "Amun" . Abydos temples are among the holiest places for Osiris as far   as I know.  
Before Al Shorouk and Al Wafd ,Al Dostor published very interesting and very professional report about Mormonism which some may see biased against it. The report is simply a personal experience of Egyptian journalist Mohamed Said Mahfouz who found one day two Mormon missionaries knocking his door in London calling him to join Mormonism and out of curiosity he decided to discover more and more to the level of showing interest in joining that religion that he has never heard before. The report did not come with anything new for me before except that the Mormons' promise land is in Oman not Palestine and as we have been already being hurt because of the lost promise land of Jews and Zionist Christians in Jerusalem , we can't afford to find Oman as the promise land for the Mormons too !!
Now back to our issue , I checked the LDS mission network to find more info about that missionary that was arrested and deported eventually and I found Egypt was not listed in the LDS missionary network in Africa 
so the whole thing puzzles me a little bit especially it was not highlighted in the media.
With all my due respect to the Mormons ,I believe it is not their mistake but rather the mistake of the authorities that left a group of foreigners do whatever they want in historical landmark like Abydos temple , where is the hell Dr. Zahi Hawas !!?? Where are the guards of the temple !!?? Honestly thank God they were only Mormons and not the temple of Set.

7 comments:

  1. There are 23 recognized religions on earth today and each one claims that their God is the real one, so this makes me very confused.

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    Replies
    1. there is only one god ..just a bunch of people who do not truly understand who he is

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  2. It is time that Egyptians learnt to read Hieroglyphics, to read the writings on the temple walls: Teach children beginning from eight years until graduation from school. No bullshit can follow.

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  3. assalamualaykum, zenobia...

    i am a malaysian student in egypt, a silent reader who read your blog since last year. i never put a comment before, but today i feel necessary to do so, but it is a about a different topic, nothing about mormonism at all, sorry :)

    anyway, the thing is, i hope you can write something about China products that are easily found in Egypt nowadays, especially leather products.

    Recently, i wanted to buy shoes for my son, and those from China are actually made from pig skin....yes, pig skin!

    In my country, we already being cautious about China leather shoes/belt/anything from leather...if it is from pig skin, we won't buy it. As far as I know, Muslims are prohibited from using pig skin. Is it allowed for Muslim in Egypt? (Malaysians are mazhab As-Shafi'iyyah,by the way).

    So, again, please look into this matter. Thank you very much.

    here are some of links with questions related to pig skin products.

    http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar%2FFatwaE%2FFatwaEAskTheScholar&cid=1133694685810


    http://www.gmwa.org.uk/foodguide2/index.php?id=151&page=viewquestion


    http://www.sunniforum.com/forum/showthread.php?28545-Pig-Skin-in-Shoes-Some-Information/page2

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  4. Same here,first time to add a comment but been following you even on twitter,
    anyways , check out what "Roger waters" said after re-making his famous song we shall overcome again.
    I did this to protest the current blockade of Gaza. To protest the fact that the people of Gaza live in a virtual prison. To protest the fact that a year after the terror attack by Israeli armed forces destroyed most of their homes, hospitals, schools, and other public buildings, they have no possibility to rebuild because their borders are closed. The would be Freedom Marchers wanted to peacefully draw attention to the predicament of the Palestinian population of Gaza. The Egyptian government, (funded to the tune of $2.1 billion a year, by us, the US tax payers), would not allow the marchers to approach Gaza. How lame is that? And how predictable! I live in the USA and during this time Dec 25th 2009-Jan3rd 2010 I saw no reference to Gaza or the Freedom March or the multi national protesters gathered there. Anyway I was moved, in the circumstances, to record a new version of " We shall overcome". It seems appropriate. Roger Waters Many thanks to G.E Smith: lead guitar and Thor Jonsson, drum programming and whatever. Thanks guys!!!. I did this to protest the current blockade of Gaza. To (less)

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  5. @anonymous , old religions do not recognize religions that came after it and monotheistic religions do not recognize non monotheistic religions , this is life my dear friend.

    @anonymous#2 it was actually suggested , I believe we should learn it like Latin abroad

    @Nour Ismail , thank you so much for info , I did not know before that the Chinese leather products are made of pigs :(
    Of course we as Muslims do not approve it !! It is sad because the Chinese leather is killing our national leather industry which is old as this country !!!
    This is too much , Mubarak let our markets to be dumped and to be cheated !!

    @anonymous#3 I respect this man so much

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  6. I am a American, and live in a place full of Mormons. I have been in their Temples, and performed their rituals. And let me tell you, it is a cult. There is nothing holy or sacred going on in a Mormon Temple. Most who experience it the first time, don't enjoy that aspect of their religion. But you have to do the rituals to obtain the highest glory in the next life. Egypt is wise to keep this religion out of your country. Trust me, it takes years to leave the cult if born into it. So converting to it, I would never recommend.

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