"The local is where the global happens," write Dr. Eboo Patel and Patrice Brodeur in Building the Interfaith Youth Movement, the book they have co-edited (Rowman and Littlefield, 2006).  Particularly in the realm of interfaith youth service, it's a principle that has guided Patel's work since he was in school: look around at what you can do about an issue or a problem locally, figure out a way to make a difference on that scale, and bit by bit a larger global impact becomes possible.  "Our faith traditions provide guidance not only for why we are involved in interfaith work; they guide us as to how we conduct this work," Patel and Brodeur write.

 

Patel is the founder and executive director of Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based international organization that brings young people from different faith communities together to build understanding and cooperation.  The organization grew out of a 1998 conference -- the United Religions Initiative Global Summit at Stanford University -- attended by a group of young people of different backgrounds and faiths who wanted to come together to integrate faith and service. At another interfaith conference a year later, the beginning of Interfaith Youth Core started to take hold .

 

Patel earned his doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes scholarship.  During his tenure at Oxford, he spent much of his time traveling and running interfaith youth service programs in Africa, Asia, and Europe, gathering the methods and information that have proven key to his organization. 

 

Today, Patel is a regular guest on Chicago Public Radio and a frequent contributor to the op-ed pages of the Chicago Tribune.  He also has written for The Harvard Divinity School Bulletin, Utne Magazine, The Journal of Muslim Law and Culture and National Public Radio, and has been featured in media including The New Republic, National Public Radio and CNN.   He serves on the boards of the International Interfaith Center, CrossCurrents Magazine and Duke University's Islamic Studies Center. 

 

He is a sought-after speaker whose addresses include the keynote speech at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum with President Jimmy Carter, and the Baccalaureate Service Address at the University of Pennsylvania.  He is currently writing a book on the role of religious youth in the 21st century for Beacon Press. 

 

Patel is also an Ashoka Fellow, part of an elite network of social entrepreneurs with ideas that have the potential to change the world.