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Young leaders against malaria
Today's guest bloggers are Tim Brauhn and Hafsa Arain. Tim and Hafsa have spent the last 8 months working together as Faiths Act Fellows in the Bay Area.
At the Interfaith Youth Core conference last October, Rabbi David Saperstein joked that we have over 2,000 different religions in America, and 1,500 of them are in California. We experienced that firsthand in the Bay Area this year, working as Faiths Act Fellows with the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and Interfaith Youth Core. 30 Fellows across 12 cities spread over 3 continents were given eight months to create sustainable and active hubs of multifaith action towards the Millennium Development Goals and the eradication of deaths from malaria.
As part of our training for the Fellowship, we traveled to the Tanzanian Training Center for International Health in Ifakara, Tanzania to learn more about malaria. Ifakara is a town that is roughly half Catholic and half Muslim. Walking through the town marketplace, we could see how that played out. While the Catholic girls wore their school uniforms, and Muslim girls wore their headscarves, after school on Fridays, the Catholic girls would wait by the mosque to join their Muslim friends. They would walk away from the mosque holding hands.
In the local language, Ifakara translates as "the place you go to die," because it has always been a malaria hot zone. Catholic priests and Muslim imams will someday work on health education and bed net distribution together. As a Catholic and a Muslim, we connected deeply with the faith identities of who we met in Tanzania.
Back in the Bay Area, it wasn't always easy to sell people on the Millennium Development Goals. Walking into a meeting of experienced interfaithers and saying "Malaria and international development are interfaith issues!" got us some strange looks. However, it's a testament to the kinds of people who inhabit the field that we were able to get such buy-in from them at an early stage. One of our hub standouts at Stanford University penned an op-ed that speaks to the natural partnership between interfaith and international development.
Our success was just one of 15 pairs' hard work. The Fellowship as a whole raised over $280,000 for Project Muso, Spread the Net, Malaria No More, and Malaria No More UK, which will cover 3,000 families with life-saving bed nets. Over 10,000 people attended events organized by Fellows and their hub volunteers. Pair that with over 350 media pieces published about our work, and we have likely hit millions of people with the message of interfaith work and the Millennium Development Goals.
One day, driving from St. Mary's College in Moraga back to the South Bay, we passed by a car accident on the highway. We both stared at the wreckage, and Tim, being Catholic, slowly made the sign of the cross, thinking Hafsa hadn't seen. And Hafsa, quietly under her breath, recited "Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim" (In the name of God, the most Beneficent, the most Merciful). That could have been the end of the story had Hafsa not asked Tim about the sign of the cross, and shared that she, too, had prayed for those in the car accident.
Together, the power we hold as people of different faiths working together is indescribable. If only 30 Fellows in 12 cities across 3 continents can change the map of the interfaith movement, imagine what even more of our allies can do. Working with our partners in sub-Saharan Africa, we can change the face of a generation, and prevent millions of children, pregnant mothers, and many others from a brutal disease.
The content of this blog reflects the views of its author and does not necessarily reflect the views of either Eboo Patel or the Interfaith Youth Core.
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Eboo Patel
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June 16, 2010; 8:52 AM ET
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Posted by: farnaz_mansouri2 | June 17, 2010 7:13 PM
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Eboo,
The problem is not and has never been Muslims. THE problem is Islam, the word of Allah of the Quran and the character of Muhammad. Muslims that you present who are friends with the Kaafirs are terrified of stating their opinions to the Quran and Hadeeth Quoting Muslims. Like you they are great at telling and showing the Kaafirs how they can have interfaith dialog with the best of them, but among the muslims they are as silent as the dead.
If you are really serious, and you really want to start a project like Noah as you claimed to the class of 2010, why don't you write to the Mufti of Mecca, and the Mufti of Cairo and tell them that it is okay to take non-muslims as Auliya, and it is not right to punish apostasy with death. Write to them and publish your letter in Washington Post. Then we can see how you will deal with the inevitable death threats you will get.
Posted by: AKafir | June 17, 2010 5:20 PM
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Eboo,
Speak the Truth. These are FACTS everyone must know:
1. Eboo is an Ismaili Muslim from India.
2. Ismailis were in Egypt (900AD), but were killed by Suni Muslims.
3. They ran to Yemen.
4. Soon, they were being killed again.
5. They ran to Mumbai, where the tolerant Hindus never bothered them.
6. They have thrived amongst the Hindus in India and have become a wealthy minority.
7. In Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, they are discriminated against, like the Ahmedis.
8. They believe in and practice Taqiya. [Wikipedia: Ismāʿīlīs believe in the Shi'ite doctrine of taqiyya, which means to hide one's true religious beliefs.]
Eboo, you may be tolerant like the Hindu India that you are from, but the truth is that Islam has never been tolerant.
ADDRESS THIS PROBLEM IN ISLAM AND YOU WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE. *INTRA*FAITH (WITHIN ISLAM) DIALOGUE IS NEEDED TO STOP THE VIOLENCE. DON'T WASTE EVERYONE'S TIME WITH INTERFAITH TAQIYA PUBLIC RELATIONS.
Posted by: clearthinking1 | June 17, 2010 1:19 PM
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Julius Nyerere.