Defending the Faith: Cherry-picking similarities a powerful way to mislead

"Both religions," continues Youssef, "reject the doctrine of the Trinity." And, truly, Islam does. There is no divine Son of God in Islam; Jesus is a very great prophet but, still, only a prophet. God rules in solitary monotheistic majesty and is neither his father nor ours. Oddly, though, Dr. Youssef fails to mention that Latter-day Saints, unlike Muslims, worship a Godhead consisting of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, believing that Jesus was the Jehovah of the Old Testament and that salvation is possible only through Christ's redeeming Atonement.

Much more could and should be said about Youssef's misleading article. Large differences divide Islam and Mormonism with regard to such issues as the nature of God, marriage, priesthood, continuing revelation, and scores of other issues.

Perhaps he just ran out of space.

In any event, Youssef's essay reminds me of my colleague William Hamblin's fictional "Moses Middlebury" school of philology, according to which "Moses" and "Middlebury" are really the same name. You just have to drop the "-oses" and add the "-iddlebury."

Daniel C. Peterson is a professor of Islamic studies and Arabic at BYU, where he also serves as editor in chief of the Middle Eastern Texts Initiative and as director of advancement for the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. He is the founder of MormonScholarsTestify.org.