Eboo PatelBesprekingen

Fits well with The Elephant is Running and other books I am reading. I wish I knew how the program is working now today!

While his story is interesting, I was not extremely captivated by his writing style. I read it because I was attending and Interfaith Youth Conference in August 2020 during which he made a speech and where I had it signed.

The editors divided the academic field into four parts: Construction, Mapping the Field, Pedagogy, and Classroom Practices, Challenges and Choices, and Applications Beyond the Classroom. Each section has four to five articles that include a premise, support, and conclusion written by an academic. It would be a valuable read for those implementing and seeking accreditation for college major or minor in interreligious, interfaith studies. The book has contributor biographies, endnotes, and an index.

Patel's Interfaith Leadership was exceedingly refreshing in that his concept of "interfaith" is true to the meaning of the term. Whereas many "interfaith" programs mean nothing more than other sects of the same religion, Patel is dedicated to true interfaith dialogue - working with people from numerous and different religious backgrounds. The book is well researched and mostly accessible to the non-academic. It does contain terms unique to Patel, which are typically defined but only once, and without useful reference to their meaning throughout the text, so it is best to keep those early pages bookmarked.

If you are interested in interfaith work, or are already engaged in it, this book is a must read.

This is the third in a series of books through which Eboo Patel has simultaneously built and chronicled his interfaith movement. Read his memoir "Acts of Faith" first; it's essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary interreligious encounters and dialogue. This book offers a wonderful introduction to interfaith activity and integrates with a light touch a wealth of scholarship from sociology, politics, theology, and other fields. Patel has written a handbook and manifesto that is broad and deep, learned and accessible.

Eboo Patel is one of the great religous leaders of today and "Interfaith Leadership" shows why. He understands that interfaith work is both vital and difficult. Most importantly he shows how to do it. A person who is comfortable in their own religion is the best able to work through the barriers that he discribes so well to be able to unstand and work with others.

This is an excellent book on how to approach and do interfaith work. I would recommend reading this before marching blindly into unknown territory. One must have some reason to get together, and talking about theological differences is not one of them. Patel carefully organizes his material, but this is not a dry book of theory. He brings forth his own experiences, including some failings from which he had to figure out how he got it wrong. He mentions 4 b's that you have to get around, and these include barriers that some build, bunkers they stay behind, reaching out in a bludgeoning way, and building bridges unwittingly (like not knowing what's on the other side).

People need to have to good sense of their own faith, particularly encountering who have a likewise stance. I know this myself from my experience with Lay trialog at the Greater Detroit Roundtable of Chistians, Muslims, and Jews. You must be able to explain your own faith when asked. I found when I was doing interfaith work in the early 1990's that fair-minded Christian material that I could hand out to others was quite hard to come by. I wanted something in the larger pamphlet size -- I couldn't expect people to read Lewis' "Mere Christianity". The best short intro was the Encyclopedia Britannica on Christianity, but I didn't have a way to copy this, so I had to somewhat wing my talk when I did a 25 minute Christianity 101 intro in my trialogue group.

Patel goes on to look at leadership qualities needed. This includes being alert to moments of inspiration from others, connection with others, getting through conflict, going into cooperation, and finally appreciating the differences of the religions. Interfaith groups need to have a sense of their vision. Ptel sees this needing to rest on a triangle of knowledge attitudes, and relationships. Finally the interfaith leader must have strong attributes of grit, relatability, leading in a pluralistic way, and having enough craftsmanship to proceed into excellence.½

In a time of hyper-polarization, Patel's book offers a plethora of helpful considerations for leading the way thought today's interfaith landscape. Most helpful is Patel's examination of a very obvious, but perhaps overlooked question, "what is the goal of interfaith dialogue?" From here, he specifically addresses vision, knowledge, skills, and qualities of interfaith leaders. Patel is an excellent story teller and always illustrates his principals with real-life experiences.

As a professional minister, I found myself applying many of Patel's principles to my own Christian faith tradition. Within this tradition, there are enough differences in interpretation of doctrine, scripture, and morality, that one sometimes needs to establish some significant common ground in order to work together.

In short, this book is a quick and easy guide on how to get along with others, particularly in matters of faith. This book should find a welcome home on the shelf of anyone involved in faith-based work. I highly recommend it.

I enjoyed reading Eboo Patel's "Sacred Ground" a while back, so when this title became available for review, I was glad to do so. And I was not disappointed with this cross-cultural and interfaith leadership text. "Interfaith Leadership, A Primer" opens with a common story that could happen to you or me - an encounter that stemmed from casual frustration with a broken system. It is exactly this sort of organic problem solving that builds leaders who are willing to step out and reach across denominational and faith lines to work toward the unified goal of uplifting our fellow neighbor. Another review used the term "framework", and that is exactly what Patel presents in Interfaith Leadership. He does not give pat answers or solutions, and this is not a recipe for the reader to find a clear-cut path to religious harmony. Instead, it helps groom the reader to get into the mindset and look for patterns of need and respectful solutions from one's own vantage point.

I am a seminarian preparing for ordained ministry in a mainline faith tradition. I can easily see this text as required reading for first year students. For full disclosure, I received a free copy in exchange for my opinion regarding this item. However, would I purchase this text if it were not given to me for free? Yes - Patel is a great writer who provides concrete examples that allows the reader to see him or herself in that position of leadership.

I asked for “Interfaith Leadership:A Primer”, by Eboo Patel as I am an interfaith chaplain and I try to keep up with the literature. I was very impressed by the book. It bears the signs of an academic book; notes, index and a list of works cited; but it is much more readable than many academic books.

His explanation of “identity category” is clearer than most books I have read, and although I do not share his identification with the term “social entrepreneur” I had no trouble identifying my own using his method. I am an interfaith leader, a disAbility advocate, and a human rights advocate. I am also a wife, a Universalist, and a reader.

Mr. Patel uses lots of examples as well as clear definitions and instructions.

My favorite quotation is actually a paraphrase from Dr. Diana Eck. “Diversity, … , ought to be understood as a neutral term with a range of possible consequences, everything from conflict to cooperation. When diversity is proactively engaged for positive ends, Eck calls it “pluralism.” Simply put, diversity is a fact; pluralism is an achievement, one that must be worked at.” [p.54]

There is so much information, direction, and inspiration in this book that I am going to recommend it to my whole house church.

An inspiring story with a powerful message: we have to do more than just fight against fundamentalism; we need to offer (and explicitly offer to youth) a meaningful alternative. Compassion and understanding across perceived boundaries and differing beliefs is more than just a nice idea. It is worth our work; our dedication; our sacrifice. Patel's story is interesting (though it skirts self-advertisement at a certain point). I would have been interested in a little more on what brought Patel to embracing Islam as a young adult.

Muslim

Discusses religious pluralism in the United States in light of the suspicion and fear of Muslims that has resulted from the attacks of Al Qaeda in 2001.

Acts of Faith technically is the story of an American Muslim, but that part of the subtitle really throws off your mindset for what the book is meant to be. The point of this book is more the “Struggle for the Soul of a Generation,” which is the other half of the secondary title. The author is telling the story of his life in America and how he found a way to create the Interfaith Youth Core, an organization that encourages young people from all around the world, with any religious belief, to come together and do acts of kindness and charity for those in need. The story will move you, no matter your faith or you lack of belief in any one religion or another, but do not expect it to be about an American Muslim beyond the fact that the author is both of those things. I picked up the book thinking it would somehow show struggles in being accepted and how those struggles formed his actions later on, which didn’t really happen.

Still, this book is a must read for anyone who wants to help their child (or a pupil in their class) open their mind to the world around them, discover the diversity of culture and religion, yet find similarities within everything in order to get along. There is no doubt that this is a world in need of young people who stand up for peace and love rather than who go out and blow things up out of anger and hate. As the book says, the twenty-somethings who are acting with violence and hatred are doing this because it is how they were taught, it is what they were told to think. Subject someone at a young age to literature that says people with orange fingernails are all creatures of the devil and that is what they will believe. Take the same children and teach them that people with orange fingernails have fingernails, just like everyone else in the world, and you will have not only educated them, but promoted kindness and acceptance all at once.

This book changed my life. Patel, who studied religion and society as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford and founded the Interfaith Youth Corps, writes about his own religious formation (or lack thereof) and how he views pluralism and interreligious dialogue and service.

Patel, the son of Indian Muslim immigrants, grew up in Chicago with little sense of religious identity. It was simply never discussed either in higher school or college. It was only after becoming a part of the Catholic Worker movement and meeting Brother Wayne Teasdale that Patel began to quest after his own religious identity. After all, as even the Dalai Lama told him, you should stick with your heritage and your roots.

Patel went back to Islam not in a mosque, but through contacts with people from other traditions. In other words, his "faith formation had occurred in the midst of religious diversity" (73). While sitting in Buddhist meditation, Islamic prayers he had learned in childhood came up in his mind, spontaneously working their way out. This led to another realization, one which the IYC is based on: interreligious learning and contact does not weaken religious identity into a kind of bland syncretism. It strengthens religious identity by helping one see how their tradition is unique and bringing them into the position of speaking for their tradition. The IYC is founded on Patel's impatience with the way ecumenical counsels had nice banquets with lots of speeches that never seeped down into the actual parishes and religious adherents. Drawing youth into interfaith service is doubly important, as the youth are the future of the world.

My religious formation also happened in the context of pluralism. Even as I was in RCIA, I was sitting at the local zendo. At first this posed no problem. But after meeting other "Zen Christians," I was confronted with an uncomfortable fact: for people who were raised in Christianity, branching out seemed fine. But for me, an adult convert still struggling to learn prayers and scripture quotes, it seemed best to work on one tradition before I dive into another.

Patel's book affirmed my intuition that this caution is unnecessary. I can honor my experience, indeed dive into two traditions at the same time. To paraphrase Patel, I know that my tradition is my home, but I have open windows.

The other thing I thought of in the course of this book was a praxis for social change. I have been taking this course in social justice and technology, looking at how social entrepreneurs have addressed MDG goals. While dialogue isn't an MDG goal, interreligious and intercultural peace and understanding is certainly a global necessity. How can I bring these two together?
How can I work to change the world? How do I bring my desire to change the world together with my desire to be an academic and work with ideas and books?

Last but not least, Patel's book affirmed my understanding that folk from many different walks of life are realizing that contributing to the world in the context of one's tradition is better than isolating oneself or opposing the world as a way to reassert identity. This is a trend I have been learning about in Catholicism, particularly in Vatican II; here is a Muslim saying the same thing. Very touching.

"Even articulating the hope is helping to ake it a reality. Keep praying for it and meeting people who feel like you do, and it will begin to take shape." (71)

Eboo Patel is very smart and is a former Rhodes scholar. He has doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford and is the founder of the Interfaith Youth Core, "an organization that unites young people of different religions to perform community service and explore their common values. "
He tells two stories in this book.

He tells his own personal story, one of growing up Muslim in America, being bullied by other kids because he was brown and Muslim, and his rejection of and later return to the Muslim religion that he was raised in.

The other story that he tells is how impressionable teenagers are brought into extremist youth groups because their religions have failed to engage them in positive ways. He gives examples of Christian, Jewish and Hindu extremist groups as well as those that are Muslim.

Eboo's personal story is interesting and I learned more about the Muslim religion that I did not know. He is an Ismaili Musilim, part of the Shia group that follows an Imam who is a supreme leader to them rather like the Pope is to the Catholics. Their current Imam is known as the Aga Kahn. Eboo's parents wanted him to learn service and charity to others and so they made him participate in a YMCA youth service group, which he feels helped to give him identity and kept him from possibly falling prey to extremist Muslim groups.

Eboo feels that extremist groups are more political than religious and that none of them really represent their religions as their religions are meant to be practiced. He recognizes that extremist groups give huge amounts of money to create youth indoctrination groups, which certainly is true of the Muslim extremist groups. He tells about the school that Osama Bin Laden went to and decribes some of their teachings and methods. He also gives examples of White Supremacy groups posing as Christian Youth educational groups and of a small Jewish extremist group in the 1960s. He also tells of the Hindu extemist group called the National Volunteer Corps or RSS whose goal is "a pure Hindu nation" and while initally attracting youth w/ Hindu ideology, this group has been responsible for the murders of thousands of Muslims.

Eboo feels that the solution to extremist groups is to unite the youth of the various religions together to serve for a common purpose so that they will know and understand one another as similar human beings. His group, the IFYC strives to do that. I think that is a nice idea.

If authenticity would be a race Eboo Patel would probably win in his category. This was the main reason I loved his "Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, in the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation." He had a simple thesis that he deduced from his own life experiences and he lived up to the principle built around it. It also helps that I can wholeheartedly agree with his idea. It was, as stated on page XVI of the Introduction:

This is a book about how some young people become champion of religious pluralism while others become the foot soldiers of religious totalitarianism. Its thesis is simple: influences matter, programs count, mentors make a difference, institutions leave their mark.

The book is an autobiography of a "life examined", which is worth living and already made a difference. The introduction states the thesis and supports it with a few examples then the eight chapters follow Patel's story as he learned and acted the lessons of his life, one building onto another. In the first chapter he covers his high school years and activities with the YMCA Leaders School. The lesson he internalized then (page 16)

The YMCA's secret is simple; it stems from a genuine love of young people. The conventional wisdom is that young people are scrambling for their place in the world. The YMCA knows that, deep down, young people need more than just a place.[...] It's not a place young people need so much as a role, an opportunity to be powerful, a chance to shape the world.

In the second chapter he goes on discovering and building his identity, including his first relationship, with Lisa, a practicing Mormon girl. In the third chapter he encounters identity politics in college and how it segregates students based on ethnicity and/or race. He learns a lot from his college sweetheart, Sarah, a Jewish woman, not just about Judaism, but also what religion can mean for a person. Next, in the fourth chapter he starts doing some real world activism, inspired by friends, mentors and readings. (Side note: The latter included Wendy Kopp's (the founder of Teach for America) "One day all children...". I received a copy at an event where Ms. Kopp spoke several years ago. Now I am inspired to read it. If Patel recommend sit I am more interested in it than I was beforehand.)

The fifth chapter covers Patel's experienced in India, where he reconnected with the American part of his identity. It's also hear that she learns about the compassionate part of his Muslim and family heritage: his grandmother has been helping abused women for decades, of which he knew nothing of. Why does she do it: "That's what Muslims do." In the sixth chapter he discovers what Islam can mean for him. By the end he discovers his calling: starting an interfaith youth movement: the Interfaith Youth Core. In the last two chapters he builds them and finds the love of his life, with whom he can build a Muslim life as not just their values, but their religions are also aligned.

As I was reading the book, I felt that he is the kind of person I could be friends with.There are lots of similarities between his life learning life experience and mine. The relatively late discovery of religion, the learning through relationships with women of different faith, but ultimately ending with one of the same, the appreciation of multiculturalism and multi-religion, the inspiring effect of the change of scenery or country. There are significant differences between us, of course but they are easier to spot.

I recommend this book if you want to be inspired about youth, religion and understanding. It is written in an easy to follow style, while filled with deep self-reflection. I wish I would have the persistence to think and write the way Patel did.

Eye-opening discussion of the influences on global youth. Examines the positive influences which are so rarely explored and gives hope for the strengthening of interfaith movements world-wide.

"Acts of Faith," by Eboo Patel is a thoughtful, refreshing memoir by an American Muslim who was born in India. Patel persuasively gives voice to, as he rightfully claims in his subtitle "the Soul of a Generation." He brings to the mainstream American consciousness a perspective from moderate Islam.

Since the tragic events of 9/11/2001, the West has often cast Islam in a very negative light. Mainstream media and political figures have contributed to this mis-perception through frequent portrayals of many in the Muslim community as being supportive, or at the very least sympathetic to the small minority radical, fringe groups behind most of the violent acts, such as 9/11and the handful of terror attacks on western civilian targets, etc.

Patel deftly reclaims the voice of moderate, peace-loving, law-abiding Muslims, who comprise the vast majority of people of this honorable religious faith that has been around for more than 1300 years and comprises around 20% of the world population with approximately 1.5 billion followers, including nearly 2.5 million in the United States.

This is no dry demographic report, though. Patel brings to life his own story within the context of moderate Islam in a powerfully moving and compelling narrative. He tells of his own journey from India, and speaks of the commitment to peace, social justice, and a moderate, inclusive Islam, that he asserts is far more prevalent than media reports and most politicians suggest.

He begins by placing in context the apparent double standard of religious fundamentalists of all stripes, both in America and around the world, whom he refers to as "religious totalitarians." Two examples he cites are Pat Robertson and Osama bin Laden. Each espouses and condones radicalism in their own way.

He then goes on to share how, at an early age, writings of great civil rights figures like W.E.B. duBois and Martin Luther King, jr., Gandhi, Aga Khan and Dorothy Day influenced his thought and development as a youth.

He laments how, as youth, those who later chose the path of extremism faced turning points along the way where they were influenced. He lifts up once again the importance of reaching Muslim youth with a message of peace, hope and involvement in positive social change.

Patel is very candid about the challenges and struggle he faced as he puts it in one of his chapters "growing up American, growing up other." How he struggled to find his own cultural and faith identity. He goes on to share his story of becoming involved internationally as a youth activist advocating for peaceful change and interfaith dialogue.

In sum, Patel's book is a wonderfully encouraging view into his life as a moderate Muslim and the emerging movement of Muslims committed to peace, interfaith dialogue and social justice. Highly recommended!

In Acts of Faith, Eboo Patel seeks to outline what he believes draws many youths to extremism and the ways in which this can be combated. He relates his reaction when he heard of the bombings in London and how he could identify the similarities between himself and those young men who decided to kill not just themselves but also take other innocent bystanders with them. He feels that he could have ended up like those men but for the influences of his parents enrolling him into his local YMCA. Though it may have seemed odd, here he was a Muslim boy with Muslim parents spending his free time in a Christian organization, he credits this organization with most likely saving him from extremism and its lure. Not only was he occupied during his free time, he was trusted with responsibilities and felt like he was genuinely cared for by people outside of his family. He was taught to serve others and while he did this he forgot to be self conscious as he did everyday at school. Patel believes that the support he earned from the people he met at the YMCA helped draw him away from the streets, gangs and other adverse influences.

As the son of immigrants, he talks of trying to explain to his parents the bullying that he was suffering at school and the feeling of being an outsider. His mother's response was to tell him to study hard and if he did better in his maths, the other boys would not bully him. To a westerner that may see like an odd response, but this is an attitude that is very familiar to many immigrant children. One may deride this line of thinking but you have to remember that for most immigrants, they are told that in America you can achieve anything as long as you work hard. Education for them is the key to all success and if you did well, then all should be well. So imagine if he did not meet a group of people who embraced him and made him feel safe and accepted. He could have been lured into a gang or gotten seduced by an extremist group.

Patel goes beyond advocating the co-existence of religions, he believes that people of different religions should actively engage with each other. By engaging each other and truly talking to each other rather than just being politically correct with one another, then people can really understand those from faiths foreign to them. He believes that the group most in need of this dialogue are young people whose impressionable minds are ripe to be planted with seeds of hope so that they can resist the alternate messages

I really enjoyed this book as it was both personal to Patel but universal to all of us. He is honest about the problems facing religion and its adherents but he is optimistic that there is change in store. There were times that I felt that the book got a bit dry but all in all, I think it is a very important read and will be useful reading material in colleges and high schools as they educate the youth on religious pluralism.

This started out good, but it got very dry toward the end and I wasn't able to finish it. It helped me to understand that one person can make a difference in a child choosing tolerance or hate.

I received this as an ARC and thought it well written and engaging. For some reason I got stuck in the middle and had to really push myself to finish it. I think the ideas of religious dialogue are compelling and needed in our diverse and sometimes divisive society. Patel is clearly a strong, intelligent and reasoned voice for promoting leadership in youth, for service learning, for inter-religious dialogue. It is a book that needed to be written and I'm glad to have pushed myself to the end.

This is one of the best and most thought-provoking books I've read in a long time. The author is an East Indian American whose parents were from Mumbai, India. He's a Muslim and as a boy and young man didn't give too much thought to his religion. His parents were devout, but both having professional careers, religion became less important in their lives, especially his father's, and thus in his life as well.
Patel grew up near Chicago and talks about Bill Ayers and other names we've recently been reintroduced to. He talks about learning leadership from his involvement with the YMCA and how certain friends and relative though it was unseemly for a young Muslim to be involved in a putatively Christian organization. His take was that they didn't learn about religion but rather learned how to be leaders. I suppose the Boy Scouts could have given him the same kind of experience.
He attended the University of Illinois where the emphasis is equally on athletics as on academics which caused him to be taken a bit aback when he later attended Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship.
One of the main themes of the book is to point out how fundamentalist and extremist groups, whether based on religion, race or whatever faction, have been better at engaging young people than mainstream religious and service organizations. He tells of the example of a couple young men involved in the plot to blow up buses/subways in London and a young Jewish man who got involved with the Jewish extremist Meir Kahane. How did these otherwise ordinary, unexceptional young people come under the influence of extremist leaders? No religion is free of extremist factions and every religion can breed such young fanatics but the extremists seem to pay more attention to the needs and passions of the young as compared to "moderate" groups.
As a result of his thinking about his own religious heritage, discovering a long tradition of service in his family both in the U.S. and India, Patel founded, with the backing of such luminaries as the Dalai Lama, an organization called the Interfaith Youth Core (originally spelled Corps). The purpose of IFYC is to promote religious pluralism especially among young people by bringing them together to serve others.
The book is relatively short, compellingly written and worth picking up if you are looking for inspiration in these rather bleak times.

This is a worthy read, even for a non-believer such as myself. Not only is it an earnest attempt to explain that broad-minded religious indoctrination can be a force for great good in this world, it is also just a good read as an autobiographical work. Eboo Patel has worked closely with practitioners of many faiths. If anyone has the right formula for bringing young people of various religious persuasions together to learn from each other and to work cooperatively on various issues to better their communities, it is Patel. I wish him nothing but the very best of luck, and I hope he keeps writing.

Dr. Patel's book, Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslin, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation, is an excellent book, in both content and style. His personal story and conviction regarding how the global community will win the struggle against extremism is inspiring. As a clergy member of the Christian faith, I find myself sometimes cringing and at other times heartbroken at what some do while giving credit to their "Christian" beliefs. Eboo Patel issues a hopeful challenge to all faith community members of goodwill. He both believes in and outlines a way forward, through reaching the youngest generations. This book does what great books do: It makes me want to read more. I look forward to incorporating his story into my church's self-examination of our role in our community.

Generally, I find fault in books I read either in content or writing style. I can fault neither with this volume. I rarely give a book 5 stars -- my librarything profile says I have marked only 25 of my 512 books with the highest rating. This book is number 26.