Eboo Patel's Acts of Faith

I heard Eboo Patel in an interview and was intrigued by his story as told in his new book, Acts of Faith. Patel is the founder and director of Interfaith Youth Core, an international non-profit organization the aim of which is to build an interfaith youth movement. He is a Muslim American of Indian descent. His book, Acts of Faith, is an autobiography that traces the evolution of his thinking and philosophy on the necessity, indeed the urgency, of planting the seeds of interfaith cooperation among the youth in a world increasingly polarized by religion.

The following excerpt from best describes Patel's vision: "I believe that the twenty first century will be shaped by the faith line. One side of the faith line are religious totalitarians. Their conviction is that only one interpretation of one religion is the only legitimate way of being, believing and belonging on earth. Everyone else needs to be cowed, or condemned or killed. On the other side of the faith line are religious pluralists, who hold that people believing in different creeds and belonging to different communities need to learn to live together. Religious pluralism is neither mere coexistence nor forced consensus. It is a form of proactive cooperation that affirms the identity of the constituent communities while emphasizing that the well-being of each and all depends on the health of the whole. It is the belief that the common good is best served when each community has a chance to make its unique contribution."

Patel's beliefs are not the product of starry-eyed, naive idealism but are molded by his own life experiences as a brown-skinned Muslim growing up in a white America. The racial and ethnic taunts and his social marginalization in school left him angry and bitter. In college in the 90s, he found his voice and his intellectual stimulation among the left wing social and political activists. He read and absorbed the likes Malcolm x and Franz Fanon. Yet the anger and negativism that seemed to be part and parcel of much of this movement left him somewhat uneasy. He also noted that social and political activists always addressed social justice issues that had to do with race, ethnic, class or gender differences but never addressed issues of spirituality and religion.

Patel was most at ease and most satisfied when involved in active community service that tried to positively address issues of social justice. Most such service was provided by different faith based organizations a fact that made and important impression on him. Patel then takes us through his journey of discovery back to Islam by way of India all the while his family's experience with Hindu extremist terrorism and the events of 9/11 solidifies his conviction about the importance of interfaith understanding .

Patel argues, convincingly, that promoting interfaith understanding among the young is crucial. His organization brings together youths of different religious backgrounds to perform community service projects that conform to the shared ideals of all their faiths. They are then encouraged to share with each other narratives from their own faiths that promote these ideals. He shows, that far from diluting the individual religious identities, this type of sharing simultaneously reinforces the individual's religious identity and increases understanding of the faiths of others.

Much of Patel's struggles with issues of identity and faith will ring true especially for those Muslims living in the West. I fully share his concern for the need of interfaith understanding. In a world increasingly defined by an "us against them" mentality, the middle ground is quickly turning into a big gaping hole that threatens to swallow us all.