![\"Islam](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2025\/12\/IMG_6763-rotated.jpeg\")
<\/a>We stayed in downtown Las Vegas on Saturday night, and I was mildly amused to notice that the floor carpet in our bedroom bore an Islamicate geometric design that I\u2019ve seen previously at the Alhambra in Spain, in various places in Cairo, in the gardens of the Taj Mahal complex in India, and in probably two dozen other places during my travels.<\/p>\n It\u2019s yet more evidence, I suppose, of the way we\u2019re being infiltrated and overrun by Muslims. \u00a0You can put it in your files along with still other sinister examples of covert Muslim influence \u2014 such as Arabic numerals, the concept of zero, and loan words like admiral<\/em>, sugar<\/em>, Aldebaran<\/em>, zenith<\/em>, nadir<\/em>, azimuth<\/em>, alcohol<\/em>, lemon<\/em>, Betelgeuse<\/em>, yoghurt<\/em>, algebra<\/em>, kiosk<\/em>, algorithm<\/em>, arsenal<\/em>, turquoise<\/em>, alfalfa<\/em>, checkmate<\/em>, almanac<\/em>, artichoke<\/em>, and punch<\/em>.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve also seen components of the star pattern on the exterior of the San Diego California Temple. \u00a0Which suggests that Islamic infiltration has penetrated far deeper than we had thought. \u00a0Which, in turn, reminds me of a joke that I ran across some time ago:<\/p>\n A Kennedy-assassination conspiracy theorist dies and goes to heaven. \u00a0When he arrives at the Pearly Gates, God is there to receive him. \u201cWelcome,\u201d says the Lord. \u00a0\u201cYou are permitted to ask me one question, which I will answer truthfully.\u201d<\/p>\n Without hesitating, the conspiracy theorist asks, \u201cWho really shot J0hn F. Kennedy?\u201d<\/p>\n The Lord replies, \u201cLee Harvey Oswald shot him from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. Oswald had no accomplices. He acted alone.\u201d<\/p>\n The conspiracy theorist pauses, briefly ponders what the Lord has told him, and then says to himself, \u201cAmazing! This goes even higher up than I had imagined!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Steve and Marilyn Rizley have been friends of ours for quite a few years now, and generous supporters of the Interpreter Foundation for many of those. \u00a0When we first met them, he was an executive with a large American digital cable television provider, telecommunications, and home automation services company, and, if I\u2019m not mistaken, was also serving as the president of the Scottsdale Arizona Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. \u00a0Since that time, they\u2019ve served in a number of other leadership positions in the Church \u2014 including periods spent presiding over the Ukraine L\u2019viv Mission and, later, over Nauvoo Historic Sites \u2014 and, at present, they chair the Jesse and Amanda Knight Society.<\/a>\u00a0 I was pleased to see them featured in the current issue of Y Magazine<\/em>. \u00a0Since not everybody out there is an alumnus of Brigham Young University and, thus, a recipient of the magazine, and since I really like the stories that they told, I hope they won\u2019t mind my reproducing their accounts here:<\/p><\/blockquote>\n A Truth Learned Early.<\/strong> \u201cEven though I wasn\u2019t raised in the gospel, I knew that I was a child of God. [My family] would go camping on the weekends. Friday after work we would drive at night in our camper. I would lie in my sleeping bag looking out a window at the mountain roads.<\/p>\n \u201cOne night, when I was supposed to be asleep, I heard a voice that said, \u2018Marilyn, get in the cab.\u2019 So I climbed into the cab between my mom and dad. My dad said, \u2018What are you doing here? Get back in the camper and go to sleep.\u2019 I said, \u2018No, you told me to come up here.\u2019 And just then a very large bird went flying through the window, shattering the glass right where my eyes had been looking out at the country road. Glass was on my pillow, and the bird was in the sink of our camper.<\/p>\n \u201cI grew to know my Heavenly Father was watching out for me, and that is why I have my eyes today. As a freshman at BYU in 1974, I received my patriarchal blessing, which tells me my Heavenly Father has been kind to me. And I know that to be true.\u201d (Marilyn Rizley)<\/p>\n A Powerful Family Story.<\/strong> \u201cI grew up going to a wonderful church, but it was not The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My mother\u2019s father had been a bishop in the Church for many years in southeastern Arizona. One day, in 1923 or 1924, he was out plowing a field when a great big summer thunderstorm came up. He ran under a tree, the only tree in the field, and lightning struck him, straight through his head and out his left leg. It blew both of his boots off, and he fell over into the furrow.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring that period of time, he had an experience. He went before Heavenly Father and said, \u2018My family is destitute. I can\u2019t leave my wife and my 10 children. I need time to go back.\u2019 The water in the furrow stanched the burns and actually revived him. In the meantime, he took a handkerchief out of his overalls. All he could move was his arm, and he lay in the middle of a field waving the handkerchief. The Mangum family was driving in their old Ford a half mile away, and Sister Mangum said, \u2018I hear someone calling, stop the car!\u2019 They went back and found him.<\/p>\n \u201cThese stories, which my mother told me, opened the door for me to allow the missionaries to teach me.\u201d \u00a0(Stephen Rizley)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Posted from San Diego, California<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 We stayed in downtown Las Vegas on Saturday night, and I was mildly amused to notice that the floor carpet in our bedroom bore an Islamicate geometric design that I\u2019ve seen previously at the Alhambra in Spain, in various places in Cairo, in the gardens of the Taj Mahal complex in India, and in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":96805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2905,39516,788,4360,39513,641],"class_list":["post-114219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-marilyn-rizley","tag-mormon","tag-san-diego","tag-steve-rizley","tag-temple"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>