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Many years ago (I don’t have a really clear idea of exactly how many), I was sitting in sacrament meeting when I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was the missionaries. They had been talking to a Muslim man in the gym, and were way out of their depth, so they asked if I would come and talk to him with them. I said sure, and slipped out of the chapel towards the gymnasium.

He was a pleasant fellow, very sharp, very knowledgeable about mainstream Christianity. I quickly realized he was some sort of an anti-Christian apologist. As we talked, none of his talking points were working on me, because more often than not I was able to agree with him. He knew not a thing about Mormonism, and didn’t appreciate the substantial differences between our theology and what he was arguing against.

He pretty quickly gave up trying to get me to stop being a Christian, and pretty soon the dialogue turned into just a pleasant conversation where we were asking each other questions about our respective faiths. The young elders looked on in wonder at this.

Eventually, it was time for priests’ quorum meeting. (I was Young Men’s President at the time, and in that role I taught the priests’ class.) So I was about to excuse myself, when I had a sudden inspiration. I asked this brother if he would be willing to teach a class of young men about Islam. He beamed and enthusiastically agreed. I asked if he would be willing to introduce the five pillars of Islam to them, and he concurred.

So I brought him to the classroom, introduced him to the boys, and turned over the class to him. And he gave a fantastic, off the cuff lesson, introducing the boys to Islam in general and the five pillars in particular. I think the boys were perhaps a bit disoriented at first, wondering who this guy was and what was going on, but eventually they decided it was pretty cool to learn about Islam from a flesh and blood practicing Muslim right there at Church.

I have to admit, I thought it was pretty cool, too.