Interfaith Youth Movement Growing Worldwide | Voice of America - English
In many societies around the world where religious differences have boiled into armed conflict, young people are at particular risk.  Often, they are recruited by religious extremists to join in terror campaigns against rival religious communities.
Fromits headquarters in the midwestern city of Chicago, a private organizationknown as the Interfaith Youth Core is training what it hopes will be tomorrow'speace-makers.The not-for-profitAmerican group teaches young people how to build bridges of friendship andunderstanding across cultures and faiths.It provides leadership training, program funding and support fornetworking projects among groups of young people around the world. Dr.Eboo Patel, a well-known Muslim and social activist in the United States, isthe founder and director of Interfaith Youth Core. He says young AmericanMuslims are at the forefront of the interfaith youth movement. "Theyuse it as an opportunity to manifest the peace-building commands withinIslam," Patel says. "They use it as an opportunity to articulatetheir very misunderstood religion in the world. And they use it as anopportunity to get to know people from different backgrounds with whom theyshare many values." Youngpeople comprise a large and growing percentage of the populations in many ofthe most religiously volatile corners of the world.These are often places, says Patel, where traditionalsocio-economic patterns are breaking down, where people from differentbackgrounds and faiths are interacting more closely and competing forinfluence, and where frictions are mounting between religious and civil law. Inthis turmoil, Patel says, it can be difficult for young people of faith tounderstand the value of a pluralistic and tolerant society.He believes the interfaith youth movementhe's helping to build focuses on some essential truths: that people of allfaiths deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and that there can be nopeace between nations without peace between religions. SamuelRizk is the founding member of the Forum for Development, Culture and Dialogue,a private group based in Beirut, Lebanon, that specializes in conflictresolution and religious dialogue. Rizk believes the interfaith youth movementhas been an important counter-strategy against extremist recruiters. "The[interfaith] youth movement can actually recruit them for peaceinitiatives," he says."Wecan provide models for co-existence in different parts of the world; thenclearly that would be a help to peace in the future. Rizksays the movement's belief in religious pluralism is a key part of its effortsto help defuse seemingly intractible conflicts in the Middle East andelsewhere. "Nowwe are talking about relationships between Muslims and Christian young people.In another instance we are talking about relationships between Sunnis &Shias," Rizk says. "I think there will come a time, hopefully, whenthere is peace in the Middle East that we can expand to include Muslims andChristians and Jews." TheU.S government, too, recognizes the importance of this interfaith youthmovement.Farah Pandith is a specialistwith the U.S. State Department's Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. Heroffice works with young European Muslims interested in studying the Americanmodel of religious pluralism. Sheis hopeful that they are "sharp enough and strong enough when they aredealing with their identity problem, and they are being told that they cannotbelong, they are being told they are different, and they are being told thatthe Jews and the Christians are not their friends, that they have the abilityto be able to push back against that insane ideology." Farahbelieves that educating young Muslims in Europe and elsewhere, as they struggleto find their identities in today's chaotic world, can help them appreciate thevalue of peaceful interfaith dialogues, and so better resist the lure ofreligious extremism.