Leadership For A Religiously Diverse World

When I learned that the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) has held a National Conference on Interfaith Youth Work for past five years, I was immediately interested. This year marked the IFYC’s 6^th conference, which ran from October 25^th to the 27^th at Northwestern University just outside of Chicago. In attendance were over 600 high school and college students from across the United States, and some traveling from as far as India, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom. Although they all came from different backgrounds, and believed in different faiths, they all came with a common goal; to learn the tools needed to build interreligious bridges while staying true one’s religion. I am particularly fond of the IFYC’s work because like the title of the conference says, “Leadership for a Religiously Diverse World”, this organization teaches youth how to become effective modern day leaders. Personally, I find this type of training extremely relevant and necessary in today’s world, and yet where would the average person ever learn this?In addition to the hundreds of students who attended this year’s conference, various religious leaders, politicians, and authors were also present not only as speakers, but as students as well. Various topics were discussed over the two-day conference including sessions and workshops on building bridges, interfaith work and higher education, interfaith leadership and critical issues, embracing pluralism, respecting heritage, and interfaith service. Although I was not personally in attendance, all of the blogs I have been reading by people who were there, all emphasized that they took away the same message. Practicing interfaith doesn’t mean you give up your religious belief to be absorbed into one massive religion, which is a common misconception of interfaith. The IFYC’s founder and leader, Eboo Patel, stressed at this year’s conference the importance of maintaining our own “religious identity while cooperating with others”. This is the very essence of interfaith. Each faith has its differences, and we are all entitled to the same right to choose our own religion. It is up to us to draw from our faith in order to cooperate with other faiths and work towards common goals in areas of shared concern.For all of the above reasons, this is why I believe that the IFYC conference is such an inspiration. People are now realizing that the way the world has been lead in the past doesn’t work. Now more than ever, we are experiencing a global village where people of different faiths, cultures, and beliefs are interacting with each other on a daily basis. We need more leaders like Patel and Obama who understand the type of world we live in, and know how to lead people to build bridges of peace.

I will conclude this article with Patel’s closing comments at the conference and I encourage each an every one of you to ask yourself the following question:

“In a religiously diverse world where young leaders are interacting with one another with growing frequency – will their interaction be based on bridges, bubbles, barriers, or bombs? Interfaith leaders build bridges. They change the conversation, start new projects, and impact environments. Will we step up to the task and build bridges between our communities and hence strengthen the Interfaith Youth Movement?”

IFYC Website: www.ifyc.org

Twitter: @ifyc