Obama, Cairo and Interfaith Service

In Cairo, President Obama stated in no uncertain terms the importance he places on interfaith cooperation. He also stressed that interfaith work should take the form of concrete service projects:

"Indeed, faith should bring us together. That is why we are forging service projects in America that bring together Christians, Muslims, and Jews...Around the world, we can turn dialogue into Interfaith service, so bridges between peoples lead to action - whether it is combating malaria in Africa, or providing relief after a natural disaster."

For a long time, interfaith cooperation meant a group of senior theologians or religious leaders presenting a document about peace at a conference in a fancy hotel. That's all good stuff, but I remember going to some of those conferences in the late 1990s and having two questions - where are the young people, and where is the social action?

My own inspiration came from faith heroes like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Mahatma Gandhi, the Dalai Lama and Jane Addams. These were people whose faith commitment took the form of concrete action, and who started making a difference when they were young - all were in their twenties when they emerged as major figures.

Moreover, religious extremism was clearly a movement of young people acting. In a world with a youth demographic experiencing a religious revival, if interfaith cooperation was simply a movement of senior theologians talking - then we lose.

I started the Interfaith Youth Core in 1998 with a simple idea - to spark an international movement of young people from different religions doing service projects together. I was a graduate student at Oxford University at the time, and ran the first IFYC projects in South Africa, India and Sri Lanka. In 2002, I returned to my home city of Chicago, disappointed my parents by not using my Oxford doctorate to apply for tenure track academic jobs, and instead started building the base of the IFYC.

Our first projects were local. We started a Chicago-based interfaith youth council that brought together high school and college students to engage in regular service projects, followed by interfaith reflection sessions based on the question, "What in the scripture, stories, heroes and other traditions of your religion inspires you to serve others?"

We started a Day of Interfaith Youth Service which brought several hundred teenagers together in a variety of concrete projects - spending time with senior citizens in a nursing home, painting the walls of a YMCA, making blankets for refugee children.

We taught a course on Interfaith Action at a local seminary; hosted a conference of about 30 people around the country (local pastors, college chaplains, driven young people) who were also starting interfaith service projects; published a book of collected essays on the subject.

The word about our interfaith service methodology started to spread. Cities and campuses requested that we come train their leaders (click here for more information on interfaith trainings) to organize interfaith youth service projects, and started running their own highly successful programs (click here to see an inspiring video from the St Paul, MN interfaith youth project).

Queen Rania of Jordan heard about the Interfaith Youth Core and asked us to do projects with youth in her country. People in Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, elsewhere started emailing, interested in forming partnerships.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair decided to pour his considerable energies into bringing people of diverse faiths together, and launched an international interfaith fellowship designed to combat deaths from malaria with the IFYC. We became regular commentators on CNN and NPR.

Some of the nation's most exceptional young people began calling themselves "interfaith leaders" and applying for the IFYC College Fellowship.

I remember thinking a few months ago - this interfaith service movement could go from dream to reality very soon.

And then I heard Obama's Cairo speech and I knew I was mistaken.

Our time is not soon. Our time is now.

By Eboo Patel  |  June 8, 2009; 9:26 AM ET  | Category:  Morality , Personal Religion , Religion & Leadership , Religion & Politics , The Faith Divide Save & Share:                 
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