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BYU Hawaii’s First Non-Mormon Student President Credits Mormons for Making Him a Better Muslim
http://www.theblaze.com ^ | April 23, 2012 | Billy Hallowell

Posted on 05/03/2012 12:26:10 PM PDT by reaganaut

Mustapha El Akkari recently became the first non-Mormon student body president at Brigham Young University-Hawaii. Interestingly, El Akkari is a Muslim who credits the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints-affiliated school with making him a better Islamic adherent.

In an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune the business management student, who is at the school on a basketball scholarship, highlighted the ways in which LDS has assisted his faith.

El Akkari, who was born in Tripoli, Lebanon, will be a senior next fall. During the interview, he shared his experience living with a Christian family in America. Additionally, he discussed the culture shock he encountered upon attending BYU, specifically when it comes to the honor code and other strict regulations:

“It was a big shock for me. I read articles about it, but I thought it would be like a normal college. It was none of that. It was really straight with an honor code and all — no tea or coffee meant no tea or coffee. I had lived through a half-Jewish, half-Christian family but not Mormons. But I adjusted right away. I fit in. I’m a little unique — the only Arabic speaker or Lebanese on campus — but I love Hawaiians. I never knew any Polynesians before. I called my parents and told them there were islands in the Pacific where people live. They never knew it. I decided I was going to learn from the experience and bring my culture to them.”

When asked to share how his Islamic faith has been impacted by attending a Mormon university, El Akkari provided some intriguing assessments. In sum, BYU has positively impacted and reinforced his faith.

“Before I came to this school, I was not a practicing Muslim. I had never been to a Muslim school,” he explained. “When I came here, I saw all these religious people who were successful and I thought, ‘I want to be like them. I want to base my life on principles, you can’t fail this way.’”

The student reiterated his belief that Islam is “right” and said that the experience of attending the school caused him to read Muslim books and educate himself.

Mustapha El Akkari Credits Brigham Young University Hawaii for Strengthening His Islamic Faith

“Now I read the Quran, do my five daily prayers and fast during the month of Ramadan. The Mormons kind of woke me up,” El Akkari explained. “I haven’t felt any discrimination from them, but their attempts to convert me always will be there. They believe their religion is right. I don’t really blame them.”

If he goes back to Lebanon after graduation, he said that he will play basketball, as it is easy and is something that he loves. During the interview, he also made mention of his brother, Mohammad El-Akkari, who The Blaze recently covered for scoring a record-breaking 113 points in a single basketball game.


TOPICS: General Discusssion; Religion & Culture; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: inman; mormon; muslim; sourcetitlenoturl
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To: Graybeard58
Wanted to post a big LOL, but the sad sad truth in your last sentence rather takes the air outta the balloon.

Amongst all the signposts to hell that this country has passed in the last decade,
it seems to me that none is more indicative of our societal rot than faggot-appeasement in the military.

21 posted on 05/03/2012 2:59:26 PM PDT by tomkat ( FU.baraq <font finger=middle>)
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To: AnTiw1
Photobucket
22 posted on 05/03/2012 4:33:44 PM PDT by greyfoxx39 (The epitome of stupidity is a member of a proven racist sect running against a black man.)
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To: reaganaut

What in the heck?????


23 posted on 05/03/2012 4:41:22 PM PDT by Osage Orange (The MSM is the most dangerous entity in the United States of America.)
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To: reaganaut; NorthernCrunchyCon
This is indicative of the mormon/muslim connection. Funny, I have very seldom seen articles reporting on mormonism complimenting any Christian denomination, have you?

And we're supposed to support a mormon for POTUS? No way.

1 - A LDS perspective on Muhammed (LDS.org)
http://www.lds.org/ensign/2000/08/a-latter-day-saint-perspective-on-muhammad?lang=eng

2 - U.S. Muslims share friendship, similar values with Mormons (LA Times, published in 2008)
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/02/local/me-morlims2

3 - Mormonism and Islam: Commonality and Cooperation Between Abrahamic Faiths (March 10 & 11, 2011 - Utah Valley University)
http://www.uvu.edu/religiousstudies/mormonismandislam/

4 - Ask a Mormon: What do Mormons think of Muslims (March 2010 - MormonWoman.org)
http://mormonwoman.org/2010/03/15/ask-a-mormon-woman-what-do-mormons-think-about-islam/

5 - Mormons and Muslims break fast together (Ramadan 2010 - Deseret News)
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705386347/Mormons-Muslims-break-the-fast-in-Southern-California.html

6 - Islamic Translation Service (Brigham Young University)
http://meti.byu.edu/islamic.php

7 - Muslims attending BYU focus on similarities between Islam, LDS tenets (Deseret News - Dec 2009)
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705353014/Muslims-attending-BYU-focus-on-similarities-between-Islam-LDS-tenets.html

Links courtesy NorthernCrunchyCon.

24 posted on 05/03/2012 4:44:59 PM PDT by greyfoxx39 (The epitome of stupidity is a member of a proven racist sect running against a black man.)
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To: reaganaut
However, Mormons are a lot less hostile to Muslims than they are Christians.

...and Utes.

25 posted on 05/03/2012 5:25:07 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: Elsie

What's a Ute?

26 posted on 05/03/2012 6:49:12 PM PDT by Cvengr (Adversity in life and death is inevitable. Thru faith in Christ, stress is optional.)
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To: reaganaut
113 pts huh? Must be training for the Hamas Suicide Bomber Basketball Team.


27 posted on 05/03/2012 6:57:10 PM PDT by Cvengr (Adversity in life and death is inevitable. Thru faith in Christ, stress is optional.)
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To: AnTiw1

Ouch. Good one!


28 posted on 05/03/2012 7:38:51 PM PDT by reaganaut (I am a Christian first, a Conservative second and am out of the GOP if Romney gets in.)
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To: Osage Orange

It makes sense actually, they are so close and have the same ‘father’ - Satan.


29 posted on 05/03/2012 7:53:47 PM PDT by reaganaut (I am a Christian first, a Conservative second and am out of the GOP if Romney gets in.)
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To: reaganaut

To the headline: of course he does, both are anti-Christian


30 posted on 05/03/2012 8:13:14 PM PDT by svcw (If one living cell on another planet is life, why isn't it life in the womb?)
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To: Tennessee Nana; reaganaut; greyfoxx39

If muslims are recycling dead wives...

...is this because they are “going green”?

:^P


31 posted on 05/03/2012 8:16:35 PM PDT by AnTiw1 (Men who stand firm against an army of thousands, run when a tiger appears among them. ~ShirKhan~)
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To: AnTiw1

ROFLMAO!!


32 posted on 05/03/2012 8:27:11 PM PDT by reaganaut (I am a Christian first, a Conservative second and am out of the GOP if Romney gets in.)
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To: Cvengr
Some relatives are called Paiutes.


 

The gruesome be headings of some 40 Ute corpses in 1850, heads stacked in boxes,
and hung by their long hair from the eves of buildings at Fort Utah,
 has long been ignored, “You didn’t see the Indians beheading the Mormons.”
 
-- Historian Robert Carter

33 posted on 05/04/2012 5:09:19 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: AnTiw1

Actually; my first wife....


34 posted on 05/04/2012 5:10:23 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: reaganaut

Surely by now...


35 posted on 05/04/2012 5:10:50 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: Elsie
Tau-Gu, chief of the Paiutes, with John Wesley Powell overlooking the Virgin River that now flows into Lake Mead.
36 posted on 05/04/2012 5:15:43 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: reaganaut
I called my parents and told them there were islands in the Pacific where people live. They never knew it.

Wait until they find out things about MORMONism!

37 posted on 05/04/2012 5:17:36 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: Elsie; Colofornian; greyfoxx39

Where are all the Mormon defenders who claim that there is no connection between Islam and Mormonism?


38 posted on 05/04/2012 7:11:06 AM PDT by reaganaut (VAB! Voting against both Romney and Obama. Constitution party, here I come!)
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To: Tennessee Nana; reaganaut; greyfoxx39

AHMED: Abdullah, my friend. I am very sorry to hear of your wife’s passing.

ABDULLAH: Thank you, Ahmed my friend. She was a good wife till the end. I suppose some mormon is baptizing her into his celestial harem even as we speak.

AHMED: I heard you chose to have sex with her for the full 5 hours allowed after she died?

ABDULLAH: Yes, Ahmed, I tell you in confidence, that I took the magic pills and had the wildest rigor mortis monkey love sex that woman will ever know!

AHMED: I understand such a thing is permitted, Allah be praised... but I myself could never contemplate such a thing. My friend, why would you fornicate with the dead?

ABDULLAH: Because even if her ghost may be a sex slave on planet Romney, I made sure she’ll never forget planet Abdullah.

:^}


39 posted on 05/04/2012 10:23:00 AM PDT by AnTiw1 (Men who stand firm against an army of thousands, run when a tiger appears among them. ~ShirKhan~)
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To: reaganaut

Their demons had hissy fits and got them self zotted.


40 posted on 05/04/2012 10:59:21 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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