Interfaith leader urges religious cooperation

Founder and President of Interfaith Youth Core Eboo Patel spoke at Langford Auditorium Tuesday night, urging Vanderbilt students and the Nashville community as a whole to rethink their approach to religious differences.

Patel is an American-born Muslim who, in addition to running the Chicago-based organization, also served on President Barack Obama’s inaugural Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships and is a regular contributor to the Washington Post, National Public Radio and CNN.

http://www.insidevandy.com/news/article_fd24a112-5df8-11e1-a4f7-0019bb30f31a.html

An Interfaith Davos Moment

Very few people in the world will ever have the chance to experience an “interfaith moment” quite like mine.

There I stood in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum with three smiling new friends from the four corners of the earth. Laughing side-by-side were members of all the major religions of the world; a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist, and a Jew. It was a “congregation” of social entrepreneurs completely diverse in culture and faith and yet immediately bonded by an overarching belief — the belief in life.

http://www.parliamentofreligions.org/news/index.php/2012/02/an-interfaith-davos-moment/

Islamophobia:

USA/Afghanistan-Islamophobia: Pentagon official apologizes for Quran burning

A senior Pentagon official apologized Friday to Washington-area Muslims for the burning of Qurans at a military base in Afghanistan. Peter Lavoy, acting assistant secretary of defense for Asia and Pacific security affairs, said the military is investigating what occurred and that all 140,000 coalition troops in Afghanistan are being retrained in the handling of religious materials. Lavoy apologized multiple times during a brief speech during prayer services at the ADAMS Center in Sterling, one of the largest mosques in the country. “I come here today to apologize on behalf of the Department of Defense for the incident that took place in Afghanistan this week,” Lavoy told worshippers, saying the burnings were done “unknowingly and improperly.” Lavoy’s remarks at the suburban Washington mosque follow protests across Afghanistan over the burning of several Qurans at a U.S. military base.

http://iina.me/wp_en/?p=1006994