There's no question that religion can be a bomb in the 21st century.
It's obvious because it is everywhere.
Just look at this story from the New York Times Magazine. It details how Omar Hammami -- born and raised in the heart of the South by a Syrian Muslim and a Christian from Alabama -- became a key leader in the guerrilla army in Somalia linked with al Qaeda.
According to the article, he has become a jihadist icon who has inspired and recruited hundreds of foreign fighters to Somalia. On an internet forum, he called for others to take action: "Where is the desire to do something amazing? Where is the urge to get up and change yourself -- not to mention the world and other issues further off?"
In my book Acts of Faith, I wrote that young people seek two things: a clear identity and an opportunity for impact. Omar chose the Al Qaeda path. Peace in the 21st century is partially going to be about making the alternative paths to identity and impact more prominent and more powerful.
At a time of a religious revival, a youth bulge and an increase in interaction between people from different backgrounds, religion can be a bomb, a bubble, a barrier or a bridge.
Religion can be a bomb -- this is the al Qaeda path.
Religion can be a bubble, where communities are -- or pretend to be -- sealed off from the diversity of the modern world.
Religion can be a barrier, where communities highlight the differences between their group and others in a way that says, "We can't have anything positive to do with you."
But amidst the noise of the bubble, the barrier and the bomb in the 21st century there is another option.
Religion can be a bridge. The raw materials of this approach are simple: this is how my religion inspires me to build understanding and cooperation with people who are different.
I'm convinced that building bridges across difference is the instinct of most human beings and that resources for it run deep in every religion. Unfortunately, too few people are taught about those resources. When Omar was looking for ways to connect his faith to the increasingly violent world around him, he met people who showed him the path of the bomb.
What if he had been empowered to take action in a different way? What if he had been taught that he could have what he sought -- "a place and a purpose" -- building interfaith cooperation? What if someone had spun the vision of a world where people from different backgrounds live together in equal dignity and mutual loyalty with the same compelling romance he saw in jihad? Maybe he could have taken his incredible charisma and recruiting abilities to gather a movement of young people working for a world based on equal dignity and mutual loyalty rather than terror and domination.
Call it the Martin Luther King path versus the Al Qaeda path:
We have inherited a big house, a great world house in which we have to live together, black men and white men, easterners and westerners, gentiles and Jews, Catholics and Protestants, Muslims and Hindus. A family unduly separated in ideas, culture, and interest, who, because we can never again live without each other, must learn somehow, in this one big world house, to live with each other.
Here's a key question for the interfaith movement: how do we introduce the Omar Hammami's of the world to the Martin Luther King Jr. path before Osama bin Laden introduces them to the Al Qaeda path?
Eboo Patel is the founder and Executive Director of Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), a Chicago-based institution building the global interfaith youth movement. He is the author of the award-winning book Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation
Follow Eboo Patel on Twitter: www.twitter.com/EbooPatel
Glenn W. Smith: Prairie Humanism and The Empathic Civilization
Primordial-Enigmatic Manifestations: Mythological, legendary, allegorical, metaphorical, personified, or specific cultural heroes that fit the criteria of a manifestation of the Supreme Being. They reveal messages or provide teachings to humanity. While some of these figures are considered deities they are more likely just personifications, subordinate divinities, cultural heroes, or exalted persons deified by others over time. This is not a definitive list.
Amerindian: Tarenyawagon (ancient predecessor of Deganawida), Votan, Pahana (Hopi), The Pale One (Cherokee), Quetzalcoatl [Kukulkan; Gukumatz], Bochica (Muisca), and Viracocha (Incan). Hindu: Manu, Vyasa, Harishchandra, Ganesha, Rama, Sita, Kapila, and Narada. Egyptian: Osiris, Thoth, and Horus. Norse: Odin, Frigg, Freyja, and Mímir. Greek: Prometheus, Demeter, Hephaestus, Athena, Apollo, Hermes, Deucalion, Pyrrha, Asclepius, Phoroneus, Triptolemus, Aristaeus, Ogyges, Cecrops I, and Palamedes. Chinese: Yellow Emperor, Léi Zǔ, Yan Emperor, Dà-Yǔ, Fúxī, Ling Lun, Shaohao. Others: The first 22 Tirthankars in Jainism, Utu [Shamash], Marduk, Enki, Mlentegamunye (Swazi), Eshu (Yorùbá), Amaterasu, Dangun Wanggeom, Mannus, Adam, Lilith, Eve, Seth, Enoch, Methuselah, Khun Borom, Utnapishtim, Ziusudra, Atra-Hasis, Gilgamesh, Noah, Shem, Eber, Māui, Atonga, Seppo Ilmarinen, Bunjil, Mixcoatl, Nu'u, Lili-noe, etc.
The Unmoved Mover (Aristotelian), The All (Hermeticism), Tiān [Shàngdì] (traditional Chinese), Tengri (Tengriism), Tao (Taoism), Allah (Islam), Monad (Pythagoreanism), The One (Neoplatonism), Yahveh [El Shaddai; Ein Sof] (Jeudaism), Al-Abhá [Alláh-u-Abhá] (Baha'i faith), Ahura Mazda [Ohrmuzd] (Zoroastrianism), The Great Mystery [Great Spirit; Great Maker] (Amerindian; Native American), Brahman [Ishvara] (Hinduism), Aten (Atenism), Dharmakāya (Mahāyāna Buddhism), Jehovah [Yahovah] (Christianity), Vahiguru [Waheguru] (Sikhism), Khawandagar (Ahl-e Haqq/Yârsân), Ekam (Ayyavazhi), Tenri-Ō-no-Mikoto [Oyagamisama] (Tenrikyō), Tenchi Kane No Kami (Konkokyo), Bythos (Gnostic), Haneullim (Cheondoism), Đức Cao Đài (Cao Đài), Aiwaz (Yezidi), Acháman (aboriginal Guanches) Mvelincanti (original Swazi), Ngai [Engai; Mulungu], (original Maasai, Kikuyu, and Akamba view), Chukwu (Odinani/Igbo), Olódùmarè [Olòrún] (Yorùbá), uThixo [uQamata] (original Xhosa), Nhialic (original Dinka), Kwoth (original Nuer), Nyamba (original Niger-Congo and Akan), and Dryghten (Wicca). Same Supreme Being, different names, different cultural and religious revelations; perceptions, concepts, and interpretations of God. Jains and Buddhists focus on attaining Nirvana. Other religions and philosophies have their own views. The universal teachings are those that all religions agree on.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant
"The universal teachings are those that all religions agree on."
I'd rather search for a needle in a haystack, the eye of which I could then use to push a camel through than to look for those things 10,000 religions and nearly as many gods can agree upon.
By "god," it depends on what view you are taking. Polytheistic, monotheistic, pantheistic, henotheistic, or panentheistic? Or whether it is theist or deist?
As for bombs... people will always find an excuse to destroy what scares them. Religion is a handy excuse. I do not believe that all those who bomb in the name of faith actually do it for that reason alone. Yes, some are led by faith to commit these acts but some may be using religion as an excuse to destroy themselves or others.
I'm an atheist. I would have no problem with someone maintaining a faith while simultaneously admitting that they have no proof for their beliefs, and simply hold them because they give the person comfort and they enjoy framing their life experience that way. Wonderful. Go for it. But it never ends there. Soon I'm told that I'm evil, going to Hell, incapable of acting morally, am a hopeless sinner, need to have my soul saved, etc., etc., etc.
Religion deserves a serious push-back from those of us tired of its constant and uninvited forays into our lives.
I was raised in the Catholic faith and did not like being told this was the, "one and only true church." I knew others who were happy and satisfied with their belief systems.
My anthropology professor in college was also a rabbi, great teacher, great course. There were several of us who became interested in his faith, and he so extended himself to offer insight and teaching.
Here is a better key question: How do you propose to engage in this dialog at all when you can not be bothered to present an "al Qaeda alternative" example which does not rely on the frankly rather tired implication that the only and best examples for Muslims would be to turn to icons of modern American Christianity for inspiration? Your job is not to introduce anyone to Martin Luther King, Jr., inspiring man though he may have been. Your job is to know and support the -- frankly ample -- examples already present in the Muslim community.
No killing. I do believe all faiths have that one
Be honest. Another thing that is in all of them
Honor. All religions have that one too
We need to stress our common beliefs, so that we all have a starting point for a conversation on how to live together. We may never change the others opinion, or belief, but at least we can agree on common beliefs and not kill each other.
Please do and then get back to us about no killing being a common belief of religions.
They might as well seek exploration.
But as far as I can tell, you don't oppose that. Which means: if I were young, then at least some young folks would seek exploration. :-)
But all paths that lead to GENUINE progress in humanity's quest for a loving God should be honored and respected. Sadly, those who are making genuine progress aren't nearly as visible or vocal as the slackers stuck in fear.
But I fear organized religion has too much invested in their own individual belief sets. It isn't just who will get into Heaven, if you believe in that. It's who will control the greatest number of people and the most money.
Religion can be a bubble, where communities are -- or pretend to be -- sealed off from the diversity of the modern world.
Religion can be a barrier, where communities highlight the differences between their group and others in a way that says, "We can't have anything positive to do with you."
This is the al Qaeda path? This is also the fundamentalist Christian path. Religion is all the same. It is all poison.