2009-11-06T16:41:13Z Muslim interfaith activist Eboo Patel looks at how religion divides us and unites us. tag:newsweek.washingtonpost.com,2009:/onfaith/eboo_patel/642 Copyright (c) 2009, WashingtonPost.Newsweek Interactive 2009-11-06T16:41:13Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-11-06:/onfaith/eboo_patel2009/11/the_murderer_at_fort_hood.html

I'm writing from Toronto, where last night I gave a plenary address on Muslim-Jewish cooperation to the Biennial conference of the Union for Reform Judaism. Backstage after the address, my friend Rabbi David Saperstein gave me a grim look and said, "The shooter had a Muslim name." He called his wife who works for NPR, and his face got more grim as I heard him say: "Are you sure he was a Muslim? Are you...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Eboo Patel 2009-11-04T22:15:56Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-11-04:/onfaith/eboo_patel2009/11/the_new_era_of_interfaith.html

Last week, Interfaith Youth Core held our sixth conference on interfaith work, Leadership for a Religiously Diverse World. At the opening as I looked out on more than 600 faces, I thought back to our first conference, where I spoke with the 30 attendees about a lofty idea for an interfaith youth movement. Needless to say, this conference showed that the interfaith youth movement is more than a big idea now. The people paying attention...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Eboo Patel 2009-10-26T18:10:36Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-10-23:/onfaith/eboo_patel2009/10/ethical_leadership_in_jerusale.html

By Eboo Patel and Samantha Kirby Where is the Arab Muslim leadership for peace in the Middle East? It's a question that some people ask aloud, and others only think about - but it's always hovering in the room. I have met and known many in this category over the years, but few with the charisma, intelligence, pedigree and integrity of the man I just met. Forsan Hussein is an Israeli Arab Muslim, one of...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Eboo Patel 2009-10-19T13:37:59Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-10-14:/onfaith/eboo_patel2009/10/the_presidents_faith_council_m.html

I told a friend that I was off to DC this week for the third meeting of the President's Faith Council, and I got a chuckle and a snide comment in return: "So what do you do after meditating together and trading spiritual insights?" he asked. Hah! The Faith Council feels more like a second job than a self-enrichment group (the fact that our administrative meeting was held on a federal holiday should tell you...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Eboo Patel 2009-10-12T15:19:50Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-10-08:/onfaith/eboo_patel2009/10/american_wars.html

Seventeen more Afghans died yesterday when the Indian Embassy was bombed. This is kind of grim news we have come to expect from Kabul, and Karachi, and, even more depressingly, Chicago. As President Obama and his team figure out their plan for the battle in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and as we mourn all the deaths in those tragic situations, we have to remember that too many neighborhoods in American cities are also battlegrounds. Too many...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Eboo Patel 2009-10-08T12:42:31Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-10-07:/onfaith/eboo_patel2009/10/by_eboo_patel_and_becca.html

By Eboo Patel and Becca Hartman Do you know how your religious tradition speaks to serving others? To diversity? I posed this question to a full sanctuary on Tuesday night. An hour before the talk, I had posed the same question to the youth of Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church, Bethesda Jewish Congregation, and Idara-e-Jaferia Mosque, who co-hosted the event in Bethesda, Md. From that fruitful conversation, we have planned to author the book "Rabbi Hillel...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Eboo Patel 2009-10-02T17:16:57Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-10-02:/onfaith/eboo_patel2009/10/journey_into_america.html

By Eboo Patel and Samantha Kirby "I had set out to learn about Islam in America. But I found I could not do so without understanding American identity." A few years ago, my friend and senior leader in the work of religious pluralism, Akbar Ahmed, took on an unprecedented project. He traveled across the country - accompanied by five exceptional young people - to learn about Islam in America. As one of the world's most...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Eboo Patel 2009-09-21T16:19:57Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-09-21:/onfaith/eboo_patel2009/09/seeing_springsteen_on_eid.html

Seeing Bruce Springsteen is as good an Eid event as I can imagine. His ability to commit himself to every note and word, to write songs of (with apologies to Blake) innocence and experience, to alternate effortlessly between solemn and celebration, to awaken within his audience sacrifice and service ... it is a spiritual experience that I find deeply resonant with the message of Islam....Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Eboo Patel 2009-09-23T20:58:06Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-09-21:/onfaith/eboo_patel2009/09/realizing_the_muslim_american.html

Today's guest blogger is Zeenat Rahman, the Director of Strategic Partnerships at the Interfaith Youth Core, where she oversees policy initiatives and international programs for the organization. At the opening plenary of the Clinton Global Initiative yesterday, President Obama spoke candidly about the spirit of service that has shaped his life. It is an ethic he first saw in his mother through her work improving the lives of the rural poor from Indonesia to Pakistan....Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Eboo Patel 2009-09-18T13:22:01Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-09-18:/onfaith/eboo_patel2009/09/the_last_days_of_ramadan.html

I can't quite believe it when Ramadan arrives, and I can't quite believe when it's gone. It's a bit like summer that way, I guess. Long, long days and then one morning you wake up and there's a familiar crispness in the air and you think, "Where did the time go?" I alternate between willing the hours forward during Ramadan and trying to live into each moment. There is something about having an empty stomach...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Eboo Patel 2009-09-11T12:47:28Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-09-10:/onfaith/eboo_patel2009/09/911_8_years_on.html

I came of age in the multicultural movement of the 1990s. We read Cornel West essays and watched Spike Lee films; admired organizations like City Year and Teach for America that brought diversity together around service; cheered Bill Clinton when he spoke of forming a cabinet that looked like America. But there was a missing dimension in our discussion: religion. I can count maybe five times in the thousands of diversity discussions I had in...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Eboo Patel 2009-09-08T12:57:53Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-09-07:/onfaith/eboo_patel2009/09/van_jones_patriot.html

It makes me sad and a little sick that Van Jones, the White House Green Jobs Czar, was forced to resign after being targeted by a vicious smear campaign. The Obama administration lost a brilliant mind who worked day and night to, as Van would say, "get the greenest solutions to the poorest people". Indeed, Van did as much as anyone to put the concept of the Green Collar Economy on the map, including...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Eboo Patel 2009-09-04T13:45:03Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-09-04:/onfaith/eboo_patel2009/09/interfaith_service_more_than_a.html

As you read in my last post, Tuesday night I attended President Obama's Iftar. But that wasn't the only noteworthy Iftar happening in DC this week. Last night, the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue hosted "Fast to Feed," an interfaith Iftar. Not only is this a story of a synagogue holding a Ramadan Iftar, but it is a story of service: participants will be participating in a Salvation Army food drive tonight and bring canned...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Eboo Patel 2009-09-03T14:16:14Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-09-03:/onfaith/eboo_patel2009/09/white_house_iftar.html

Tuesday night's White House Iftar had both a courtly feel and a common touch. Servers circled the ornate reception rooms of the White House with glasses of juice and bowls of dates at fast-breaking time. Prayers were led by a Muslim chaplain in the U.S. military. Dinner attendees included Congressmen (Andre Carson, Keith Ellison, John Conyers, Rush Holt, Richard Lugar) and Cabinet Secretaries (Bob Gates, Eric Holder, Kathleen Sebelius), but the loudest applause was reserved...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Eboo Patel 2009-08-28T15:31:01Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-08-28:/onfaith/eboo_patel2009/08/interfaith_solidarity_during_r.html

Brian McLaren, the great Christian writer and activist, called me up a few weeks ago with a remarkable request: Would I be his fasting partner during Ramadan? He explained to me that there was a long-held Christian tradition of fasting, although it is not practiced much in contemporary Christian communities. Brian's goal was to live more fully into that Christian tradition during Ramadan, while also feeling solidarity with Muslim communities. There are a number of...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Eboo Patel