Dr. Eboo Patel, founder of the Interfaith Youth Core and Dominican University’s 2011 Lund-Gill Chair, has been named the recipient of the 2012 Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize by Hofstra University. Patel, nationally recognized as a proponent of interfaith cooperation, Patel received four separate nominations for the prize, including one from Dominican.
“Dr. Patel is a dynamic young leader who is fiercely committed to the principles the Guru Nanak award was created to honor – cooperation, understanding, service and peaceful dialogue,” said Bernard Firestone, Hofstra dean and member of the prize committee. “That he has focused his efforts on engaging young people, and promoted these values on college and university campuses, only serves to highlight the role such institutions can and should play in fostering a better understanding among people of different faiths and beliefs.”
Patel is a member of President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. In 2002, he founded the Chicago-based Interfaith Youth Core, an organization that works with college students to foster respect, understanding and shared service among different faith groups. He is the author of Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation. His has been a regular contributor to the Washington Post, USA Today and Huffington Post, writing about religion in the modern world, and has spoken at the TED conference, the Clinton Global Initiative and the Nobel Peace Prize Forum.
The Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize was established in 2006 by Ishar Bindra and family and named for the founder of the Sikh religion. The $50,000 prize is bestowed every two years to recognize significant work to increase interfaith understanding. It is meant to encourage understanding of various religions and encourage cooperation between faith communities. Guru Nanak believed that all humans are equal, regardless of color, ethnicity, nationality or gender. Previous recipients include the Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso and Rabbi Arthur Schneier.
