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Muslim author promotes religious pluralism |
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| Written by Marcia Horn, Community Editor | |||
| Friday, 06 November 2009 12:00 | |||
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“No one is born an extremist,” Patel said in an e-mail interview. “No one is born with an extremist and violent reading of any religious tradition. Just as young people are taught to hate through the prism of their faith, so can they be inspired to build bridges from the foundation of their faith.” Patel, 33, is the keynote speaker for this year’s Festival of Faiths at Congregation Beth Shalom. (See below for details.) He completed his doctorate at Oxford University in the sociology of religion on a Rhodes Scholarship. In 1999, he founded Interfaith Youth Core in Chicago to bring young people of different faiths together. Patel was appointed by President Obama to the Advisory Council of The White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Initiatives, and was recently named one of the 2009 “America’s Best Leaders” by U.S. News & World Report. “My struggle to understand the traditions I belong to as mutually enriching rather than mutually exclusive is the story of a generation of young people standing at the crossroads of inheritance and discovery, trying to look both ways at once. “There is a strong connection between finding a sense of inner coherence and developing a commitment to pluralism. And that has everything to do with who meets you at the crossroads.” Patel defines religious pluralism as people living in equal dignity and mutual loyalty; having respect for religious identity; a world where different people have mutually inspiring relationships and act for the common good. “My evangelical friends do not believe the same things about Jesus that I do. They may not think that we will go to the same place after this life,” he said. “Religious pluralism does not rest on a judgment of any truth claims, but instead, provides the framework for how we interact with people who are different from us on earth.” Patel himself once stood at a crossroads. He endured racist bullying, was unsure of what it meant to be Muslim and felt excluded from mainstream society. He excelled in academics in an attempt to be like the white Americans around him. But in college, he began to understand that he could be Indian, Muslim and American. He realized how marginalizing oneself leads to self-interest, particularly religious self-interest, and anger toward others not like yourself. He saw how young people harboring rage toward America are ripe for religious extremists. He also discovered a different set of Americans who were striving for openness, striving to return Islam to its primary teachings of mercy and reconciliation. “Martin Luther King Jr. (said) that the moral arc of the universe is long but bends toward justice,” Patel said “I believe, too, that the majority of individuals in the world tend toward cooperation. If the most highly articulated identity and opportunity to impact society is provided by a set of leaders who would make human bombs out of our young people, it is not so startling that we are losing our youth. …” IFYC’s Web site, www.ifyc.org, states that 50 percent of violent acts in the world are committed in the name of religion. So imagine a world where people from different religious backgrounds come together to create understanding and respect by serving their communities. This is the world IFYC seeks to build. When there is such a tremendous reservoir of support for extremism in the Muslim world, how does the IFYC help prevent young Muslims from following that path? Patel said it takes time, manpower and effort. “Al Qaeda wasn’t funded by bake sales. In some ways, this is a challenge of sheer numbers. If extremists fund 10 madrasas (Islamic religious schools) for every proper school, the scale is tipped against those of us who choose to live together as brothers,” he said. “But the core of Islam and every tradition is one of peace, compassion, hospitality. I hear from thousands of young religious people every year who jump at the chance to get involved with interfaith cooperation — they simply had to be asked. We need more people asking, and supporting this work with their time and resources.” One of the most dangerous distinctions we make when discussing Sept. 11 and other extremist violence, Patel said, is who is on what side. Violence does not separate Arabs from Americans, the West from the rest or the religious from the secular. “… Of (W.E.B.) Dubois’ ‘color line’ of the 20th century, Martin Luther King Jr. redefined the sides as those who live as brothers and those who would perish as fools. So, too, does the 21st century faith divide separate those of us who choose to live together in equal dignity and mutual loyalty, and those who promote their own community through the annihilation of all those who stand apart.” Jewish Book Fair continues • This year’s Jewish Book Fair continues with Gloria Goldreich, author of “Open Doors,” talkingout her novel at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 8, at the Jewish Community Campus.
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Ebrahim “Eboo” Patel, author of “Acts of Faith: Interfaith Cooperation in a Time of Religious Conflict,” says religious extremists recruit young people who carry a deep rage at the inequities and hypocrisies of America. However, bringing young people from diverse religious backgrounds together to work on social projects can foster cooperation rather than conflict, leading to religious pluralism.
In his book, Patel writes that growing up in America as a Muslim from India, “was a series of rejections, one after another, of the various dimensions of my heritage, in the belief that America, India and Islam could not coexist within the same being. If I wanted to be one, I could not be others.”
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