Submitted on Tuesday, 12/20/2022, at 4:47 PM

March 16, 2012                                                                    

AMHERST, Mass.—Eboo Patel, the founder of a national movement promoting interfaith religious cooperation, will discuss “Acts of Faith: Interfaith Leadership in a Time of Global Religious Crisis” on Tuesday, April 3, at 4 p.m. in the Friedmann Room of Amherst College’s Keefe Campus Center. The talk, which is free and open to the public, is being offered as part of the college’s Campus Challenge initiative, which aims to increase social cohesion and social capital and to address specific societal needs.

Named by U.S. News & World Report as one of America’s Best Leaders of 2009, Patel is the founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), a Chicago-based institution building the global interfaith youth movement. Author of the award-winning book Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation, Patel is also a regular contributor to The Washington Post, National Public Radio and CNN. He served on President Obama’s Advisory Council of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes Scholarship.

In addition, Patel serves on the Religious Advisory Committee of the Council on Foreign Relations, the board of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the National Committee of the Aga Khan Foundation U.S.A. He has spoken at the TED Conference, the Clinton Global Initiative, the Nobel Peace Prize Forum and universities around the world and has written for the Chicago Tribune, The Review of Faith & International Affairs and the Sunday Times of India. Patel is a Young Global Leader in the World Economic Forum and an Ashoka Fellow, part of a select group of social entrepreneurs whose ideas are changing the world. He was named by Islamica Magazine as one of 10 young Muslim visionaries shaping Islam in America; was chosen by The Harvard Kennedy School Review as one of five future policy leaders to watch; and, along with IFYC, was honored with the Roosevelt Institute’s Freedom of Worship Medal in 2009.

Patel’s talk is sponsored by the Campus Challenge, Schwemm Fund, Willis Wood Fund, Religion Department, Center for Community Engagement and Office of Religious Life.

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