A Strange System of Terrorism

by Sharon

This might be old news as the blogoshpere goes, but it's worth noting nonetheless.

About 2 weeks ago (24 September) the Salt Lake Tribune ran an interesting article under the "Living History" banner. Sporting no byline, the article drew comparisons between LDS history and radical Islam. Here are a few excerpts.

• What if a Muslim cleric in Riyadh said, "The intention of the Great Satan is to destroy us... If the United States persists in sending armies to destroy us, in the name of Allah we shall conquer them... they will find their own buildings in flames."
  
  What if a radical imam said, "They raise a force to come and slay all the Muslims, men, women, and children... I will raise my sword and slay those who wish to destroy Allah's people!"
  
  As an American, you might feel threatened. You might even send in the troops to smoke terrorists out of their holes.
  
  Oh, did I forget to mention the above quotes are from Brigham Young? Mostly, anyway. I've substituted "Allah" for "God" a time or two…
  
  
• The story of early Mormonism is one of violent persecution. Harassment, imprisonment, dispossession and murder chased the Saints into Utah. Mormons can make a case for being the most persecuted white people in America.
  
  But not all Mormons meekly hummed "Come, Come Ye Saints," while being pistol-whipped. There is The Nauvoo Expositor, for instance, destroyed at the instigation of Joseph Smith. It printed, accurately as it turned out, stories detailing Smith's extracurricular matrimonial activities. The same righteous fervor that burned in the mob's breast that smashed The Expositor animated the Muslim crowds that burned Danish embassies over a cartoon defaming their prophet…
  
  
• Once in Utah, Young started grousing that maybe the people of the beehive should become an independent nation with God as their sovereign, and to hell with the USA.
  
  Washington took notice. The Mormon militia employed classic insurgent tactics when Col. Albert Sidney Johnston's army was sent to restore order. Cattle were run off and supply wagons burned.
  
  As the army approached, it is well-known that Young threatened to burn and blow up everything in its path -- homes, farms, towns -- and fight from mountain redoubts. What isn't as well-known is that he claimed to have agents provocateurs awaiting orders to burn down cities throughout the Midwest and in California.
  
  [U.S. President James] Buchanan wrote that he was told that "such is believed to be the condition to which a strange system of terrorism has brought the inhabitants of that region, that no one among them could express an opinion favorable to this government . . . without exposing his life and property to peril."

Early Mormonism and radical Islam -- sharing a strange system of terrorism.

The LDS Church promotes the idea that,

There are too many divisions in the world. Let us go forward proclaiming common ground and common goals. (LDS Bishop Alan Tong)

I bet these are some commonalities the LDS Church would rather not see proclaimed.