Business & Politics (news)

Muslim and Christian youth living in the US have found common interest in protecting the environment. According to Eboo Patel, founder of the Interfaith Youth Core, a non-profit dedicated to building a pluralistic society through cooperation between people of all religious backgrounds, as he recently traveled the country visiting college campuses on behalf of his organization after meeting and speaking with the Rev. Richard Cizik, vice-president of the National Association of Evangelicals and a well-known proponent of creation-care, he found that often there were groups of students already organizing Earth Day events with both Muslims and Evangelical youth working side by side to lead the way. And in light of clerics in the Middle East working to encourage water conservation along with the powerful stance that the board of the NAE recently took backing Cizik’s position on global warming in light of some very public and misguided criticism, it just may be that their elders are coming to see that they too share common interest in the environment. Patel points out that he really likes the partnership precisely because it is unlikely. And with members of both groups often stereotyped, in reality it’s far more productive to envision a future in which we can all work side by side to protect the planet than to dwell on the temporary divisions that may keep us apart. Now you certainly may think that I'm a dreamer, but if we can all ‘Imagine There’s No Heaven’ it's clear to me that life on earth becomes a whole lot easier as we try….