Sense of Humor in the Middle East

Hello dear friends! I have had a couple things come to my mind as of recently through an email group I am in. This email group sends each other articles about current Middle East events and we talk about them. Sometimes they are really lame and other times really fascinating. I have two I want to share.

First, ULTRAMAN from the Middle East! They love Japanese style of things. So check this out. It's nice to know that in Saudi Arabia? they have a sense of humor like many of the geeks and nerds we have around here (myself included of course).



Second, there was an article found in Egypt and it is about the Mormons believe it or not. Well, the Arabs as far as knowledge of the church and misunderstandings goes it is similar to how Americans think we worship lizards and snakes or whatever crazy thing, this article portrays us worshiping an ancient Egyptian god, namely the god Osiris. But I guess if you were to read Nibley's writings you'd see that it'd be pretty confusing as he relates the ancient Egyptian theology to modern day knowledge and revelation.

The ancient religion of Aton has reappeared in the historic cities of Upper Egypt after approximately 3450 years since its initial appearance in 1450 BC. The worshippers of Osiris have reemerged in Luxor and Abydos and several other tourist areas where one of the writers of the city lead them in prayer, worship, and meditation at the Luxor temple where no sound was heard in the tourist city over the new sounds of worshipping Aton and Osiris in East and West Luxor amidst fears of the growing numbers of new worshippers. The worshippers gathered to pray special meditation prayers and ritually eat dates and sing songs that are a mixture of Pharaonic songs and Coptic hymns.

Rumors are going around of the presence of followers of this new religion in several of the Egyptian tourist areas and the sources themselves say that the followers of this new religion in Luxor are connected to the Mormon sect in the United States and that their religion is a combination of Christianity, Judaism, and the ancient religion of Aton. However, tens of the worshippers of Aton and Osiris flocked to the tomb of Ra’musi, known as the tomb of Ramusa, in west Luxor, and to the temple of Abydos in Sohag, and to the Pyramids in Giza, inciting fears of the rise of a new religion of Aton and Osiris in the historical and tourist cities of Upper Egypt.

The Osiris worshippers, who converted the Aton complexes leading to the tomb of Ra’musi, the advisor of king Akhenaton, for prayers, during which they raised their hands towards the panel of the winged sun multiple times and then placed their hands on their chests while singing ritual songs and chants that were part of ancient Egyptian and Coptic rituals, bowing down before the winged sun panel before performing their ritual which ended in tears at sundown.

Mormons believe in making a pilgrimage to the Abydos temple in the governorate of Sohag, in getting married according to ancient Egyptian rituals, and that the people of Abydos spoke Old English and lived for centuries at Abydos, known by the name “Um Siti,” who guarded the entrance of the Abydos temple and who were known followers of Osiris and who remained in the vicinity of the temple until its death.

According to the Egyptian scholar Abd al-Monaim Abd al-Azim the Mormon religion appeared in the United States and was led by Joseph Smith, one of the sons of a farmer who had a farm in a village near New York, who claimed that the walls of his bedroom split apart and an that he saw a bright light surround an angel that God had sent from heaven to teach him the new religion. Smith claimed that the angel called himself Moroni and that he directed Smith to the location of the Book of Mormon, a book written by Abraham that God supposedly concealed. Smith also claimed that he discovered a marble box containing the teachings of this religion, written in Hebrew and hieroglyphics, and that God commanded him to not reveal them to anyone on the grounds that he was a prophet of God. He later returned the teachings to God after he had learned all their secrets.

All the more reason to help people to understand what the gospel is all about. Who knows if this was really a true story distorted on purpose or this is what they really believe about the Mormons. And if you are not Mormon and reading this, I highly suggest you go here to find out what we are all about yourself.