http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/ 15 Muslim interfaith activist Eboo Patel looks at how religion divides us and unites us. en Copyright 2011 Sun, 13 Mar 2011 20:18:32 -0500 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=4.2-en http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Washington Post blogs have moved. If you are subscribing to the RSS feed for this blog, you may need to re-subscribe with the new feed URL. If you stop receiving updates from this feed, please visit http://www.washingtonpost.com/rss where you can see all of our feeds and re-subscribe to this feed or sign up for new ones. http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/03/the_rss_feed_for_this_blog_has.html?wprss=onfaitheboo_patel http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/03/the_rss_feed_for_this_blog_has.html Sun, 13 Mar 2011 20:18:32 -0500 By Eboo Patel and Samantha Kirby. We know why Rep. Keith Ellison cried during yesterday's King hearings. He cried because an American hero, Salman Hamdani, was suspected as a terrorist because of the simple fact of his faith. Hamdani was a first responder in New York on September 11th and sacrificed his life for his fellow Americans. His actions were those of a hero, but in the days after 9/11, you couldn't say "Muslim" without having it followed by "terrorist." Keith Ellison cried because he is a father. Because he is concerned that when people hear that his kids are Muslim, they connect it automatically to the term "terrorist." Keith Ellison cried because he is an American congressperson. Because he doesn't want any community - whether Catholics in the 1880s or Japanese Americans and Jews in the 1940s - to have a reputation in the public imagination as traitors or http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/03/america_testifies.html?wprss=onfaitheboo_patel http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/03/america_testifies.html Interfaith Issues Fri, 11 Mar 2011 08:09:05 -0500 I wish people were more familiar with the name Salman Hamdani than the name Faisal Shehzad. Salman Hamdani was a first responder on Sep 11, 2001 and gave his life to save his fellow Americans. American Muslims are frustrated that we continue to be associated with the villains that we have already expelled from our community rather than the heroes who we are trying to inspire our children to emulate. Unfortunately, Representative Peter King's hearings promise to raise the profile of the Faizal Shehzads rather than the Salman Hamdanis. King claims that Muslim communities have not been doing enough to combat radicalization. The congressman has a penchant for sweeping generalizations ("There is a real threat to the country from the Muslim community") and dramatic overstatements ("over 80% of mosques in this country are controlled by radicals imams"). Let's look at the facts. According to a study by Charles Kurzman of http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/03/i_wish_people_were_more.html?wprss=onfaitheboo_patel http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/03/i_wish_people_were_more.html Interfaith Issues Mon, 07 Mar 2011 14:03:32 -0500 By Eboo Patel and Samantha Kirby. This week, lauded Christian Dior designer John Galliano was fired for anti-Semitic comments he uttered in a private conversation in a Parisian bar. He addressed those at his table with things like: "I love Hitler'' ''People like you would be dead'' and "Your mothers, your forefathers'' would all be ''gassed.'' John Galliano is gone. Christian Dior wasted no time in firing him - it doesn't matter how talented someone is, it doesn't neutralize their prejudice. On February 13, a Southern California branch of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) held a relief dinner to raise money for women's shelters, homelessness and hunger relief. On the night of the dinner, community members had to walk through a mob of agitated protesters to enter the mosque. http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/03/that_shameful_hateful_night.html?wprss=onfaitheboo_patel http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/03/that_shameful_hateful_night.html Interfaith Issues Fri, 04 Mar 2011 15:41:47 -0500 This morning, Shahbaz Bhatti, minister of minorities and the sole Christian in the Pakistani government, was shot to death. Mr. Bhatti had recently campaigned to reform a blasphemy law in Pakistan which calls for the death of those who speak against the Prophet Muhammad. Undoubtedly, some will say this is Islam. It's not. It's murder. Plain and simple. The Prophet Muhammad made it a clear priority that people of other faiths and traditions would feel safe around him and his companions. http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/03/shahbaz_bhatti_murdered.html?wprss=onfaitheboo_patel http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/03/shahbaz_bhatti_murdered.html Religious Conflict Wed, 02 Mar 2011 12:15:27 -0500 Princeton, NJ There's an electric energy amongst the hundred or so student interfaith leaders gathered at the Coming Together conference at Princeton University: people their age, doing the things they do, just accomplished what most experts and analysts considered impossible as recently as a month ago. This is the new generation of American idealists. Each one is worth more than a thousand armchair analysts. Those guys specialize in pondering the present, convincing us how similar tomorrow is going to be to today. These kids are building the future. To prepare for my talk, I re-read accounts of the Egyptian democracy movement from 2005. A grand total of two hundred people gathered at the protest covered by the New York Times. Thirty trucks of riot police showed up - probably outnumbering the protesters - and shoved the small crowd chanting "Khifaya (Enough)" off to the side. http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/02/egyptian_movements_american_mo.html?wprss=onfaitheboo_patel http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/02/egyptian_movements_american_mo.html Interfaith Issues Mon, 21 Feb 2011 12:04:06 -0500 Today's guest blogger is Nico Lang, an intern at Interfaith Youth Core and a senior at DePaul University. Lang co-founded the Queer Intercollegiate Alliance and is the Change Coordinator for LGBT Change's The Faith Project. In middle school, I learned first-hand the ways that media diplomacy can profoundly affect our lives. Growing up queer in a community hostile to difference, watching "Will and Grace" every week with my NASCAR-worshipping stepfather ended up being a formative part of my adolescence. Upon living, laughing and loving with these stereotypes of LGBT persons, my stepfather would beam with admiration about the "gay guy" he worked with, priding his ability to tolerate people different from himself. Although I may not have known it at the time, this was the first moment that I got to dream bigger and imagine a society where my sexuality was accepted rather than excoriated. These dialogues made my struggle http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/02/dreaming_of_a_different_world.html?wprss=onfaitheboo_patel http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/02/dreaming_of_a_different_world.html Interfaith Issues Tue, 15 Feb 2011 09:56:30 -0500 In this Feb. 4, 2011 file photo, anti-govermnent demonstrators pray in Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt. (AP Photo/Tara Todras-Whitehill, File) A few years ago I did a cable television interview on the youth bulge in majority-Muslim countries. It's a huge group, I told the anchor, and they have the potential to make a really positive contribution to the world. The images played on the screen during my interview were of young people doing training exercises at a terrorist camp - images in total contradiction to my message. I was livid. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then everything I was saying was totally drowned out. When I brought it up with one of the staff he just shrugged and said it was likely just the B-roll most readily available. http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/02/think_jan_25_not_sep_11.html?wprss=onfaitheboo_patel http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/02/think_jan_25_not_sep_11.html Interfaith Issues Mon, 14 Feb 2011 11:56:09 -0500 A Muslim holding the Koran (top L) and a Coptic Christian holding a cross are carried through opposition supporters in Tahrir Square in Cairo February 6, 2011. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez Today's guest blogger is Mustafa Abdullah, the associate organizer for CHANGE: communities helping all neighbors gain empowerment in Salem, North Carolina. He was an Interfaith Youth Core Fellow from 2009-2010. In the midst of revolution in Egypt, and with lessons from Martin Luther King Day still echoing in the air, I am reminded that our world requires of us--in times of incredible injustice--to resort to an expansive imagination, a deep sense of courage, and a desire for challenge. These are qualities that are best exemplified by the youth organizers in Egypt who, in the face of 30 years of oppression, a crumbling economy, and increasing tensions between the Muslim and Christian communities both domestically and internationally, have looked beyond their http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/02/from_selma_to_montgomery_from.html?wprss=onfaitheboo_patel http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/02/from_selma_to_montgomery_from.html Interfaith Issues Fri, 04 Feb 2011 14:04:34 -0500 Today's guest blogger is Frank Fredericks, executive director of World Faith, co-director of Religious Freedom USA, and president of Çöñàr Records. Seeing the Egyptian protests on American media may lead you to believe that this is an Iranian-style revolution, with a probable result being an Islamic regime. However, when you look at the details of what is happening on the ground, this is an interfaith movement. Since 2006, I have been frequenting Egypt, spending a month or more at a time staying and working with locals in Cairo and Alexandria. It was in Egypt when I got inspired to found World Faith, and it's become a second home for me. Broken messages from my Egyptian friends spiked an unparalleled mix of awe, fear and excitement. While a popular revolution was only a matter of time, the somewhat minute ignition was surprising to say the least. As we'd say, if Egypt http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/02/the_egyptian_revolution_an_int.html?wprss=onfaitheboo_patel http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/02/the_egyptian_revolution_an_int.html Interfaith Issues Wed, 02 Feb 2011 16:30:43 -0500 An anti-Mubarack protestor watches the rally below from atop a bill board in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo, Egypt on February 1, 2011. Protestors hoped to draw more than a million people to pressure President Hosni Mubarack to step down. ( Photo by Linda Davidson/ The Washington Post) Aren't these the scenes George Bush dreamed of? Democratic chants in Cairo's Liberation Square. Youthful organizers strategizing with respected international diplomats. Protesters and police officers shaking hands on the streets of cities they both want free. Bush tried to get here by pushing a large boulder up a huge mountain. All he did was cause a landslide. Barack Obama, as befits his uncanny luck, got this opportunity handed to him. It's a once-in a generation chance to advance democracy in a region that has stubbornly resisted it for decades. And, remarkably, there's not much push necessary. No billion-plus dollar war necessary. http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/01/mr_president_seize_this_moment.html?wprss=onfaitheboo_patel http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/01/mr_president_seize_this_moment.html Interfaith Issues Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:20:25 -0500 Egyptian women demonstrate outside the Lawyers' Sydicate in Cairo on January 27, 2011, demanding the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, 82-years-old, who has held on to power for more than three decades ever since the assassination of his predecessor Anwar Sadat was gunned down on October 6, 1981. (AFP PHOTO/MOHAMMED ABED) Davos, Switzerland Young people are upending the Middle East. They have both the numbers (approximately 2/3 of the Middle East is under 30) and the facility with the tools of 21st Century revolution (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) to do so. It was young people shouting Death to the Dictator from rooftops in Iran in 2009. It was young people who chased Ben Ami out of Tunisia. It is young people who are braving tear gas and rubber bullets in Egypt. The threats keep coming, but they keep going - and the whole thing is just getting bigger and spreading http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/01/the_youth_of_the_middle_east.html?wprss=onfaitheboo_patel http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/01/the_youth_of_the_middle_east.html Interfaith Issues Thu, 27 Jan 2011 17:10:30 -0500 Today's guest blogger is Hesham A. Hassaballa, a Chicago doctor and writer. He is co-author of the Beliefnet Guide to Islam, and his newest book is Noble Brother, the story of the Prophet Muhammad told entirely in poetry. Barely half a week into his new term as Governor of Alabama, Robert Bentley immersed himself in controversy by uttering these words at Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church: "There may be some people here today who do not have living within them the Holy Spirit. But if you have been adopted in God's family like I have, and like you have if you're a Christian and if you're saved, and the Holy Spirit lives within you just like the Holy Spirit lives within me, then you know what that makes? It makes you and me brothers. And it makes you and me brother and sister. Now I will have to say http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/01/todays_guest_blogger_is_hesham_1.html?wprss=onfaitheboo_patel http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/01/todays_guest_blogger_is_hesham_1.html Interfaith Issues Tue, 25 Jan 2011 09:51:40 -0500 Today's guest blogger is Peter Hong, who pastors New Community Covenant Church, a series of urban, multiethnic churches in the heart of Chicago. Made up of people from all walks of life, New Community is passionate about bringing shalom, God's holistic peace to the world, through ministries of mercy, compassion and justice. Tolerance I am a Christian. Even more, I am a fundamentalist, but being a fundamentalist doesn't make you a terrorist. In a world in which the most dangerous bomb is a human one, the word fundamentalist conjures up for many, hated-filled, intolerant, judgmental bigots who impose their world-view on others regardless of the cost. Sadly, such an image is all too familiar to us. The nightly news serves up reminders each day that we live in a world in which fundamentalism threatens to destroy the humanity. In order for us to co-exist in a pluralistic society, many argue http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/01/open_letter_to_my_christian_fr.html?wprss=onfaitheboo_patel http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/01/open_letter_to_my_christian_fr.html Interfaith Issues Fri, 14 Jan 2011 13:52:08 -0500 "Gabby opened her eyes for the first time. She knows we are here. She knows we love her. And she knows we are rooting for her." That's when Obama shifted into American Gospel during his speech in Tucson. I usually turn to American artists and activists and preachers when I need American Gospel - Woody Guthrie, Walt Whitman, Bruce Springsteen, Martin King, John Coltrane, Jane Addams. Obama showed that he could do American Gospel as a candidate. In Tucson, he showed he could do it as president. He eulogized the victims individually. Each one a whole universe. Each one a member of our family, the president said. Our American family. And then he did a roll call of the heroes. The volunteer who raced to Gabby Giffords side during the shooting. Those who tackled the shooter. The 61 year old woman who wrestled away the ammunition. If there weren't http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/01/american_gospel_1.html?wprss=onfaitheboo_patel http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2011/01/american_gospel_1.html Interfaith Issues Thu, 13 Jan 2011 09:23:23 -0500