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.
I don't agree with Mormons, but I don;t agree with the government arresting them either. So I guess there is no freedom of religion in Egypt.
-------------------- "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." (Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton) Leap and the Net will Appear. Posts: 3891 | From: No good deed goes unpunished. | Registered: May 2007
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As far as I know, anyone can practice whatever religion suits them but they should not attempt to persuade or convert others to this religion. Missionaries usually do exactly that - they attempt to convert.
Posts: 132 | From: Alex | Registered: Oct 2009
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