This post has no direct Mormon content, but it should feel very familiar to most of us.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon in the summer of 1969. My family watched the grainy black and white transmissions from the moon as Armstrong descended the ladder from the landing craft and planted his booted feet on the powdery surface of another planet. “That’s one small step for [a] man,” he said, “one giant leap for mankind.” A few months later, we stood seemingly for hours in a cold, wet rain, part of a long line of earthlings waiting for our chance to see a touring exhibit of the Apollo 11 space capsule, a glove worn by one of the astronauts, a moon rock, and whatever else there was. Nothing, I thought as a ten-year-old, could be more marvelous than being an astronaut!

Sometime over the next few years, in some parts of the world, the story of man’s first walk on the moon did become more marvelous, though, but I didn’t hear about that for many years. Not the conspiracy theory that it had all been staged in some movie studio – that I did hear and dismiss. No, this rumor began, apparently, in Indonesia … or Malaysia … or maybe Egypt. Somewhere in the Islamic world, the rumor began to spread that the while they were on the moon, the astronauts had “heard sounds in a strange language they did not understand. Only later, after returning to earth, did they realize that it was actually the azaan!” ((Or adhan, or athan, or other variant depending upon local dialect.)) – the Muslim “call to prayer.” This recognition, the rumor goes, caused Armstrong to become a Muslim.

As the rumor spread, it grew. Not only was Armstrong now a Muslim, but he had moved to Lebanon, where his devotion led him to live in seclusion rather than exploiting his fame for unworthy purposes.

It was almost too good to be true, some felt, so questioners sought confirmation. It tickles me that one of the questioners was Philip L. Parshall – my ninth cousin (our nearest common ancestor was born in 1682). Phil was a committed Evangelical missionary, serving for more than 20 years in Pakistan and a similar length of time in the Philippines, where he headed something called the “Asian Research Center” for his organization. He has published several books about approaches to teaching Muslim converts to Christianity which, as far as I can tell from reviews, are respectful of local cultures and urge western missionaries to distinguish between what is crucial to Christianity and what is local culture that need not – should not – be tampered with.

Phil had heard the rumors, and wrote to Armstrong’s office in … in … Lebanon!! … oh, wait, that’s Lebanon, Ohio … to ask about it. He received a response from an assistant – Armstrong, a very private man, did not often respond to strangers’ approaches himself, apparently. The letter, published many times in the past 20 years, read as follows:

Neal A. Armstrong
Lebanon, Ohio 45036

July 14, 1983

Mr. Phil Parshall Director
Asian Research Center
International Christian
Fellowship 29524 Bobrich
Livonia, Michigan 48152

Dear Mr. Parshall:

Mr. Armstrong has asked me to reply to your letter and to thank you for the courtesy of your inquiry.

The reports of his conversion to Islam and of hearing the voice of Adzan on the moon and elsewhere are all untrue.

Several publications in Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries have published these reports without verification. We apologize for any inconvenience that this incompetent journalism may have caused you.

Subsequently, Mr. Armstrong agreed to participate in a telephone interview, reiterating his reaction to these stories. I am enclosing copies of the United States State Department’s communications prior to and after that interview.

Sincerely

VIVIAN WHITE
Administrative Aide

Those State Department communications distributed to “all East Asian and Pacific diplomatic posts” were dated March 2, 1983:

1. Former astronaut Neil Armstrong, now in private business, has been the subject of press reports in Egypt, Malaysia and Indonesia 9and perhaps elsewhere) alleging his conversion to Islam during his landing on the Moon in 1969. As a result of such reports, Armstrong has received communications from individuals and religions organizations, and a feeler from at least one government, about his possible participation in Islamic activities.

2. while stressing his strong desire not to offend anyone or show disrespect for any religion, Armstrong has advised Department that reports of his conversion to Islam are inaccurate.

3. If post receive queries on this matter, Armstrong requests that they politely but firmly inform querying party that he has not converted to Islam and has no current plans or desire to travel overseas to participate in Islamic religious activities.

Phil Parshall did what he could to comply with Armstrong’s request and to correct misunderstandings in the Muslim world. Among other things, he published a letter to the editor of the journal Arabia in June 1985:

A MUSLIM OVER THE MOON?

Arabia is by far the superior newsmagazine regarding what is going on in the Muslim world today. Your reporting is extremely thorough and seeks to be as objective as possible. Your willingness to criticise political policies as well as religious happenings in the Muslim world is refreshing. As an American I would feel your slant on the West is basically fair.

It would be most helpful if you would dispel a misconception prevalent in almost all Muslim countries. From Morocco to the Philippines it is commonly believed that Neil Armstrong heard the Azan on the moon, converted to Islam and is now engaged in the full-time propagation of the Muslim faith.

The US State Department has issued a memo saying that the story about Armstrong’s conversion was untrue. The memo said “While stressing his strong desire not so offend anyone or show disrespect for any religion, Armstrong has advised Department that reports of his conversion to Islam are inaccurate.” The memo further says, “if post receives queries on this matter, Armstrong requests that they politely but firmly inform querying party that he has not converted to Islam and has no current plans or desires to travel overseas to participate in Islamic religious activities.”

N.B. The memo was sent to all our diplomatic and consular posts.

Dr PHIL PARSHALL
Director, Asian Research Centre Manila, Philippines

That must have put an end to the speculation, right?

Well, no. Archives of the alt.religion.islam forum through at least 1997 contain persistent requests for confirmation of the rumor. Respondents repeatedly report that “to the best of my knowledge, he’s not Muslim” or “No it is false, it is a myth spread in Muslim word. Armstrong denies this story. he is not Muslim.”

But that’s not enough for some. Responding to the “Not it is false …” statement, a forum participant in the Missouri educational system denied the denial:  “He performed prayers in Turkey in the same masjid where Malcolm X prayed and huge crowd prayed behind him.”

And on and on. It was still an issue in 2005 when Armstrong published his autobiography:

I have found that many organizations claim me as a member, for which I am not a member, and a lot of different families — Armstrong families and others — make connections, many of which don’t exist. So many people identify with the success of Apollo. The claim about my becoming a Muslim is just an extreme version of people inevitably telling me they know somebody whom I might know.

In attempting to explain the endurance of the false story, one Islamic leader wrote:

We have got used to hearing stories like that which then turn out to false, and it seems that this is a deliberate attempt to shake the faith of the ordinary Muslims, especially since they fabricated this story with some exciting details, that seem to affirm the superiority of this religion over all other religions. So they spread the news that famous people, such as artists, sportsmen and others have become Muslim, and they quote something with the story that affirms the truth of the Messenger and his message, then after a while they hasten to disprove these stories. Perhaps the story about Armstrong becoming a Muslim is of this type, because he is one of the most famous people in the world.

So … what parallels can we see between this rumor and those we so often find in the Mormon world? Well, there’s a tendency to want to believe that famous people are – secretly or otherwise – Mormons. There’s a tendency to repeat marvelous stories without bothering to confirm their truth. There’s a tendency to continue to spread such stories even in the face of repeated debunking. I am not aware of any tendency toward “false flag” creation of such stories – planting stories to lull gullible Mormons into acceptance, then debunking the story to discredit Mormonism. Do you recognize any other parallels?

If this history has any value to Mormonism, it is, perhaps, that it shows these tendencies to be widespread human ones, not limited to some defect in our own culture.

Note: Except for pursuing the identification of Phil Parshall to pin down his exact relationship to me, none of the research in this post is my own work – it is all easily found online via Google.