Presenter Recommendations: Eboo Patel

Eboo Patel is an Obama-administration alumnus and founder of Interfaith Youth Core. In Fall 2020, Patel interviewed Ayad Akhtar at CHF about his new book Homeland Elegies. In 2022, Patel returns to CHF to discuss his new book We Need To Build in conversation with Yascha Mounk (The Great Experiment). Patel shares his top picks for our toolkit feature–ways to learn more and stay connected to the conversation–three people to follow, three books to read, and three organizations to support.

PEOPLE TO FOLLOW:

Rami Nashashibi

Paul Raushenbush

Krista Tippett

BOOKS TO READ:

American Dervish by Ayad Akhtar

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

How to be a Muslim by Haroon Moghul

ORGANIZATIONS TO SUPPORT:

Inner City Muslim Action Network

Muslim Advocates

Muslim Public Affairs Council

Dr. Eboo Patel is the founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC). He is a respected leader on national issues of religious diversity, civic engagement, and the intersection of racial equity and interfaith cooperation. He is the author of four books and dozens of articles. He served on President Obama’s Inaugural Faith Council. While earning a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship, Eboo began organizing interfaith projects around the world, laying the groundwork for what would become IFYC. Patel is an Ashoka Fellow, a member of the Young Global Leaders Network of the World Economic Forum and has served on the Religious Advisory Committee of the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Committee of the Aga Khan Foundation. He has been awarded the Louisville Grawemeyer Prize in Religion, the Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize, the El Hibri Peace Education Prize, the Council of Independent Colleges Academic Leadership Award, along with honorary degrees from 15 colleges. Eboo’s contributions include the books Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, in the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation; Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice, and the Promise of America; Interfaith Leadership: A Primer; and Out of Many Faiths: Religious Diversity and the American Promise. His op-eds and interviews have appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, on National Public Radio, and The PBS NewsHour. He also publishes a regular blog for Inside Higher Ed, called "Conversations on Diversity."

[Image description: The banner image along the top of the web page is a photograph of Eboo Patel smiling at the camera. He wears an olive green collared shirt over a white collared dress shirt. He wears silver earrings and his hair is cropped short. The background of the image is grey and out of focus.]