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