page_title: Islam and Mormonism
section_title: Images
hierarchical_section_title: Islam and Mormonism / Mormons and Muslims / Images
caption_attribution_description: مسجد القائد إبراهيم - حجرة الوضوء بالمسجد English: Qaed Ibrahim Mosque - the Wodo'a (ritual ablution) room with Şadirvans.
context_page_description: Islam and Mormonism have been compared to one another ever since the earliest origins of the latter in the nineteenth century, often by detractors of one religion or the other—or both. For instance, Joseph Smith, the founding prophet of Mormonism, was referred to as "the modern Mahomet" by the New York Herald, shortly after his murder in June 1844. This epithet repeated a comparison that had been made from Smith's earliest career, one that was not intended at the time to be complimentary. Comparison of the Mormon and Muslim prophets still occurs today, sometimes for derogatory or polemical reasons but also for more scholarly and neutral purposes. While Mormonism and Islam certainly have many similarities, there are also significant, fundamental differences between the two religions. Mormon–Muslim relations have historically been cordial; recent years have seen increasing dialogue between adherents of the two faiths, and cooperation in charitable endeavors. In terms of a mainstream Islamic as well as Christian perspective, Mormons are sometimes compared to Ahmadiyya in that they are sometimes not accepted as belonging within mainstream Christianity and Islam, respectively.
context_section_description: According to the Quran, idolatry or assigning partners to the One God (Arabic: shirk‎) is an egregious sin. It is seen as different from all other sins and is categorized as the one and only categorically unforgivable sin. Hence, depicting religious themes, and specifically God, is seen as inappropriate and unbecoming. Islam does not believe that Allah may be depicted in any artistic manner whatsoever, nor represented by any kind of image, no matter what reason one may have for doing so. Furthermore, the Sunni portion of Islam, comprising approximately 85% of the world's Muslims, also rejects all depictions of their prophets – whether artistic or photographic (as in a movie). For instance, the 1998 Dreamworks animated film The Prince of Egypt was banned in Egypt, Malaysia, the Maldives and Indonesia, as these predominately Muslim countries objected to any depiction of Moses, whom Islam views as a prophet.
  Latter-day Saints do not generally approve of or own crucifixes, and do not typically have statues in their local ward meeting houses, though some have been erected in LDS Visitor Centers and elsewhere. Portraits of Jesus, together with photographs or paintings of current and/or past church leaders, are allowed in LDS meetinghouses, but not in the main worship area (called the Chapel), and they are not permitted for use as objects of devotion, as in Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox churches. An exception to the general ban on statues is for an angel blowing a trumpet, commonly identified as Moroni, which is placed on the tallest spire of many LDS temples, facing eastward. These are, however, purely artistic in nature.
caption: Muslims performing Wudu, the ritual of washing one's hands, arms, feet and head prior to Salat or other prayers.
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