Saturday, July 19 / Mark E. Rondeau / BenningtonBanner.com,
One of the most exciting books about religion I have read in a long time is Eboo Patel’s “Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation,” published by Beacon Press (189 pages).
Patel, who is in his early 30s, holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University and also regularly contributes to the On Faith blog at WashingtonPost.com. He is the founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core, based in Chicago. This is an international non-profit building the interfaith youth movement.
“Acts of Faith” deals in part with Patel’s search for identity as the child of immigrants from India and as a Muslim. It was not an easy journey. Growing up in a suburb of Chicago, he encountered racial prejudice and violence in school. On the positive side, America’s diversity also brought him Jewish, Catholic and Mormon friends.
Patel was brought up in his family’s Ismaili faith, a form of Shia Islam which follows an Imam called the Aga Khan. The Aga Khan holds much the same importance for Ismailis as the Dalai Lama does for Tibetan Buddhists or the pope for Roman Catholics. The current Aga Khan, Karim Al-Husseini, has devoted himself to good works in the name of Islam. Open to the West and progressive, he has built innovative health, educational, cultural and anti-poverty institutions in 30 countries.
Ismailimail 