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We are building interfaith America, a nation of people equipped to engage American religious diversity and interfaith bridgebuilding. Explore the latest national news coverage of our work.
Interfaith America
We are building interfaith America, a nation of people equipped to engage American religious diversity and interfaith bridgebuilding. Explore the latest national news coverage of our work.
Campus protests around the country have become a flashpoint in the national debate around the Israel-Palestine conflict. But how do we talk about these issues without offending the either side? Eboo Patel, founder of Interfaith America, weighs in. Then, Riley Callanan, graduating Columbia University senior and GZERO staff writer, shares her campus experience in this historic moment.
Interfaith America’s Bridging the Gap project is training students on college campuses across the country. Students learn how to engage with people that they disagree with — sometimes deeply. They learn that bridge building isn’t about judgment or blame or trying to get the other side to take responsibility for the problem. It’s about being open and curious about the other person’s experiences.
Eboo Patel has a vision for colleges and universities embroiled in fights over race, gender, sexuality, and, more recently, the war in Gaza.
The founder and president of Interfaith America, which tries to help institutions, groups, and people find common ground, wants to make “pluralism” central to a liberal-arts education at colleges across the country.
About 140 college and university leaders gathered in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday for a conference on fostering campus pluralism in response to ongoing student conflicts over the Israel-Gaza war and rising antisemitism and Islamophobia nationwide.
The event, called “Advancing Campus Pluralism: Building Bridges Across Difference,” was hosted by Interfaith America, an organization focused on religious diversity, and the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U).
“We are striving to build a ‘potluck nation’ where all Americans bring the best of their identities to the table for a shared feast,” said Interfaith America Founder and President Eboo Patel. “Of course we will disagree on some things, but that should not prevent us from working together on other things. Team Up encourages respecting people’s diverse identities, building relationships between different communities, and cooperating on concrete projects with common aims.”
The nonprofit Interfaith America notes that many college campuses have opted to create interfaith rooms or centers within their facilities. Finding spaces within the community for these conversations has become much more challenging. Without a physical or virtual space where people can talk and interact, interfaith conversations – productive or unproductive – will not occur. Institutions should ask themselves: If such conversations aren’t happening in supportive spaces, where and how do we expect them to occur?
Eboo Patel is the founder and president of Interfaith America, which over the past 20 years has worked on about 1,200 campuses to narrow toxic divides and build bridges between people of all faiths or no faith. Over these decades, he has concluded that far from creating a healthier, more equitable campus, this ideology demonizes, demeans and divides students. It demeans white people by reducing them to a single category — oppressor. Meanwhile, it demeans, for example, Muslim people of color, like Patel, by reducing them to victims.
The “Faith in Elections Playbook” provides detailed instructions congregations and other religious groups can use to help bridge partisan and community divides throughout next year’s election season, according to co-developers Interfaith America and Protect Democracy.
“Now is the time to remove the walls and look at each other,” Katia Abdel Kader, a violinist from Ramallah, West Bank, told The New York Times. “The moment you just look in someone’s eyes and you understand we’re just the same – that’s what matters for me.”
Insights like those create broad ripples. They move individuals from narrow misconceptions to what Eboo Patel, president of Interfaith America, calls a framework for pluralism built of respect, empathy, and cooperation. They add up to a potential new era of peace building.
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Interfaith America staff and members of our Emerging Leaders network offer a wealth of stories and perspectives on engaging religious diversity, both on campus and beyond.
To my children, my dearest loves,
Over the past several months of horror and tragedy for the Palestinian American community, you have asked me many questions for which I do not have answers. I always endeavor to give you the most honest and complete answers that I can – I owe that to you, for the Palestinian community is your community.
Students with the skills to treat diverse viewpoints with curiosity and respect will be prepared to navigate the complexities of the real world, say Eboo Patel and Rebecca Russo.
What does pluralism look like in practice? It looks like the Fugees soccer program and their coach, Luma Mufleh, as first documented in Warren St. Nord’s terrific book “Outcasts United.” The book isn’t new — it was published in 2009. But it offers one of the best examples I’ve found of what investing in pluralism can accomplish. Most of all, in this deeply divisive year, it offers hope.
While the animating idea behind Team Up is simple – shared service can bridge divides – the substance of the work is complex, and a challenge that constantly evolves depending on the context. But what is important about the opportunity to wrestle with these ideas is exactly what compels so many about Team Up: we chose to do this work together, in community.
We are two senior leaders at a national interfaith organization, Interfaith America, who have deep personal connections to the tragic situation in Israel and Gaza and profoundly differ in our analysis of the situation. Yet, it has also become clear where we do agree — on the importance of seeing each other and each other’s people as fully human.
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