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<\/a>New today on the barely-still-breathing website of the Interpreter Foundation: \u00a0Conversations with Interpreter<\/em>: Jeff Bradshaw: \u201cTwo New Books on Abraham and Sarah\u201d<\/a>:<\/p>\n Jeffrey M. Bradshaw discusses two new commentaries on the life and ministry of Abraham, Sarah, and their families. The first of these books is part of his commentary series on Genesis, In God\u2019s Image and Likeness<\/em>, written with co-authors (and Conversations with Interpreter<\/em> guests) Matthew Bowen and John Thompson. The second book is a shorter version called Look unto Abraham and Sarah<\/em>. In this episode, Dr. Bradshaw explores the advantage of a commentary format for Latter-day Saints, pointing ways in which this format can help us become richer readers of the scriptures. He also discusses how the Abrahamic Covenant impacts women and men in our desires to become more like God and to follow the covenant example of not only Patriarchs like Abraham, but also Matriarchs like Sarah and Hagar.<\/p>\n More information on Volume 3 of In God\u2019s Image and Likeness<\/em> is available here: https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/books\/in-gods-image-and-likeness-3<\/a>, while more information on Look unto Abraham and Sarah<\/em> can be found here: https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/books\/look-unto-abraham-and-sarah<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n While dumpster diving the other day (for reasons obscure even to me) in a seriously and very unpleasantly anti-Muslim location online \u2014 see \u201cAt Least You Can Spray for Cockroaches\u201d<\/a> \u2014 I came across claims that Japan and the Japanese have been wiser than we in America have been with respect to Islam and Muslims. \u00a0In what way? \u00a0The Japanese have, so the claims go, banned the construction of mosques, and they have forbidden halal<\/em> food and public Muslim prayer. \u00a0But none of these claims is true.\u00a0 Article 20 of the Japanese constitution guarantees freedom of religion to all<\/span>. \u00a0(For some reason, there seem to be many easily-refuted similar<\/em> claims regarding Islam, Muslims, the Japanese, and Japan that are circulating online: See, from Reuters, \u201cFact Check: Online list of Japan\u2019s \u2018restrictions on Islam\u2019 includes false claims.\u201d<\/a>)<\/p>\n As of late 2024\u20132025, the Muslim population in Japan was estimated to be somewhere between 350,000 and 420,000, which would represent roughly 0.3% of the country\u2019s total population. \u00a0The Islamic community is said to be rapidly growing and to be composed, primarily, of foreign residents from Indonesia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh (about 90%), in addition to roughly 46,000\u201350,000 Japanese converts. \u00a0These Muslims in Japan are served by about 115 mosques, marking a significant increase from just fifteen back in 2000 or so.<\/p>\n In honor of the supposed (and supposedly admirable) Japanese no-mosques policy, the theme of my illustrations for today\u2019s blog entry is Japanese mosques.<\/p>\n And, while I\u2019m at it, I\u2019m proud of this recent news story from southern Utah: \u201cLDS institute opens doors to host Ramadan gathering in St. George\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Incidentally, in that same odoriferous dumpster of anti-Muslim bigotry where I was browsing, horrified, the other day, two newly posted items caught my attention just now: \u00a0Supporting the unconstitutional idea that Muslims should be banned from holding public office, one commenter irrelevantly points out that \u201cThis is not a Muslim country.\u201d \u00a0(It\u2019s also, I would note, not a Catholic country, nor a Jewish, Latter-day Saint, Buddhist<\/a>, or Methodist one.) \u00a0Another observes, in that same context, that the Second Amendment to the Constitution offers a way to get rid of \u201cdisease.\u201d \u00a0You\u2019ll perhaps remember<\/em> the Second Amendment. \u00a0It reads, wholly and in full, as follows:<\/p>\n A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I\u2019m appalled, horrified, and deeply disheartened by such examples of ignorant religious bigotry and fear, and I caution any Latter-day Saint who might be tempted by political ideology to join the anti-Islamic bandwagon that such language (\u201cdisease,\u201d in this most recent case) can easily be turned, and has historically been<\/em> turned, against believers in the Restoration. \u00a0In the nineteenth century, Latter-day Saints were variously described as \u201cdiseased,\u201d a \u201cplague,\u201d a \u201cdegenerate\u201d threat, and a \u201cforeign contagion.\u201d \u00a0This style of rhetoric was deployed to justify both extralegal violence and tyrannical legal action like the 1838 Missouri \u201cextermination order.\u201d<\/p>\n Among the seventeen Latter-day Saint left dead in Missouri as a result of the Haun\u2019s Mill Massacre of 30 October 1838 were ten-year-old Sardius Smith and nine-year-old Charles Merrick.<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u201cNits make lice\u201d was a phrase that was used to justify their murder; unless prevented, children grow up to be adults.<\/span><\/p>\n It turns out that<\/p>\n As is my frequent habit, I close this blog entry with a pair of dreadful discoveries from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 New today on the barely-still-breathing website of the Interpreter Foundation: \u00a0Conversations with Interpreter: Jeff Bradshaw: \u201cTwo New Books on Abraham and Sarah\u201d: Jeffrey M. Bradshaw discusses two new commentaries on the life and ministry of Abraham, Sarah, and their families. The first of these books is part of his commentary series on Genesis, In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":115387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[67,66,13933,2905,788,1769],"class_list":["post-115375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abraham","tag-islam","tag-japan","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-mormon","tag-muslim"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/a>
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