Islamic history lesson

COEUR d'ALENE - There is no good reason for members of different faiths to not live side by side in peace.

"We have so much in common," Saleh Elgiadi, education and outreach coordinator to the Muslim community of the Spokane Islamic Center said Sunday.

Elgiadi, 50, of Spokane, shared with members of the North Idaho Unitarian Universalist fellowship and other attendees the six articles of his Islamic faith and the five pillars of the religion.

Elgiadi spoke at the Harding Family Center in Coeur d'Alene, laying out the pillars, such as praying five times a day, offering money to charity, which Elgiadi called "almsgiving," fasting during the month of Ramadan, and making the pilgrimage to Mecca, at least once in a lifetime.

He will return to speak on Feb. 28, addressing stereotypes and misconceptions about Muslims and Islam.

"Islam doesn't have a very shiny reputation right now," he said.

He said the word Islam itself means surrender or submission to God, or Allah, which is an Arabic word meaning the one and only God. The first pillar of Islam, he said, is what he called "Shahada," and is the belief that there is only one true God.

"I was struck by the similarities between Islam and other monotheistic religions," Jessy Lorion, a Unitarian, said.

Lorion, 48, a Coeur d'Alene doctor, said she attended to show respect for other religions, and learn.

Cindy, 61, and Chuck Matthews, 65, both of Coeur d'Alene, attended to learn more as well, they said.

Of the world's religions, Cindy Matthews said, "We respect all of them. A lot of what he said were basic things about ways of living and treating people."

Bob Brown, 73, of Coeur d'Alene, said he was interested to learn about some of Islam's history, including how disagreements about who would succeed the prophet Mohammed has led to existing conflicts between Shiites and Sunnis.

Elgiadi told the audience that to be a Muslim, a person must believe in the six articles of the faith, the first of which is that there is only one God.

"There are not partners to God," he said. "God doesn't have sons."

Muslims also believe that it's unknowable what God is like.

"I can't imagine what God is, there is nothing like him," he said.

Muslims believe in angels, another article, they believe in scriptures such as the Quran, which Muslims believe is the only book that delivers God's message undistorted by man. Some content in the Bible, he said, has been introduced by people.

"The Quran is the only book that is intact," he said.

Muslims also believe in a last day that marks the end of the world, when every human will be resurrected from the grave and held accountable for the way they lived, whether they were obedient to God's commands.

"We do not believe people were born sinful," he said. Man was given free will, and "a mind to choose the right path or the wrong path."

Those who were obedient will spend eternity in paradise, he said.

Another article, he said, is Muslims' believe in messengers such as Moses and Jesus, who delivered the message of God.