Born in Mumbai, India, Eboo Patel, an Ismaili Muslim of Gujarati Indian heritage, is the founder and president of Interfaith America. This Chicago-based nonprofit, started as Interfaith Youth Core by Patel at age 22, works with governments, universities, private companies, and civic organizations to promote cooperation across religious differences.
As he told the Next Big Idea Club, Patel sees religious diversity as an essential dimension of American democracy. “We are a stronger country when faith is fully embraced as a source of inspiration and a bridge of cooperation,” he believes. He served on President Obama’s Inaugural Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and received the National Conflict Resolution Center’s 2024 National Peacemaker Award. He is the author of five books, including Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation (2007), which won the Grawemeyer Award in Religion.
As a young immigrant in the suburbs of Chicago, Patel says his brown skin, Muslim faith, and Indian heritage often left him feeling like an outsider. He experienced racist bullying and, for a time, like many of his adolescent peers, he struggled with his beliefs. But by his mid-20s, he had matured and become a leader in interfaith work in the U.S. In Patel’s words, “I love America not because I am under the illusion that it is perfect, but because it allows me — the child of Muslim immigrants from India — to participate in its progress, to carve a place in its promise, to play a role in its possibility.”
