Originally posted here

“Professor Akbar Ahmed turns his intrepid approach to cultural dialogue and inter-faith understanding onto American society, in this brilliant follow-up to “Journey into Islam”. His insights should be required reading for anyone grappling with national security, national identity and national cohesion in today’s complex era.” Colonel David Kilcullen, author of Washington Post Bestseller and Economist Book of the Year, The Accidental Guerrilla

“My friend, Professor Ahmed, came to America in the great tradition of Alexis De Tocqueville: a perceptive foreigner affectionately looking at America and American identity. This important new book advances his heroic, even dangerous, ‘five minutes to midnight’ effort to save us from our foolish mutual animosities. Pray his efforts are not too late.” Tony Blankley, The Washington Times and The Heritage Foundation

“What a wonderful, wonderful work! Dr. Akbar Ahmed has written an important book on Islam in the United States today. With the refreshing perspective of both Dr. Ahmed and his bright young traveling companions, this book presents great insight into the diversity and vibrancy of American Islam and its potential to help achieve the American promise.” Eboo Patel, founder and Executive Director of Interfaith Youth Core

“I have not read a work as insightful, erudite, and innovative on the challenge of American identity since Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. Akbar Ahmed sets a new paradigm in the ongoing debate on defining American identity.” Melody Fox, Berkley Center at Georgetown University

“Journey to America is an essential pillar in the effort to build the interfaith bridge of understanding. It will inform, provoke, and inspire Americans of all colors, cultures, and faiths.” Congressman Keith Ellison

“If one wants to know why the world and not just America needs America to be America; if one wants stirring uplift and insight into the diversity and experience of being Muslim in America; if one wants to appreciate the genius of America’s founding fathers and the significance of their Bill of Rights; if one wants to absorb the experiences of different generations and different religions struggling together to understand the contemporary world; if one wants to understand how the constantly changing identity of the United States throughout the sweep of its history is relevant for today’s challenges; if one wants to appreciate how new useful knowledge can be created by what anthropologists call “participant observation research;” if one wants practical suggestions for building a better world at home and abroad together; then read Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam  by Akbar S. Ahmed and his intrepid team.” Dean Louis Goodman, American University, Washington DC

“An absolutely riveting journey into an America most Americans have no idea about – as the US faces up to the tensions within its own Muslim communities it could not be more timely.” Christina Lamb, The Sunday Times Washington Bureau Chief

“One of the most exciting and readable accounts not only of Muslim life in the U.S. but of the context of American history more broadly. I have learned a great deal about my own country through Akbar Ahmed’s eyes.” Lawrence Rosen, Princeton University

“Your project is very pleasing to God. It’s truly a work of God, your desire to bring together the people of the world to have a greater love and respect for one another.” Archbishop Fiorenza, Archbishop of Catholic Diocese, Houston, Texas

“Journey into America is a journey ensuring that we can see all of our American brothers and sisters, and see that they are indeed created in the image of God.” Senior Rabbi Bruce Lustig, Washington Hebrew Congregation

“This is likely to be one of the most definitive works to date on the Muslim experience in the United States. It will have a catalytic affect and will in all likelihood stimulate a generation of scholars.” President Cornelius Kerwin, American University

“I think you’re the first one that has really tried to capture the rich texture of America, I just think it was a brilliant idea… its going to be very influential.” Ambassador J. Douglas Holladay

Namu Amida Butsu
amerbud

….also hate Muslims.

According to a recent article by Eboo Patel, a Gallup poll says as much, although it did not ask the necessary questions to establish that the reverse is also true,  that people who hate Muslims also hate Jews.  You can check out the Gallup poll for yourself here.

Patel concludes that we Muslims and Jews ought to teach our children not to say “Dirty Muslim” or “Dirty Jew,” if not for their sake than for our own. This seemed like a fairly obvious, if not banal, thesis to me. Who could disagree?

Yet, on the WashingtonPost website where the article appeared, commentators have weighed in with objections, thereby confirming that, as the Gallup poll suggests, there is indeed a problem here, and not one that is moving in the right direction.

What is the best way to address this issue?

http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2010/01/column-moderate-muslims-were-everywhere-.html

Those who want to hijack Islam mustn’t be allowed to set the agenda and turn Americans — and the rest of the world — against us.

By Eboo Patel

I’m not the world’s most physical guy, but I have a hero fantasy I play over and over in my head.

I’m on a plane and a guy a few rows up starts to make some suspicious moves. In some dream sequences, he’s taking out a box cutter. Other times, he’s trying to set his shoe on fire.

Eboo Patel writes a column featured in USA Today reminding people that moderate Muslims are also in the fight against extremists.  They believe terrorism goes against the teachings of Islam and call on all Americans not to let the radicals make us fearful and divide us from good neighbors who also are longing for peace.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2010/01/column-moderate-muslims-were-everywhere-.html

For more information on Vicky Collins visit http://teletrendstv.com.

Like the past two year’s lists (2007 and 2008), I’ll keep this short and sweet with no attempt to rank my short list. Of the books I read in 2009, these are the five I’d most quickly recommend.

——————–

Disciples of All Nations: Pillars of World Christianity

Lamin Sanneh’s book takes it’s place beside Phillip Jenkins’ The Next Christendom as essential reading for a wider and more accurate understanding of present-day Christianity.  In an article for Out of Ur in March I used Disciples of All Nations as evidence of how myopic the Western definition of Christian history often can be.  While it’s appropriate for the Western church to look to it’s own theological history for guidance, it’s irresponsible to assume that that same history applies the same way to the non-Western church.  To go a step farther, in a world that has changed dramatically it’s no longer an option for Western Christianity to ignore the work of God around the world.  This divine activity comes with it’s own history and it’s one our churches will be better off for understanding.

——————–

Acts of Faith

Eboo Patel has a deceptively simple thesis: In order to have meaningful conversations that leads to action, individuals and congregations from different religious traditions should acknowledge what makes them distinct rather than whitewash significant differences in theology and religious practice.  The author and founder of Interfaith Youth Core goes even farther.  Those from one faith tradition can acknowledge their desire for friends and family from other traditions to convert.  A Muslim can admit her desire for her Christian friend to convert to Islam and vice-versa.  Honesty breeds trust, allowing common cause to be pursued by people of diverse worldviews.  Patel captures this conviction and its significance in our pluralistic world in a memoir about his  journey of faith and ecumenical work.

——————–

The Writing Life

Annie Dillard sees things most of us miss.  Or, more accurately, she describes our familiar world such that it becomes beautifully and frighteningly unfamiliar.  In her book about writing, Dillard doesn’t so much tell- this is what writers do- as she does show- this is what writers see, how they experience and make meaning of people, places and events.  The Writing Life is a short collection of Dillard’s experiences and observations about her craft in which I was reminded of the many differences between those of us who enjoy writing and those who are writers.

——————–

Native Son

How to describe Richard Wright’s Native Son?  This was by far the most difficult book I read in 2009.  Wright dares the reader to experience a few days in the life of Bigger Thomas, a young man trapped by the color of his skin within a small section of 1930’s Chicago.  In Bigger Thomas the reader encounters the caged mind and soul of a young man who yearns for release and dignity, essences of life which have been systematically denied him at every turn.  Wright’s achievement, from my limited perspective, was to expose the psychological and spiritual oppression experienced by his peers and neighbors.  Though ultimately a great tragedy- Bigger’s actions are genuinely horrific- by it’s very telling the story allows for redemptive possibilities.

——————–

Little Bee

Despite my non-fiction bias, two novels make this year’s list.  Little Bee was recommended earlier this year by Susan Richmond, bookshop owner and regular Sings of Life reader.  I read this book on the back porch of a California cabin this summer.  Despite the relaxing setting, I was all tension and angst throughout Cleave’s account of British and Nigerian worlds colliding.  The author, a columnist for The Guardian, manages to take global anxieties about oil and immigration and tell the incredibly relatable  stories of those affected by these faceless giants.  (A favorite movie this past year was The Visitor which addresses similar themes.)  Little Bee captivated and exhausted me while pointing to overlooked realities.  What more could this non-fiction reader ask for?

How about you? What is the book (or books) that most impacted how you think and live this year?

Teaching young people how to appreciate religious diversity is critical to achieving peace and security in the world, says the winner of the 2010 Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion.

Eboo Patel, founder and executive director of Interfaith Youth Core, won the prize for his 2007 autobiography, “Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation.” He was selected from among 67 nominations worldwide.

Patel’s organization, based in Chicago, encourages young people of different religions to perform community service, explore common values and build bridges among diverse faiths. The organization is now active on about 75 college campuses.

“Religious extremists all over the world are harnessing adolescent angst for their own ends,” said Susan Garrett, a religion professor who directs the award. “Patel urges us to take advantage of the short window of time in a young person’s life to teach the universal values of cooperation, compassion and mercy.”

Patel was born in India to a Muslim family and immigrated to Chicago as a child. As a teenager, he struggled with what he saw as a lack of religious pluralism in America. His experiences prompted him to launch a movement to build interfaith cooperation by inspiring college students to champion the cause.

He formed Interfaith Youth Core in 1998.

A Rhodes Scholar, he is now a member of President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and the Religious Advisory Committee of the Council on Foreign Relations. In October, U.S. News & World Report named him one of America’s Best Leaders in 2009.

Five Grawemeyer Awards are presented annually for outstanding works in music composition, world order, psychology, education and religion. The University of Louisville and Louisville Presbyterian Seminary jointly award the religion prize.

About Eboo Patel

Eboo Patel’s dream is to build a world where interfaith cooperation is the norm.

As founder and executive director of Interfaith Youth Core in Chicago, he is working to help young people discover ways to build the religious pluralism he says is vital to the world’s future.

In his Grawemeyer Award-winning book, “Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation,” Patel, now 34, tells his own life story as an Indian-born Muslim raised in America. At first, he felt his different identities as Indian, Muslim and American clashed with one another, but later realized that appreciating the common value of pluralism among all three was the key to finding peace.

“Every time we see a teenager kill someone in the name of God,” he writes, “we should picture a pair of shadowy hands behind him, showing him how to make the bomb or point the gun…and then we should ask: ‘Why weren’t the hands of people who care about pluralism shaping that kid instead of the hands of religious totalitarians?”

Earlier this year, Patel won the Roosevelt Institute’s Freedom of Worship Medal. Previously, he was named by Islamica Magazine as “one of 10 young Muslim visionaries shaping Islam in America” and chosen by Harvard’s Kennedy School Review as one of “five future policy leaders to watch.”

A board member of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and member of the national committee of the Aga Khan Foundation USA, he also is a Young Global Leader in the World Economic Forum and an Ashoka Fellow, a distinction awarded to a select group of social entrepreneurs.

He has spoken at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum in Minnesota, the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City and the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Lecture at Westminster Abbey in London.

Besides writing a religion blog for the Washington Post, “The Faith Divide,” Patel has written for the Chicago Tribune and Sunday Times of India. He is a regular guest on CNN and National Public Radio.

He holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar, and attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as an undergraduate.

Article Source: http://grawemeyer.org/news-updates/teaching-respect-for-other-faiths-is-vital-says-grawemeyer-winner

December 12, 2009 from WBEZ

It’s likely that Eboo Patel is a name you haven’t heard before. He teaches young people to appreciate religious diversity and pass it on. He’s the founder of the Chicago-based Interfaith Youth Core and one of President Obama’s advisers on faith. His work just landed him the prestigious Louisville Grawemeyer Award.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121374147

Every year the University of Louisville, in conjunction with Louisville Seminary, gives awards to outstanding books in five areas.  This year’s winner in religion is Eboo Patel for his memoir Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation.

Patel was born in India to a Muslim family and immigrated to Chicago as a child. As a teenager, he struggled with what he saw as a lack of religious pluralism in America. His experiences prompted him to launch a movement in 1998 called Interfaith Youth Core, an organization that helps young people build cooperative relationships among youth of different faiths.

Not only is Patel’s book in the library collection, but the previous four winners are too: Honest Patriots: Loving a Country Enough to Remember Its Misdeeds by Donald Shriver Jr. (2009); Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics by Margaret Farley (2008); Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy Tyson (2006); and Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (2006).

Check to see if which are checked out by clicking the title.

Eboo Patel. Photo: IFYC/Eileen Ryan

TheIsmaili.org, in conjunction with The Institute of Ismaili Studies, will host a live webcast by Eboo Patel, founder and Executive Director of the Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based institution building the global interfaith youth movement. The event will take place on Monday, 14 December 2009 at 15:30 GMT (London time), and will be broadcast at www.theismaili.org/live.

Eboo Patel was recently appointed by President Obama to the Advisory Council of the White House Office of Faith Based and Neighbourhood Partnerships, where he is working to realise the President’s priority of interfaith cooperation. He is also the author of Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation. Patel writes The Faith Divide, a featured blog on religion for The Washington Post and serves on the Religious Advisory Committee of the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Committee of the Aga Khan Foundation USA.

The Ismaili

Upcoming Live Events: IIS Graduate Programme in Islamic Studies and Humanities and Eboo Patel

TheIsmaili.org will host a live webcast by Professor Karim H Karim, Co-Director of The Institute of Ismaili Studies, for individuals interested in the Institute’s Graduate Programme in Islamic Studies and Humanities (GPISH). The event will take place on Saturday, 12 December 2009 at 14:30 GMT (London time), and will be broadcast at www.theismaili.org/live.

To submit a question about the Graduate Programme that you would like addressed during the presentation or the Q & A session that will follow, please email admissions@iis.ac.uk. The IIS will endeavour to address as many queries as possible.

A demanding and exciting three-year post-graduate course of study, the Graduate Programme in Islamic Studies and Humanities trains individuals to play a leading role in academic and community life. It prepares students for a research degree and acts as a stepping stone to a variety of career opportunities around the world.

For more information, please visit the GPISH programme page at the Institute’s website.

Live Event: Eboo Patel

In conjunction with The Institute of Ismaili Studies, TheIsmaili.org will host a live webcast of a speech by Eboo Patel on Monday, 14 December 2009 at 15:30 GMT (London time). The event will be broadcast at www.theismaili.org/live.

The Ismaili

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TheIsmaili.org, in conjunction with The Institute of Ismaili Studies, will host a live webcast by Eboo Patel, founder and Executive Director of the Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based institution building the global interfaith youth movement. The event will take place on Monday, 14 December 2009 at 15:30 GMT (London time), and will be broadcast at www.theismaili.org/live.

http://www.theismaili.org/cms/915/Live-Event-Eboo-Patel

Eboo Patel in the Chicago Tribune

Good read check it out!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-chicago-muslim-leader-04-dec04,0,7864492.story

Eboo Patel, the founder and executive director of an organization that promotes religious pluralism and is active on 50 American college campuses, will receive the 2010 Grawemeyer Award in Religion, the University of Louisville has announced.

Mr. Patel, a former Rhodes scholar who holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion, was honored for his 2007 autobiography, Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation (Beacon Press), in which he describes his own life story as an India-born Muslim raised in America. The autobiography shows how an angry youth can be transformed into a leader for peace, according to the award announcement.

The organization Mr. Patel founded, Interfaith Youth Core, works to build mutual respect and pluralism among young people of different religious traditions by focusing on shared values and community service.

“Religious extremists all over the world are harnessing adolescent angst for their own ends,” Susan R. Garrett, a professor at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary who directs the award, said in the announcement. Mr. Patel “urges us to take advantage of the short window of time in a young person’s life to teach the universal values of cooperation, compassion, and mercy.”

The award is one of five Grawemeyer prizes that are presented each year in recognition of achievements in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. The awards were created in 1984 by H. Charles Grawemeyer, a University of Louisville alumnus, and are given by the Grawemeyer Foundation. Each prize carries a $200,000 cash award.

The recipients of the 2010 prizes in music composition, for ideas improving world order, in psychology, and in education were announced earlier this week. More information about the awards and their recipients is available on the organization’s Web site. —Charles Huckabee

Efforts to bridge religious divide among youths earns him Grawemeyer award

– excerpts –

For his efforts to shift that balance — by building an international organization that enables young people to work together across religious lines — Patel has received the 2010 Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion.
….
“I am a testament to that dynamic (showing that) encounters with people from other religions serve in large part to strengthen one’s own faith,” Patel said. So too did the quiet example of the humanitarian work of his father, grandmother and the leader of his Ismaili branch of Shiite Islam.
….
“I view the Grawemeyer Award as a recognition of the work the movement has done thus far, but really about the promise of the future of building a world where interfaith cooperation is the norm,” he said.

Read at http://www.courier-journal.com/article/
http://grawemeyer.org/news-updates/

Title: Interfaith Leadership in a Religiously Diverse World
By Eboo Patel
14 December 2009 – 6pm – 7:30pm
Friends House, Large Hall
173 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BJ

Eboo Patel is the founder and Executive Director of the Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based institution building the global interfaith youth movement. He was recently appointed by President Obama to the Advisory Council of the White House Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, where he is working to realize the President’s priority of interfaith cooperation. He is the author of Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation. Eboo holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes scholarship.

http://www.usembassy.org.uk/culture/index.html
http://www.usembassy.org.uk/americanservices/

IFYC — I went to this conference a few years ago and gave it mixed reviews. Here’s the core idea:

Religious pluralism is neither mere coexistence nor forced consensus, but the conviction that people who believe in different creeds can learn to live together with, in the words of Wilfred Cantwell Smith, “mutual trust and mutual loyalty.” It surpasses mere tolerance of diversity and requires that people of different religions affirm their distinct beliefs while making commitments to one another and the world we share. Three components which hold true for a pluralist society are respect for religious identity, mutually inspiring relationships, and common action for the common good.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve heard that last week an army psychologist, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, opened fire at Fort Hood and killed 13 people. You’ve probably also heard the inevitable discussion that follows senseless violent tragedy, focusing on the nearly-unanswerable question “Why?” From a ’systems thinking’ point of view, there are many legitimate facets to put on the table, including mental health, post-traumatic stress disorder, the general morale and collective mental state of troops involved in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, and – yes – the influence of radicalized, fundamentalist Islam.

All well and necessary. But what happens when fundamentalist Christians – and their more respectable evangelical neighbors – ignore 3 of the 4 above factors and generalize the last one, painting all Muslims as a potential fifth column ’sleeper cell’ in our midst? It isn’t pretty. I’ve been avoiding the typical watering holes for such ‘reasoning’ – Fox News, CBN, WorldNetDaily. I know better. But one place I’ve been unable to avoid seeing it is on my own Facebook network. In some cases dear friends making statements like “If three friends from my local [Christian] congregation were involved in shootings, I don’t know if you could claim that my religion is peaceful. Hmm.” What follows is some of my tentative, in-process response, to my friends and family members who are scared, and want to know how followers of Jesus should respond in the wake of this tragedy.

Where to begin? First off, I do agree that Major Hasan had some shady connections. Not only was he not investigated for those connections, but he was actually appointed by the Bush administration to be high up in Homeland Security if this source is to be believed! This is very odd, and needs to be investigated.

But I’ve gotta be honest with you: It makes me sick to my stomach to hear people compare the best of their faith with the worst in others’ faiths. Of course your truncated version of Christianity will come out smelling like a rose! But we cannot forget that we have a legacy of violence, terror, shame, and intimidation along with the worst of Islam. We too have ‘texts of terror’ in our sacred scriptures, and we do best to handle them with the utmost care so as not to let their volatility spill out into the fragility of our interconnected lives. How is caricaturing a faith held by a billion people worldwide loving our enemies? How is it going to show them the love of Christ?

I agree that PTSD doesn’t excuse someone for their actions. But as someone who personally suffers from anxiety-related issues, I can assure you it’s very real. Radical Islam is doubtless a factor in this man’s thinking, but it’s equally obvious to me that he tried, repeatedly, to get discharged so that he would not enter an arena of war that is increasingly demoralizing our troops – troops that he dealt with frequently as a psychiatrist at Walter Reed hospital. Suicide and domestic violence rates are up exponentially among troops involved in our neverending wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. If we Christians wish to focus our indignation somewhere, perhaps it should be on why we entered these zero-sum conflicts to begin with.

Does The Qur’an Uniformly Promote Violence?

So we all hear the ‘naughty bits’ of the Qur’an trumpeted daily via sources like FAUX FOX news and WND, and on increasingly hysterical and polarizing talk radio. But have we ever heard these passages?

“On that account: We (Allah) ordained for the Children of Israel that if any one slew a person – unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land – it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people. Then although there came to them Our apostles with clear signs, yet, even after that, many of them continued to commit excesses in the land. (The Noble Qur’an, 5:32)”

“Fight in the cause of Allah (God) those who fight you, but do not transgress limits; for Allah (God) loveth not transgressors. (The Noble Qur’an, 2:190)”

“But if the enemy incline towards peace, do thou (also) incline towards peace, and trust in Allah (God) : for He is One that heareth and knoweth (all things). (The Noble Qur’an, 8:61)”

“If thou dost stretch thy hand against me, to slay me, it is not for me to stretch my hand against thee to slay thee: for I do fear God, the cherisher of the worlds. (The Noble Qur’an, 5:28)”

“Allah does not forbid you from showing kindness and dealing justly with those who have not fought you about religion and have not driven you out of your homes. Allah loves just dealers. (The Noble Qur’an, 60:8)”

“And fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for Allah (God). But if they desist, then let there be no hostility except against wrongdoers. (The Noble Qur’an 2:193)”

“Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from error: whoever rejects evil and believes in Allah hath grasped the most trustworthy handhold, that never breaks. And Allah heareth and knoweth all things. (The Noble Qur’an, 2:256)”

“Say, ‘The truth is from your Lord’: Let him who will believe, and let him who will, reject (it):……(The Noble Qur’an, 18:29)”

“If it had been thy Lord’s will, they would all have believed,- all who are on earth! Wilt thou then compel mankind, against their will, to believe? (The Noble Quran, 10:99)”

“Say: ‘Obey Allah, and obey the Messenger: but if ye turn away, he is only responsible for the duty placed on him and ye for that placed on you. If ye obey him, ye shall be on right guidance. The Messenger’s duty is only to preach the clear (Message). (The Noble Quran, 24:54)”

“Say : O ye that reject Faith! I worship not that which ye worship, Nor will ye worship that which I worship. And I will not worship that which ye have been wont to worship, Nor will ye worship that which I worship. To you be your Way, and to me mine. (The Noble Qur’an, 109:1-6)”

Allah Almighty loves those who restrain anger: “Those who spend (freely), whether in prosperity, or in adversity; who restrain anger, and pardon (all) men; for Allah loves those who do good. (The Noble Qur’an, 3:134)”

“And you (O Muslims) shall certainly hear much that will grieve you from those who received the Scripture before you (Jews and Christians) and from those who ascribe partners to Allah; but if you persevere patiently, and become Al-Muttaqoon (the pious) then verily, that will be a determining factor in all affairs” (The Noble Qur’an 3:186)

Narrated Aisha(prophet’s wife) : “Whenever the Prophet was given an option between two things, he used to select the easier of the tow as long as it was not sinful; but if it was sinful, he would remain far from it. By Allah, he never took revenge for himself concerning any matter that was presented to him, but when Allah’s Limits were transgressed, he would take revenge for Allah’s Sake. (Translation of Sahih Bukhari, Limits and Punishments set by Allah (Hudood), Volume 8, Book 81, Number 777)”

The Prophet said, “When Allah had finished His creation, He wrote over his Throne: ‘My Mercy preceded My Anger.’

…these are just a few passages that some quick research pulled up. They adequately illustrate, I think, that the Qur’an is a multifaceted work that requires thoughtful interpretation; a text that provides ample inspiration for living a life of peace and love toward God and each other…just like the Bible for Christians. (No, I’m not saying their identically equivalent, nor am I saying that the Qur’an is my holy book. Only that we shouldn’t blithely quote a few less-than-flattering passages out of context and then claim that terrorists are ‘being good Muslims’ by emulating them. That’s not good hermeneutics for any faith. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and all that jazz.)

Extending Hospitality in the Name of Jesus

Some of my friends are upset that I’d quote peaceful passages from the Qur’an and spend so much energy defending Muslims from their detractors. “Why defend a false and hateful religion?” they implore. This makes me think of the psychological term projection. We tend to externalize what we most fear within ourselves. People who find falsehood and hatred in others’ faiths might be anxious about their own collective legacy of deceit and mistreatment of outsiders. If we don’t deal with our shadow sides, we tend to see them writ large in the external world. As Richard Rohr puts it, “If we don’t transform our pain, we transmit it.”

Jesus tells us to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. I don’t want to be Pollyanna-ish about the current state of affairs: I know that there are violent Muslims in the world, and I know that I would not want to live in several countries where extreme interpretations of Sharia law are in place – laws that severely restrict the freedom of women, of faith, and of conscience. Please understand this, all friends who think that I (and hordes of ’self-hating liberal Christians,’ I suppose) am simplistically giving the entire Islamic world of all facets a blank check. I had a great Global Civilizations teacher in undergrad days – s/he had ties to US Intelligence. And I’ve kept up with reading since then. I am not hiding my head in the sand from certain harsher global realities. What I am doing, though, is soberly acknowledging the truth of Jesus’ words – violence begets violence. A cursory examination of the past thousand years of world history – of Christian Crusaders versus Muslim Crusaders, of the West versus the Ottoman Empire, of America funding Islamic leaders over and against Communism during the Cold War when it suited our purposes, then reversing support – shows a vicious cycle of manipulation, domination, and propaganda against ‘the Enemy’ – on both sides. And now, thanks in part to the Internet, peace-loving people on all sides of this conflict are saying ‘Enough!’

For me as a follower of Jesus, I believe that hospitality is the antidote to violence in our day. In the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, God commands us to show love and hospitality to three kinds of people: Strangers, Neighbors, and Enemies. (Also Widows, Orphans, and Immigrants, but those can be considered under the previous headings, yes?) Jesus came to offer us a Way out of the patterns of violence and oppression that beset us. In first century Palestine, the ‘ways of being’ in the world were either that you were with Empire (as a Roman citizen and/or a member of the Herodian ruling Jewish elite), warily alongside empire, but focusing on personal piety (like the Pharisee party), a separatist (like the Essenes), or a violent revolutionary (like the Sicarii or Zealot Party). Jesus accurately predicted that these four options would lead to death and destruction, especially for the people of God, as they were all based on fear of ‘the other’ and self-preservation. (This happened, by the way, in AD 70, as Jerusalem was consumed with a bloody civil war and then finished off by Roman armies. It was the end of an epoch; this is what Jesus wept over.) The only way out of this deadly impasse, ironically, was to lose one’s life in self-giving love  – especially toward The Other.

So which is it, contemporary Western Christians? Are Muslims our neighbors? Frankly, we have to do a much better job getting to know them – as people, and on their own terms – before we have the right to refer to Muslims living in our locality as our neighbors. So are they Strangers? Probably. Are they enemies? Probably not, not any Muslims you personally know. (Remember, projection! What have the actual Muslims in your community, and at your job, ever done to you? Sit with God a moment and see what shadows seep out from within; name them for what they are, and release them back to the compassionate and truthful One. See how this enlarges your perspective.) But even if they were enemies, even if all Muslims were our honest-to-God enemies – then what is our responsibility toward them? Jesus once again has a real counter-intuitive zinger:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (from Matthew 5)

Perfection according to God is expression love and doing good toward “the just and unjust” alike. This shouldn’t surprise Christians, since our Scripture boldly proclaims that God is love, and that those who have love have God. This is certainly the scandalous, prodigal inclusion Jesus practices toward the ‘Muslim’ of his day, the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. Think about it: First century Samaritans were to Jews what 21st century Muslims are to Christians: Same family tree, divergent ideas about God, legitimate prophets, and worship. Many Jews of Jesus’ day – like many Christians of our own – shunned the SamariMuslims, finding their worship and culture backwards and oppressive. But Jesus, while he did get a word in edgewise about the technical correct-ness of Jewish worship (I guess He couldn’t help Himself), re-oriented the both of them to a coming eschaton where the minutiae of theology and modalities of worship would fade away in light of the brilliant soon-coming epoch were all people would worship together in spirit and reality. We might not be quite there yet – and we shouldn’t gloss over differences, but discuss them, passionately, once we have a relational right to – but abundant, joyful hospitality to strangers, neighbors, and enemies is the Royal Road of Love that Jesus invites us to walk.

It’s Really All About God

A book by this title by Christian pastor Samir Selmanovic has been saving my sanity in these tumultuous times. Do yourself a favor and read it. If you’re too cheap to immediately spring for a copy merely on my recommendation, listen to this recent talk he gave. And hear him read excerpts from his book. But then buy it! You’ll be glad you did.

While you’re reading, I’d also recommend Sufi poetry, by folks like Rumi and Hafiz. The point in gaining appreciation for the peace and love expressed by the vast majority of Islam is not to convert to Islam, or to excuse the very real atrocities carried out by a minority of those professing Islam. Rather, by comparing their best to our best, Christians can have better conversations and relationships with real-life Muslims who suffer – a lot – whenever an incident like the Ft Hood Shootings splash across the media.

Recommended Contemporary Muslim Reading:

Eboo Patel
Zia Sardar
Alt.Muslim
Muslim Futures Network
Islamicate
Muslim Peace Fellowship
Islam Is Peace

Placing the shooting in perspective

Muslim Communities Rally To Support Victims of Fort Hood
Why Home-Grown Islamic Terrorism Isn’t A Threat
Don’t blame Islam for Fort Hood killings, Baptist leader says
The Fort Hood Shootings and the White Privilege of Disassociation
Fort Hood and Prejudice
Five Futures for Muslims by Sohail Inayatullah

That’s it for now. Shalom, Salaam, and Pax Christi.

When Bernie Madoff was arrested in December, 2008 the blogosphere filled with hate. Anti-Semitic remarks of the sort not seen in a generation surfaced, as Madoff fulfilled all of the worst possible stereotypes about Jews. One crooked investor who preyed on his coreligionists’ charitable contributions made anti-Semitism seem trendy.

Last week, when a mentally unstable major in the army shot up a meeting space at Fort Hood in Texas, the blogosphere was again overflowing with hate, this time aimed against Muslims. Even as top military brass made clear that the incident was a military – not religious – matter, bloggers framed Nidal Hasan as a terrorist, inspired to kill in the name of his religion.

The hate must stop. But even as Jewish organizations denounce Madoff and Muslim organizations condemn Hasan, their voices cannot alone silence the din of the blogosphere. They desperately need for institutions outside their own religious communities to join in the chorus against hate and reframe the discourse. This mutual need may in fact provide an unprecedented opportunity for collaboration between the two religious communities.

For the complete article, please see the Faith Divide column.

On November 5, Major Malik Nadal Hasan opened fire at Fort Hood at 1:30pm and killed 13 servicemen, wounding 38 others.  It was a shocking tragedy.  After the initial moment of shock wore off, my first thought was that this would be called either “homicide” or “terrorism,” and the decision lay entirely in what we discovered the religion of the assailant to be.

Malik Nadal Hasan

Once again as a nation, we are thrown into this question of what we are to think of Islam.  Eboo Patel, a Muslim leader deeply engaged in interfaith dialogue, tells his story here as he learned of the attack midway through a conference for Muslim/Jewish dialogue.  Patel tells of the immediate fear the Muslim community faces in light of such an attack, as recent history teaches such an event incurs violent backlash against Muslims in America.  Patel tells of the Muslim organizations denouncing this jihad as in direct opposition to the teachings of the Qur’an, even as he knows these denouncements will go unnoticed.

Before the sun set, we learned his name was Hasan, knew he was Muslim, and saw the anger against Muslims pour in over facebook and media et al.  The event, the murder, was without excuse.  Hasan’s actions were despicable, let me be clear, and it would have been better if he had never been born.  But there is so much to learn about ourselves amidst such a tradgedy.

First, evil people are the Other in our eyes:

Hasan was a member of a military, very well educated, murdering with a legally purchased weapon, and a Muslim.  Which of those four facts are we quickest to jump to as explanation for the unexplainable?  The one most different from ourselves.

Second, we will close off our ability to see through the eyes of the other:

If Hasan had been a “Smith,” and had in fact been a Christian, would we have seen headlines about a “Christian terrorist” attacking our troops?  When George Tiller, an abortion provider in Kansas, was murdered by a Christian this summer, did we say “Surprise, surprise… the attacker was a Christian”?  Would we protest they misunderstood our religion if Mideast militants looked at our armies and said “Surprise, surprise… Christians crusading again”?  We are outraged that Hasan considered himself a radical Muslim first, and an American second.  Yet how many of us would show concern if a Christian or Jew said the same?  How many Christians want to be stereotyped in with the Westboro Baptist crowd (who protest soldiers funerals with “God hates America, fags, fill-in-the-blank”), and yet we nevertheless jump at the chance to compare our best to the Other’s worst?

Third, my enemies are always men like me:

As Islam has said throughout the ages, and I agree, to take one life is like taking all lives.  The taking of life is never a good action.  Taking life is a great way to solve problems quickly… at least in the short run of things.  In every war, skirmish, in every argument, there are two sides.  There are the good guys (the defense) and the bad guys, who see themselves as good guys too (the preemptive defense, if you will).  We are all on the side of righteousness in our own eyes.  No man thinks himself a murderer.  Every shot we take is “just.”  God is always on my side, guiding my leaders, supporting my cause.

Fourth, sin goes back to a moment in a garden long ago:

Under the right circumstances, I could be convinced that killing was the only option, that it was an excusable thing to do.  It is the way that we have evolved; we lie and cheat and kill because it seems good for our survival.  The fact that violence inevitably leads to more violence, not peace, is lost in the chaos.  In truth, I want to believe that “bad people” are very different from myself, that they have no excuse and cannot be reasoned with, that they are very different from me, and that God thinks they suck too.  We are all so alike.

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Let us learn and befriend the Other with respect and love.  Let us not give into the temptation to dehumanize, stereotype, give up on, hate, or justify any of the aforementioned against the other.  We must confront religious ignorance and bigotry, and not give into the type of fear of the Other that a Fort Hood, or even a 9/11, can create about the Other.  Instead, let us talk to the Other, read their stories, read their religious texts, try to understand them, and in so doing, see the reflection of ourselves and of the Divine.

At the recent IFYC Conference, Eboo Patel, Founder and Executive Director of the Interfaith Youth Core, spoke about World Faith, and specifically about the work happening in India under the World Faith’s National Director of India, Abdul Shakeel Basha.

While I was at the IFYC conference this past week, I reflected on the myriad of ways that the Interfaith Youth Core, and it’s awesome staff, has supported me as an interfaith leader, and World Faith as an organization.

First of all, as a member of the Fellow Alliance, they gave the NYU chapter of World Faith funding for interfaith service programs on campus.

Starting with the Fellowship, they have flown me four times to Chicago for trainings, meetings, and other leadership development programs.  This training was wide in scope, including media engagement, dialogue training, and institutional and campus involvement.

I have had several media opportunities through IFYC, including being interviewed on Good Morning America, Chicago Public Radio, and an hour-long interview on the online radio show Embracing the Journey.

The contact network I have built both directly through IFYC, and as a product of the credibility of association with IFYC is immeasurable, but includes world-class leaders in the field, funders, and best of all, other activists who joined in the World Faith cause, including Joshua Stanton, Soofia Ahmed, Mustafa Abdullah, and Abdul Shakeel Basha, just to name a few.

Eboo has been a mentor to me since the end of my Fellowship, giving me insightful advice that I need to hear, when I need to hear it.  He has been a true advocate, putting me in touch with people who otherwise probably wouldn’t give me the time of day.  One of my favorite things is that Eboo can give me blunt criticism one moment (which I need and ask for), and yet gives World Faith shout-outs, further opening up possibilities.

The IFYC staff has played a vital role in our development in the previous few years.   They each rotate between being a friend, psychologist, ally, and advocate, often more at one time.  I probably email, call, or skype chat with an IFYC Staff member at least once a week, sometimes multiple times a week.  Despite my constant questions or requests, they still respond quickly and with patience that I myself may be incapable of.  This includes (but isn’t limited to)  Megan Hughes, Amber Hacker, Cassie Meyer, Erin Williams, Hannah McConnaughay, Hind Makki, Jenan Mohajir, Zeenat Rahman, Charles Levesque, and April Kunze.

For anyone who is following World Faith, please take a look at the Interfaith Youth Core.  I consider them a strong ally in the struggle for religious common action, and I hope that every World Faith leader is trained by IFYC in some capacity.  Be sure to check out the IFYC website.

October 22, 2009

U.S. News & World Reports selects Eboo Patel as one of America’s Best Leaders for 2009

http://www.usnews.com/listings/best-leaders/15-eboo-patel
http://www.usnews.com/sections/news/best-leaders/index.html