Trouble is, religious extremists of all stripes are opening schools and programs to indoctrinate these youth in acts of violence. ( Log Out / Others feared that the goal of IFYC was to teach young people that all religions were basically the same.
He is an American Ismaili of Gujarati Indian heritage and founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based international … I can't think of a time when I was more inspired than right now, having just finished Eboo Patel's spiritual memoir. One was his discovery about his father’s persistent efforts to help immigrants from his native country get their start in the US; these actions were his father’s way of practicing his faith through service to others—explained his mother—which had been a long-time family tradition in India. This book did not serve my quest well. Ibram X. Kendi. I had to read this for my school and I enjoyed it.
I would purposely walk around with a chip on my shoulder, just as Eboo did. We need a language that allows us to emphasize our unique inspiration and affirm our universal values.
Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim in the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation. Eboo Patel is well educated and details how the Interfaith Youth Core was created. Face-to-face dialogue invites us to become attentive to difference as well as commonality—and to take such difference seriously, we must allow ourselves the freedom to change and know that we might in turn change others.
It’s the only way to save ourselves.”, Dayton Literary Peace Prize Nominee for NonFiction (2008), A Kindle Muslim Reading List (nonfiction), Readers' Most Anticipated Books of November. Eboo Patel. After reading this memoir, you may want to learn more about the Interfaith Youth Core. I am moved; I hope you will be too. Two specific examples are mentioned below: 1. The book makes you want to believe in the possibilities for our society and true multicultural democracy. The organization should be primarily driven by leaders’ love for humanity, not solely out of rage at injustice (p. 50). Questions or Comments, Privacy Policy
Patel ponders the relationship between religion and violence and comes to a fresh appreciation of his Muslim faith and its defining moments, the Treaty of Hudaybiyah and the peaceful return of Muhammad to Mecca. They would probably think this was all stupid and a waste of time. Categories: Patel is an interfaith youth coordinator now, but his central point isn't that faith always makes people do great things. While many liberal thinkers praise pluralism for its inclusiveness, there is a certain paradox about inclusive worldviews: for example, critics might say that religious pluralism is only one type of religious worldview, and to have an inclusive worldview is actually paradoxically an exclusive worldview in that its very definition excludes non-pluralistic views.
Trouble signing in? These projects could be, for example, helping to build a house for an unfortunate family or tutoring refugee children. much of it felt like he was takin words out of my mouth. BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR Magazine Subscribers (How to Find Your Reader Number). Leaders should be involved in the day-to-day operations “in the early stages of their development” so that they will know the organization’s daily weaknesses, frustrations, and how to deal with them (p. 16). My mother and grandmother especially were and still are the same way. Eboo Patel. His interest in the Catholic Workers and other forms of volunteering came while attending the University of Illinois. It is also worth noting the excellent mentors who have informed his muscular faith; among them are Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day, and James Baldwin. This was a fascinating book on several levels: 1) as a memoir of what it is like to grow up in America as an Indian immigrant, 2) a personal journey of faith and 3) an appeal for people of different faiths to dialogue and work together. At least three important facets of religious exploration helped to deepen and strengthen his’s faith journey: (a) reading biographies of Muhammad; (b) researching altruistic movements of Islam; and (c) engaging in Islamic practices of faith. Whether they are twisted by hatred and envy, exemplars of depraved human nature, stunted in their development because they were abused as children, psychotic or sociopathic, unwilling to allow a savior into their lives, suffering from delusions of grandeur, obsessive-compulsive in their personality disorders, the product of poor genetic heritage, or seriously dependent on their meds to get through the day is a matter of scant interest to us. Basically, compromise (in that sense) is not a condition for cooperation. I couldn't put this book down, as I was filled with a range of emotio.
Annoyed and not understanding why I had to wake up at 9:00 a.m on the weekends just to listen to a man talk for two hours. Although I work primarily with adults, chances are that their children are struggling with the same issues that Patel brings up in his memoir. Patel does not appear (in my reading of his work) to address the issue that pluralism is paradoxically exclusive although the criticism is often brought up in various works that criticize liberal worldviews (see Glanzer & Ream, 2009, for example). When Patel asked his friend why he organized so many small groups—his friend replied, “Because the most important thing you can learn is how to turn an idea into reality” (p. 45). | It is shallow, but it has been this way for decades and I find it very hard for it to change anytime soon.
“The tradition you were born into was your home, Brother Wayne told me, but as Gandhi once wrote, it should be a home with the windows open so that the winds of other traditions can blow through and bring their unique oxygen.
It’s not surprising that Obama grew up a rambunctious kid with a stubborn streak and an “I’ll show you” attitude. I normally don't gravitate towards these kinds of books, mainly because a few wiki articles can sum up the information provided, but I'm glad that I learned more about this organization Patel helped create. His desire to share his experiences and ideas with those who had similar social justice goals led him to form a cooperative of activists who lived together in Chicago and pooled their resources.
Jason Reynolds Eboo Patel is the founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core, an international nonprofit that is building an interfaith youth movement.
Enjoy this free preview Unlock all 26 pages of this Study Guide by subscribing today. It's that faith can be a vehicle for violence and intolerance or it can be a channel for service to humanity and compassion, and which path a person takes is completely dependent on early influences. Summary. no seriously, before i ever started the book, i had a dream that i met him at some fundraising dinner, and we were sitting on the same table. Acts are easier to change than people. However, Patel and his friend found that young people rarely attended the meetings where they spoke. He admired, for example, Habitat for Humanity because the organization encourages participants from varying backgrounds to offer diverse viewpoints and options in meeting challenges (p. 44). I would recommend it to anyone, especially Muslims living in America. Pluralists have every bit the same capacity to inspire and organize, to channel young people's passions into social justice and service, but tend not to be as proactive. Patel writes that “Pluralism—even religious pluralism—is everybody’s business” (p. 182), and the primary purpose of Acts of Faithis to convince readers that religious pluralism is an outlook that should be embraced by everyone. Acts of Faith Book Cover. Eboo Patel is the founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core, an international nonprofit that is building an interfaith youth movement. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers … For example, his principal called him in front of snickering friends to come get his “special piece of pizza” (no pepperoni) at a school camping trip, and he was forced to take beef hot dogs in a plastic bag to a birthday party that would need to be cooked, his mom reminded him, in a “separate pan” from the pork hot dogs served there (p. 23).