A decade of news: Our attempt at ‘Finding Faith’ through the eyes of a local Muslim congregation

IDAHO FALLS — EastIdahoNews.com turns 10 this year, and over the next 12 months, we’ll be looking back at some of our most memorable stories.

We’ve covered a lot over the past decade, but one of the stories I’ll never forget happened in 2019. It was a podcast looking at a local Muslim congregation.

This was the first episode of a series called Finding Faith. The purpose was to explore different denominations in eastern Idaho and build bridges of understanding and respect for people of faith.

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For this episode, I attended a Muslim worship service in Idaho Falls and spoke with multiple people about the basic tenets of the religion. Though their numbers were few, I witnessed firsthand their devotion and dedication to their beliefs. It was moving to observe their spiritual rituals and I found similarities with my own religion. Listen in the video above.

One of the basic rights of all U.S. citizens is freedom of religion. That includes the local Muslim congregation — all of whom are loyal citizens of the United States of America and longtime residents of eastern Idaho.

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At the time, worship services were held at the Idaho Falls Community Center. Practicing Muslims were hoping to find a permanent place to worship. It’s worth catching up with them again for a follow-up story.

Then and now, EastIdahoNews.com periodically receives emails and comments from people saying the only religion we cover is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While the LDS Church does get a lot of media attention — positive and negative — we’ve posted many stories about other faiths. This story is one example. There are numerous others here.

The LDS Church is the predominant religion in the area, so naturally there is a lot of interest. If you are a member of another faith and have something you’d like us to cover, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’d love to speak with you. Our newsroom email is news@eastidahonews.com.

Muslims aren’t the only denomination we explored for this series. There are 10 episodes of Finding Faith, which are available here.

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