Dr. Eboo Patel followed the Redeemer Kids perfectly with his discussion on the importance of religious pluralism and its significance for the future on Tuesday morning to start the last day of PUSH 2008.

Patel is the founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core. He wrote the book Acts of Faith and co-wrote the book Building the interfaith Youth Movement with Patrice Brodeur. Patel is an Ashoka Fellow and has been featured in various types of media including NPR, CNN and the Chicago Tribune.

“Muslim extremist murders Christian pilgrim.”

Most people read that headline as Muslim | Christian. Patel believes that people need to start reading that line extremist | pilgrim.

“If we read the line Muslims against Christians…” said Patel. “We are all going to be lost.”

That is one example of the faith line that is bound to destroy people in the 21st century. There are many factors leading to the faith line.

• The unexpected religious revival that we have experienced in the last few years
  

• The youth bulge – the majority of the world is the youth.
  

• The breakdown of socioeconomic trends – including the difficulty for many to get viable employment in traditional jobs.
  

• The increased interaction of people from all different backgrounds living together
  

But what does this mean? The youth is the most influenced age group in our society because they are looking for a clear identity and to have a powerful impact on the world, but still haven’t made up their minds on where they want to go in life.

“My fear is that the people who have figured out the energy at these four convergent trends [factors leading to the faith line] are religious extremists,” said Patel. “Every time you turn on the television you see someone murdering someone else to the soundtrack of prayer.”

How old are those murderers? Why is religious extremism a movement of young people taking action? It’s because religious extremists build from the youth.

Patel explains how vulnerable some young people are with a quotation from the late Chicago African-American poet Gwendolyn Brooks: “I shall create if not a note, a hole; if not an overture, a desecration.”

Bin Laden was 14 years-old when he was recruited to Al Qaeda. He was on a soccer field at an elite academy. How does this happen? It’s because religious extremists understand the power they have to influence the youth.

On the other hand, how old was the Dali Lama when he started his movement – 19 years-old; Martin Luther King Jr. was 26 when he led the Montgomery bus boycott. Youth can be influenced with extremism or pluralism.

What is going to make a difference in the way the world goes? Patel believes it is youth, his basic idea behind the Interfaith Youth Core.

The Interfaith Youth Core believes that we need to build religious pluralism and institutions nurturing young people can make that happen.

“The central challenge is to have young people be the leaders in religious pluralism and be the architects of a society in which people from different backgrounds live in equal dignity and mutual loyalty,” said Patel.

Posted by Melissa Turtinen