Glenbard South alum to talk about interfaith cooperation

In the early 1990s at a Glenbard South High School lunch table sat a Nigerian Evangelical Christian, a South Indian Hindu, a Cuban Jew, a Mormon, a Lutheran and a Catholic.

Also seated was Eboo Patel, a Muslim of Indian descent.

It was a time of religious discord in the Middle East, Northern Ireland and the Balkans.

“I would watch these stories on the evening news and think, ‘I know that religious conflict isn’t inevitable, because the people who were my closest friends in high school were people from different religions.’”

Since then, it’s been his mission to get people of different faiths to work on collaboration, not contention. Patel, 36, is the founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based nonprofit that has organized service projects among young people of varying religious backgrounds.

Patel will return to his alma mater Thursday to discuss how people of different faiths can build “bridges of cooperation.” He will speak during workshops at 1:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. as part of the Glenbard Parent Series. Both speeches are free and open to the public.

Patel has spoken about religious cooperation on five continents, advised world leaders such as Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, and moderated a panel with religious leaders including the Dalai Lama. In 2009, he was appointed by President Barack Obama to the Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Patel says today is “an important historical moment” for addressing conflict among those of different faiths.

“The dream of America is a dream of a nation in which people of different backgrounds come together to build a country,” Patel said. “The forces of pluralism have to defeat the forces of difference.”