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Originally Posted by MikeWaters
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Of course. The two faiths are demonstrably similar. Only why that is so is an open question. And I've never seen a satisfying answer. Islam was a well-known phenomenon even in rural America by 1830, and it is the kind of thing that would have interested JS and Mormonism's other founders. Did it provide a model? Muhammad even had a first vision (granted, in a cave, not a grove, and he was visited by Angel Gabriel, not GF and Jesus). Is there any evidence that LDS founders had an Islamic model in mind? I've never heard that there is, but I haven't looked for it. You could say that the logical or most plausible explanation is that Islam was the model.
But I'm willing to entertain a theory that the strains of monotheism that arise in reaction to Pauline Christianity and Euro or Classical based societies look much the same. And there is a lot in history to support this, as we consider not only Mormonism and Islam, but also the radical, ascetic strains of Judaism during the historical Jesus' time (such as the Essenes) that some consider the seeds of Islam, and the ascetic Protestant sects started in more remote places of Northern Europe and other New World sects.