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Obama's Patchwork Heritage and Worldview
Harvard professor Howard Gardner says that leaders do two important things: tell a powerful story to their audience, and embody that story in their own lives.
One of President Obama's key stories has always been about diversity as strength. And his life is the embodiment of that dimension of the American dream. Think about how he began his DNC speech in 2004, which wound up being the first step of his journey to being President. He told the story of his Muslim grandfather, a domestic servant to the British, who provided his son the magical escalator of ambition and education. That man traveled to the United States and met a young woman from Kansas. The two of them -- Kenya and Kansas meeting in Hawaii -- gave birth to a future President.
Obama's first book, Dreams from my Father, is about a young man coming to terms with his own patchwork heritage. The theme can be fairly summed up in Whitman's great line: "Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)"
And a huge part of his Presidency is going to be devoted to -- as he stated in his Inaugural Address -- making sure America's patchwork heritage is both an internal strength and a force for peace in the world. He's making strides in that direction already, both symbolic and substantive. I was present at the Prayer Service held at the National Cathedral the day after the Inauguration. The people on stage included the progressive Evangelical Jim Wallis, the President of the Islamic Society of North America Ingrid Mattson, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism's Rabbi David Saperstein and about a dozen other religious leaders. It was a wonderful display of American civil religion embodied in interfaith cooperation. More substantively, Obama has appointed two high-level representatives to deal with some of the thorniest religious conflicts on the planet - Richard Holbrooke as special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan and George Mitchell special envoy to the Middle East.
Let's see if the rest of America and the world follows his lead.
By
Eboo Patel
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January 30, 2009; 10:19 AM ET
| Category:
Interfaith Issues
,
Personal Religion
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Religion & Leadership
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Religion & Politics
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Posted by: peaceful2008 | February 2, 2009 1:10 PM
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Muslim countries are under constant attacks. Two million died only in Iraq. There are 800 military bases for United States outside mostly in muslim countries. 3000 Muslims were killed in Gujarat. Modi is still the chief minister . Muslims are so helpless. Eboo you are also so helpless you cant write anything against Jews. You will be fired. Muslims are only asking for respect. But they are denied of that.
Posted by: tolerant | February 2, 2009 6:08 AM
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Eboo,
You write that leaders EMBODY the story in their own lives. This is very true.
Barrack Obama changed his name back to Barrack from Barry.
Eboo, you should change your name back to Ebrahim from Eboo.
Only then will you have credibility as a leader, especially in the Muslim world. The Muslim world should be the real target of your intrafaith dialogues for tolerance and peace. Make Islam less violent, and you will have done humanity a great favor.
It seems like you are still struggling with your identity as an immigrant to America. We can all see you struggling with identity. Can you? You look like an Indian, live in America, are ashamed of being a muslim, and talk and think like a Hindu - tolerance, plurality, peace, oneness, unity etc.
Get it together! You will be able to make a difference for good.
Help Muslims reject violence for real. Just saying Islam is a religion of peace to other faiths will not work. For example, take concrete action like prohibiting the beheading of animals when celebrating Islamic festivals. This will lead to less beheading of humans (muslim and nonmuslim) in the Islamic world. Its not so hard if you are honest.
Posted by: clearthinking1 | January 31, 2009 8:42 PM
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North Carolina is ready!
Posted by: jlthigpen | January 31, 2009 7:23 AM
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The comments to this entry are closed.
I believe that true peace is possible when we seperate "people" from "religion"
Islam is being represented by radical fanatics, Judaism is being represented by Zionist fanatics and Christianity is hijacked by the evangelicals. So we have condensed 4 billion people into 3 entities who fight for their own survival. It is not hard to see why this approach has led to antagonism and murder.
Muslims are a group of people with varied backgrounds and ideals. Over many years, they have formed a common view of who they are based on entities which claim to fight for them. Ditto for Jews, persecuted through history, they see their survival through radical elements that project power.
We have to move through this facade and deal with each other as humans, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, kids etc.