Book Talk with Eboo Patel
Eboo Patel will discuss his latest book, Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice, and the Promise of America at the Aspen Institute on Tuesday, 13 November. Patel is the founder and president of the Interfaith Youth Core, a member of President Obama’s inaugural advisory council on faith, and a member of the Partners for a New Beginning Steering Committee.
“Eboo Patel is a remarkable young man with the wisdom to seek truth and the courage to speak it. One of America’s foremost advocates and practitioners of interfaith understanding, he has written a book that combines timely social commentary with compelling history and a wealth of personal anecdotes. Sacred Ground is a refreshing, thought-provoking, myth-smashing, and deeply patriotic exploration of American identity and ideals.”
-Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Chair, Partners for a New Beginning
Harvard social scientist Robert Putnam wrote that the one thing we can safely say about the future is that every country in the world will be more diverse a generation from now than it is in the present. Using the backdrop of the 2010 Cordoba House controversy, Sacred Ground explores the importance of highlighting and strengthening the American tradition of pluralism now more than ever, the role of civic and political leadership in strengthening pluralism, and the implications American pluralism has in engagement with the Muslim world. This conversation will look inward to the state of inter-religious relations in the United States and also look outward to American engagement with majority-Muslim countries abroad.
Eboo Patel is founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core and a member of the Partners for a New Beginning (PNB) Steering Committee. Eboo’s core belief is that religion is a bridge of cooperation rather than a barrier of division. He has spoken about this vision at places like the TED conference, the Clinton Global Initiative, and the Nobel Peace Prize Forum, as well as college and university campuses across the country. In addition to Sacred Ground, Eboo is also author of Acts of Faith and a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and The Washington Post On Faith blog.
Elliot Gerson is an executive vice president at the Aspen Institute, responsible for its Policy Programs, which number over two dozen, as well as the Institute’s public programs – including the Aspen Ideas Festival – which open the Institute’s doors to a broader audience. Gerson also oversees relations with Aspen’s international partners in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Romania, and Spain. Gerson is the American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust and manages the US Rhodes Scholarships.
Partners for a New Beginning works to establish business and civil society connections and partnership between the U.S. and communities around the world to deepen and strengthen relations based on mutual interests and mutual respect. Learn more about PNB at partnersforanewbeginning.org
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