This article addresses the issue of religious diversity and cooperation on college campuses. Nowh... more This article addresses the issue of religious diversity and cooperation on college campuses. Nowhere is America's religious diversity more apparent than on college campuses. College campuses have done much to engage issues of race, gender, and other important markers of identity. Religion has typically been left out of this conversation. It is a critical time for higher education to engage religious diversity seriously. The American campus is a unique space which encourages both identity commitment and pluralist community; it values both individual freedom and contribution to the common good. Successfully promoting pluralism and inter-religious engagement on college campuses could impact not only individual campuses, and the broader system of higher education, but even the country in which we live, and perhaps the world. The Interfaith Youth Core employs a unique methodology which combines service learning and interfaith dialogue. IFYC provides young people and the institutions that support them with leadership training, project resources, and a connection to a broader movement of interfaith cooperation. ______________________________________________________________________________ hen my friend Cassie was a teenager, she devoted her life to Christ. She started going to a conservative Evangelical church outside of Seattle, where she was raised. She lost herself in praise songs, learned about the importance of saving people, went on church retreats, and spent as much of her free time as possible with the other kids in the youth group. When she graduated from high school, Cassie went to a liberal arts college in Wisconsin. There were only enough Christians there to form a single student group. It included mainline Protestants and Evangelicals, people who were accustomed to smells and bells rituals and speaking in tongues. It also included Catholics. This was something of a challenge for Cassie. Where she came from, Catholics were not Christian. Soon, Catholics became the least of Cassie's theological worries. During her time as an undergraduate, Cassie became friends with Ahmed, a young Muslim from Bangladesh. She found him to be righteous, pious, and kind, many of the qualities that she had at one point associated only with Evangelical Christians. As she watched him slip away from social occasions to perform one of his five daily prayers, she even began admiring his discipline and focus on God. Moreover, Cassie realized that just as Ahmed presented her with the challenge of engaging with and relating to somebody from a different religion, she represented the same for Ahmed. One evening, he asked Cassie if he could interview her. Cassie said sure, and asked why. Ahmed was doing a project for an anthropology class, he told her. He had seen Cassie's Bible and cross, had observed her Wednesday night prayer song circle, had 1 Eboo Patel is the founder and Executive Director of the Interfaith Youth Core. He is the author of Acts of Faith. Eboo holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied with a Rhodes scholarship.
To effectively lead with our religiously diverse national and global communities, colleges and un... more To effectively lead with our religiously diverse national and global communities, colleges and universities must engage practices and conditions that promote student interfaith learning and development. Recent research highlights seemingly divergent factors that both play significant roles to help prepare students for productive engagement across lines of religious and worldview difference. In this article, the authors explore why providing collegiate experiences that offer both spaces and opportunities for students to bond with others of like worldviews as well as bridge relationships across worldviews are important to civic health. They also discuss ways campus educators might incorporate these experiences and highlight a narrative that illustrates the importance of interfaith leadership and development. Greg Damhorst grew up in a Midwest, middle-class suburb as a devout Evangelical Christian. His church happened to be directly adjacent to his diverse high school, so some church members came up with an idea to use the church's location to proselytize to the high school students-the church parking lot was a convenient location for school parking. Congregants figured they could restrict access to the church parking lot only to the students who expressed interest in getting to know Jesus. So each morning, a group of church members blocked off the entrance, providing access to some and turning away those who were not willing to consider Christianity as their faith. As a believer and member of the church, Greg would regularly use the parking lot when going to school. Often, Greg would think of one of his Hindu friends, knowing that this friend would not be able to use the parking lot. He began to question if this action was the right way to invite others to his faith. If someone was open to learning about Jesus, they got the benefit of the parking lot, but if someone already had strong convictions in another belief system, then they were turned away. Greg began to question, would people express interest in Jesus just to get into the parking lot? Would students see this as a coercive tool by the church rather than an invitation to know Christ? a
Developing awareness of and action around interfaith cooperation within our institutional culture... more Developing awareness of and action around interfaith cooperation within our institutional cultures is a core mechanism for increasing spiritual capital on our campuses. Giess and Patel share how the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) partners with individual campuses to help create vision and a campus ecology of interfaith cooperation in order to impact student and campus outcomes, increasing spiritual capital within higher education.
Patel is the founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based organization devoted... more Patel is the founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based organization devoted to building the interfaith movement on college campuses. Named by US News & World Report as one of America's Best Leaders of 2009, Patel authors books on interfaith understanding and regularly contributes to numerous national media groups.
Building Religious Pluralism: The Interfaith Youth Core Approach Eboo Patel Founder and Executive... more Building Religious Pluralism: The Interfaith Youth Core Approach Eboo Patel Founder and Executive Director Interfaith Youth Core Cassie Meyer Director, Outreach Education & Training Interfaith Youth Core
Growing up, Hannah M. knew in her heart that having faith and doing good went hand in hand. After... more Growing up, Hannah M. knew in her heart that having faith and doing good went hand in hand. After articulating this core commitment at age 12, her parents guided her to convert to Catholicism, a tradition that reflected Hannah's deep-seated beliefs. She was proud of her faith community. "I felt like I had the truth," she reflected, and when it came time to choose a college, Hannah chose Dominican University outside Chicago to experience a Catholic education for the first time. Upon arriving on campus, she signed up for the required introduction to theology class taught by Jeff Carlson, Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences. Hannah described how that course opened up the world of Catholicism to her, exploring the intellectualism and creativity in the tradition for the first time. This exploration of her faith, alongside the exposure to the diversity of Chicago, prompted her to register for an interfaith training event in Washington, DC, where she was immersed in one of the most diverse environments she had ever encountered. The interfaith event "named desires that I wasn't able to name for myself and validated them," she shared. Upon returning to Dominican, she signed up for another course, more explicitly focused on interfaith themes, which provided both theoretical and experiential learning opportunities around interfaith cooperation. "Being able to put names and frameworks to what had only been a hunch I had about the way the world ought to work was so helpful," she said. Her theological understanding of Catholicism deepened, giving her a new awareness of the incarnation of Christ. "If God enters into the human experience," she explains, "then my Muslim friends are just as much an expression of that, and those friendships call me to be a better Catholic."
This chapter addresses how the continuity of individual and communal religious identity can be pr... more This chapter addresses how the continuity of individual and communal religious identity can be preserved in a modern context characterized by a rapid rise in religious diversity and a concomitant decline in traditional religious association. The chapter discusses various postures that religious communities can take in such a context. The authors advocate an intentional and engaged religious pluralism, achieved through “interfaith education.” This concept is defined and parsed into three activities in which religious communities should engage: developing a theology of interfaith cooperation, nurturing appreciative knowledge of shared values, and engaging in relationship-building activities. The chapter concludes with a brief consideration of how North American seminaries have been on the vanguard of adopting interfaith—sometimes referred to as multifaith or inter-religious—education.
Abstract Matters of interreligious engagement and worldview orientation are becoming more salient... more Abstract Matters of interreligious engagement and worldview orientation are becoming more salient on campuses across the country. All-comers policies, conflicts about the Middle East, and intersections of spirituality with other aspects of identity present challenges for professionals working with students on college campuses. This article will discuss some of the intricacies to addressing conflict around religious identity on campus, focusing on the importance of building relationships across disagreement.
This article explores the idea of interfaith leadership and the role that it might play to build ... more This article explores the idea of interfaith leadership and the role that it might play to build religious pluralism on college and university campuses. It considers two stories of religious diversity in America: one where leadership contributed to religious conflict and one where it mediated potential religious conflict. Through these stories, the authors offer a definition for interfaith leadership and suggest ways that universities can nurture students as interfaith leaders given the particular landscape of religious diversity in America. Muslim and Christian students of Egyptian descent suddenly no longer sit together during lunch at Dickinson High School on Palisade Avenue.
As tensions around religious diversity escalate in America, there is an increased realization tha... more As tensions around religious diversity escalate in America, there is an increased realization that interfaith cooperation has broad civic relevance. In this realization, there is an opportunity for American colleges and universities to play a leadership role in constructively engaging religious diversity. The authors of this article explore the current challenges posed by religious diversity, a model of interfaith cooperation focused on civic engagement and social cohesion. They also explore how college students have a particular leadership role to play in building interfaith cooperation. I n his inaugural speech, President Obama reminded the country that We know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus-and nonbelievers. . . . We cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace. We are struck that the first African American president, when focusing on diversity and America's peace-building role in a diverse world, chose to highlight not America's racial or ethnic diversity, but her religious diversity. This attention to religious diversity is echoed further in the recommendations of the Advisory Council of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. 3 In those recommendations, there is a clear connection between the ways people of different faiths might work together to serve their communities toward a concrete civic good sought by the United States government. Not only that, but also colleges and universities are identified in the report as vanguard institutions for building interfaith cooperation (President's Advisory Council, 2010). As we will explore in this article, the way that a country, community, or campus engages its diversity-ethnic, racial, religious-has a significant effect on whether that diversity leads toward cooperation or conflict. This summer was an illustration of a move toward intolerance in American 1 This article is a part of the special JCC issue on interfaith cooperation. Eboo Patel and Cassie Meyer are guest editors of invited articles in this special issue. 2 Eboo Patel is president and founder of the Interfaith Youth Core. He is the author of Acts of Faith and holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University. Cassie Meyer is the director of content for the Interfaith Youth Core. She has a master of arts from the University of Chicago Divinity School. For more on the work of Interfaith Youth Core, visit www.ifyc.org or email
Abstract NOTE: THIS ARTICLE IS AVAILABLE IN THE PRINT EDITION ONLY. At extremist training camps, ... more Abstract NOTE: THIS ARTICLE IS AVAILABLE IN THE PRINT EDITION ONLY. At extremist training camps, religious totalitarians gain the trust of young people of faith and nurture relationships throughout their protégées' young adulthood. Such tactics have been used historically not only in Islam, but also by Judaism and Christianity. In such environments, the next generation of leaders learns from religious fanatics that violence, racism, and force are the most effective answers to dissatisfaction with oppressive social and political structures. Offering alternative camps and organizations which emphasize interreligious understanding for today's youth will hopefully help to decrease the amount of young people drawn into religious conflicts.
The Handbook of Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence
... The Ismailis are distinct from other major Muslim communities in claiming to have a living an... more ... The Ismailis are distinct from other major Muslim communities in claiming to have a living and present Imam (the Twelver Shia believe the true Imam is in occultation), known as" Hazir Imam." The current Ismaili Imam is Karim al-Husseini, known more generally by his title, Aga ...
This article addresses the issue of religious diversity and cooperation on college campuses. Nowh... more This article addresses the issue of religious diversity and cooperation on college campuses. Nowhere is America's religious diversity more apparent than on college campuses. College campuses have done much to engage issues of race, gender, and other important markers of identity. Religion has typically been left out of this conversation. It is a critical time for higher education to engage religious diversity seriously. The American campus is a unique space which encourages both identity commitment and pluralist community; it values both individual freedom and contribution to the common good. Successfully promoting pluralism and inter-religious engagement on college campuses could impact not only individual campuses, and the broader system of higher education, but even the country in which we live, and perhaps the world. The Interfaith Youth Core employs a unique methodology which combines service learning and interfaith dialogue. IFYC provides young people and the institutions that support them with leadership training, project resources, and a connection to a broader movement of interfaith cooperation. ______________________________________________________________________________ hen my friend Cassie was a teenager, she devoted her life to Christ. She started going to a conservative Evangelical church outside of Seattle, where she was raised. She lost herself in praise songs, learned about the importance of saving people, went on church retreats, and spent as much of her free time as possible with the other kids in the youth group. When she graduated from high school, Cassie went to a liberal arts college in Wisconsin. There were only enough Christians there to form a single student group. It included mainline Protestants and Evangelicals, people who were accustomed to smells and bells rituals and speaking in tongues. It also included Catholics. This was something of a challenge for Cassie. Where she came from, Catholics were not Christian. Soon, Catholics became the least of Cassie's theological worries. During her time as an undergraduate, Cassie became friends with Ahmed, a young Muslim from Bangladesh. She found him to be righteous, pious, and kind, many of the qualities that she had at one point associated only with Evangelical Christians. As she watched him slip away from social occasions to perform one of his five daily prayers, she even began admiring his discipline and focus on God. Moreover, Cassie realized that just as Ahmed presented her with the challenge of engaging with and relating to somebody from a different religion, she represented the same for Ahmed. One evening, he asked Cassie if he could interview her. Cassie said sure, and asked why. Ahmed was doing a project for an anthropology class, he told her. He had seen Cassie's Bible and cross, had observed her Wednesday night prayer song circle, had 1 Eboo Patel is the founder and Executive Director of the Interfaith Youth Core. He is the author of Acts of Faith. Eboo holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied with a Rhodes scholarship.
This article addresses the issue of religious diversity and cooperation on college campuses. Nowh... more This article addresses the issue of religious diversity and cooperation on college campuses. Nowhere is America's religious diversity more apparent than on college campuses. College campuses have done much to engage issues of race, gender, and other important markers of identity. Religion has typically been left out of this conversation. It is a critical time for higher education to engage religious diversity seriously. The American campus is a unique space which encourages both identity commitment and pluralist community; it values both individual freedom and contribution to the common good. Successfully promoting pluralism and inter-religious engagement on college campuses could impact not only individual campuses, and the broader system of higher education, but even the country in which we live, and perhaps the world. The Interfaith Youth Core employs a unique methodology which combines service learning and interfaith dialogue. IFYC provides young people and the institutions that support them with leadership training, project resources, and a connection to a broader movement of interfaith cooperation. ______________________________________________________________________________ hen my friend Cassie was a teenager, she devoted her life to Christ. She started going to a conservative Evangelical church outside of Seattle, where she was raised. She lost herself in praise songs, learned about the importance of saving people, went on church retreats, and spent as much of her free time as possible with the other kids in the youth group. When she graduated from high school, Cassie went to a liberal arts college in Wisconsin. There were only enough Christians there to form a single student group. It included mainline Protestants and Evangelicals, people who were accustomed to smells and bells rituals and speaking in tongues. It also included Catholics. This was something of a challenge for Cassie. Where she came from, Catholics were not Christian. Soon, Catholics became the least of Cassie's theological worries. During her time as an undergraduate, Cassie became friends with Ahmed, a young Muslim from Bangladesh. She found him to be righteous, pious, and kind, many of the qualities that she had at one point associated only with Evangelical Christians. As she watched him slip away from social occasions to perform one of his five daily prayers, she even began admiring his discipline and focus on God. Moreover, Cassie realized that just as Ahmed presented her with the challenge of engaging with and relating to somebody from a different religion, she represented the same for Ahmed. One evening, he asked Cassie if he could interview her. Cassie said sure, and asked why. Ahmed was doing a project for an anthropology class, he told her. He had seen Cassie's Bible and cross, had observed her Wednesday night prayer song circle, had 1 Eboo Patel is the founder and Executive Director of the Interfaith Youth Core. He is the author of Acts of Faith. Eboo holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied with a Rhodes scholarship.
To effectively lead with our religiously diverse national and global communities, colleges and un... more To effectively lead with our religiously diverse national and global communities, colleges and universities must engage practices and conditions that promote student interfaith learning and development. Recent research highlights seemingly divergent factors that both play significant roles to help prepare students for productive engagement across lines of religious and worldview difference. In this article, the authors explore why providing collegiate experiences that offer both spaces and opportunities for students to bond with others of like worldviews as well as bridge relationships across worldviews are important to civic health. They also discuss ways campus educators might incorporate these experiences and highlight a narrative that illustrates the importance of interfaith leadership and development. Greg Damhorst grew up in a Midwest, middle-class suburb as a devout Evangelical Christian. His church happened to be directly adjacent to his diverse high school, so some church members came up with an idea to use the church's location to proselytize to the high school students-the church parking lot was a convenient location for school parking. Congregants figured they could restrict access to the church parking lot only to the students who expressed interest in getting to know Jesus. So each morning, a group of church members blocked off the entrance, providing access to some and turning away those who were not willing to consider Christianity as their faith. As a believer and member of the church, Greg would regularly use the parking lot when going to school. Often, Greg would think of one of his Hindu friends, knowing that this friend would not be able to use the parking lot. He began to question if this action was the right way to invite others to his faith. If someone was open to learning about Jesus, they got the benefit of the parking lot, but if someone already had strong convictions in another belief system, then they were turned away. Greg began to question, would people express interest in Jesus just to get into the parking lot? Would students see this as a coercive tool by the church rather than an invitation to know Christ? a
Developing awareness of and action around interfaith cooperation within our institutional culture... more Developing awareness of and action around interfaith cooperation within our institutional cultures is a core mechanism for increasing spiritual capital on our campuses. Giess and Patel share how the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) partners with individual campuses to help create vision and a campus ecology of interfaith cooperation in order to impact student and campus outcomes, increasing spiritual capital within higher education.
Patel is the founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based organization devoted... more Patel is the founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based organization devoted to building the interfaith movement on college campuses. Named by US News & World Report as one of America's Best Leaders of 2009, Patel authors books on interfaith understanding and regularly contributes to numerous national media groups.
Building Religious Pluralism: The Interfaith Youth Core Approach Eboo Patel Founder and Executive... more Building Religious Pluralism: The Interfaith Youth Core Approach Eboo Patel Founder and Executive Director Interfaith Youth Core Cassie Meyer Director, Outreach Education & Training Interfaith Youth Core
Growing up, Hannah M. knew in her heart that having faith and doing good went hand in hand. After... more Growing up, Hannah M. knew in her heart that having faith and doing good went hand in hand. After articulating this core commitment at age 12, her parents guided her to convert to Catholicism, a tradition that reflected Hannah's deep-seated beliefs. She was proud of her faith community. "I felt like I had the truth," she reflected, and when it came time to choose a college, Hannah chose Dominican University outside Chicago to experience a Catholic education for the first time. Upon arriving on campus, she signed up for the required introduction to theology class taught by Jeff Carlson, Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences. Hannah described how that course opened up the world of Catholicism to her, exploring the intellectualism and creativity in the tradition for the first time. This exploration of her faith, alongside the exposure to the diversity of Chicago, prompted her to register for an interfaith training event in Washington, DC, where she was immersed in one of the most diverse environments she had ever encountered. The interfaith event "named desires that I wasn't able to name for myself and validated them," she shared. Upon returning to Dominican, she signed up for another course, more explicitly focused on interfaith themes, which provided both theoretical and experiential learning opportunities around interfaith cooperation. "Being able to put names and frameworks to what had only been a hunch I had about the way the world ought to work was so helpful," she said. Her theological understanding of Catholicism deepened, giving her a new awareness of the incarnation of Christ. "If God enters into the human experience," she explains, "then my Muslim friends are just as much an expression of that, and those friendships call me to be a better Catholic."
This chapter addresses how the continuity of individual and communal religious identity can be pr... more This chapter addresses how the continuity of individual and communal religious identity can be preserved in a modern context characterized by a rapid rise in religious diversity and a concomitant decline in traditional religious association. The chapter discusses various postures that religious communities can take in such a context. The authors advocate an intentional and engaged religious pluralism, achieved through “interfaith education.” This concept is defined and parsed into three activities in which religious communities should engage: developing a theology of interfaith cooperation, nurturing appreciative knowledge of shared values, and engaging in relationship-building activities. The chapter concludes with a brief consideration of how North American seminaries have been on the vanguard of adopting interfaith—sometimes referred to as multifaith or inter-religious—education.
Abstract Matters of interreligious engagement and worldview orientation are becoming more salient... more Abstract Matters of interreligious engagement and worldview orientation are becoming more salient on campuses across the country. All-comers policies, conflicts about the Middle East, and intersections of spirituality with other aspects of identity present challenges for professionals working with students on college campuses. This article will discuss some of the intricacies to addressing conflict around religious identity on campus, focusing on the importance of building relationships across disagreement.
This article explores the idea of interfaith leadership and the role that it might play to build ... more This article explores the idea of interfaith leadership and the role that it might play to build religious pluralism on college and university campuses. It considers two stories of religious diversity in America: one where leadership contributed to religious conflict and one where it mediated potential religious conflict. Through these stories, the authors offer a definition for interfaith leadership and suggest ways that universities can nurture students as interfaith leaders given the particular landscape of religious diversity in America. Muslim and Christian students of Egyptian descent suddenly no longer sit together during lunch at Dickinson High School on Palisade Avenue.
As tensions around religious diversity escalate in America, there is an increased realization tha... more As tensions around religious diversity escalate in America, there is an increased realization that interfaith cooperation has broad civic relevance. In this realization, there is an opportunity for American colleges and universities to play a leadership role in constructively engaging religious diversity. The authors of this article explore the current challenges posed by religious diversity, a model of interfaith cooperation focused on civic engagement and social cohesion. They also explore how college students have a particular leadership role to play in building interfaith cooperation. I n his inaugural speech, President Obama reminded the country that We know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus-and nonbelievers. . . . We cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace. We are struck that the first African American president, when focusing on diversity and America's peace-building role in a diverse world, chose to highlight not America's racial or ethnic diversity, but her religious diversity. This attention to religious diversity is echoed further in the recommendations of the Advisory Council of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. 3 In those recommendations, there is a clear connection between the ways people of different faiths might work together to serve their communities toward a concrete civic good sought by the United States government. Not only that, but also colleges and universities are identified in the report as vanguard institutions for building interfaith cooperation (President's Advisory Council, 2010). As we will explore in this article, the way that a country, community, or campus engages its diversity-ethnic, racial, religious-has a significant effect on whether that diversity leads toward cooperation or conflict. This summer was an illustration of a move toward intolerance in American 1 This article is a part of the special JCC issue on interfaith cooperation. Eboo Patel and Cassie Meyer are guest editors of invited articles in this special issue. 2 Eboo Patel is president and founder of the Interfaith Youth Core. He is the author of Acts of Faith and holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University. Cassie Meyer is the director of content for the Interfaith Youth Core. She has a master of arts from the University of Chicago Divinity School. For more on the work of Interfaith Youth Core, visit www.ifyc.org or email
Abstract NOTE: THIS ARTICLE IS AVAILABLE IN THE PRINT EDITION ONLY. At extremist training camps, ... more Abstract NOTE: THIS ARTICLE IS AVAILABLE IN THE PRINT EDITION ONLY. At extremist training camps, religious totalitarians gain the trust of young people of faith and nurture relationships throughout their protégées' young adulthood. Such tactics have been used historically not only in Islam, but also by Judaism and Christianity. In such environments, the next generation of leaders learns from religious fanatics that violence, racism, and force are the most effective answers to dissatisfaction with oppressive social and political structures. Offering alternative camps and organizations which emphasize interreligious understanding for today's youth will hopefully help to decrease the amount of young people drawn into religious conflicts.
The Handbook of Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence
... The Ismailis are distinct from other major Muslim communities in claiming to have a living an... more ... The Ismailis are distinct from other major Muslim communities in claiming to have a living and present Imam (the Twelver Shia believe the true Imam is in occultation), known as" Hazir Imam." The current Ismaili Imam is Karim al-Husseini, known more generally by his title, Aga ...
This article addresses the issue of religious diversity and cooperation on college campuses. Nowh... more This article addresses the issue of religious diversity and cooperation on college campuses. Nowhere is America's religious diversity more apparent than on college campuses. College campuses have done much to engage issues of race, gender, and other important markers of identity. Religion has typically been left out of this conversation. It is a critical time for higher education to engage religious diversity seriously. The American campus is a unique space which encourages both identity commitment and pluralist community; it values both individual freedom and contribution to the common good. Successfully promoting pluralism and inter-religious engagement on college campuses could impact not only individual campuses, and the broader system of higher education, but even the country in which we live, and perhaps the world. The Interfaith Youth Core employs a unique methodology which combines service learning and interfaith dialogue. IFYC provides young people and the institutions that support them with leadership training, project resources, and a connection to a broader movement of interfaith cooperation. ______________________________________________________________________________ hen my friend Cassie was a teenager, she devoted her life to Christ. She started going to a conservative Evangelical church outside of Seattle, where she was raised. She lost herself in praise songs, learned about the importance of saving people, went on church retreats, and spent as much of her free time as possible with the other kids in the youth group. When she graduated from high school, Cassie went to a liberal arts college in Wisconsin. There were only enough Christians there to form a single student group. It included mainline Protestants and Evangelicals, people who were accustomed to smells and bells rituals and speaking in tongues. It also included Catholics. This was something of a challenge for Cassie. Where she came from, Catholics were not Christian. Soon, Catholics became the least of Cassie's theological worries. During her time as an undergraduate, Cassie became friends with Ahmed, a young Muslim from Bangladesh. She found him to be righteous, pious, and kind, many of the qualities that she had at one point associated only with Evangelical Christians. As she watched him slip away from social occasions to perform one of his five daily prayers, she even began admiring his discipline and focus on God. Moreover, Cassie realized that just as Ahmed presented her with the challenge of engaging with and relating to somebody from a different religion, she represented the same for Ahmed. One evening, he asked Cassie if he could interview her. Cassie said sure, and asked why. Ahmed was doing a project for an anthropology class, he told her. He had seen Cassie's Bible and cross, had observed her Wednesday night prayer song circle, had 1 Eboo Patel is the founder and Executive Director of the Interfaith Youth Core. He is the author of Acts of Faith. Eboo holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied with a Rhodes scholarship.
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