Our newest Leader in Action, Dr. Eboo Patel, personifies an entrepreneurial spirit. As a graduate student deeply involved in interfaith work, he and some others saw something missing: a way to get young people involved, and a service component that would help break the ice and get the dialogue ball rolling.  So began Interfaith Youth Core, the organization Patel founded in 1999 to get young people of different faith backgrounds talking with one another -- and serving their community.

 

"Interfaith Youth Core envisions a world in which religiously diverse young people interact peacefully and cooperate to serve their communities, thereby strengthening civil society and stabilizing global politics," according to the group's mission statement.  This year, the partnership between National & Global Youth Service Day and the National Days of Interfaith Youth Service, led in part by IFYC, will bring more than 4,000 young people together at as many as 50 sites, to take another step closer to making that vision a reality.

 

 

Q + A with Jean Case

JEAN CASE:  Your work directly addresses the idea that communication is the key to understanding differences, and ending misinformation about other religions. What is it about faith, which is such an integral part of people's identity, that can make it difficult to discuss?
 
EBOO PATEL:  It is the most precious thing that parents hand down to their children -- ideas about how to connect with God. And anything that precious can easily get fraught. Throughout history, religion has been a private language for use within religious communities. And now that the world is defined by diversity and interaction, what we need is a public language of religion -- in other words, ways that religious communities can talk with each other, rather than talk about faith within the community. We need a public language of religion to build a positive relationship among religious communities.  ... Complete Q+A