Program Particulars  
*Times indicated refer to online version of audio

(01:52–03:28) Music
"The Multiples of One" from Awakening, performed by Joseph Curiale

(02:18) Interfaith Youth Core
The idea for the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) was generated during the United Religions Initiative Global Summit at Stanford University in 1998. A year later, the organization was founded in Chicago with the goal of educating and involving young people with each other, in service to others, across faith traditions. The IFYC operates on four fundamental principles: shared values, service learning, ubuntu, and the 25-15 method — where young adults work with teenagers and serve as role models.

Ubuntu is an African notion, difficult to translate into English, that played a critical role in South Africa's national process of Truth and Reconciliation. In his book No Future Without Forgiveness, Archbishop Desmond Tutu defines ubuntu thus: "It speaks of the very essence of being human. It is to say, 'My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours.' We belong in a bundle of life. We say, 'A person is a person through other persons.' It is not, 'I think therefore I am.' It says rather: 'I am human because I belong. I participate, I share.'" Charles Villa-Vicencio, former National Research Director for the South Africa Truth and Reconciliation Commission, discusses this African notion in Speaking of Faith's "Truth and Reconciliation."

(03:48–04:18) Music
"Alma Redemptoris Mater" from Soir, dit elle: Words of the Angel, performed by Trio Mediaeval

(03:48) Catholic Worker and Dorothy Day
Radical journalist and intellectual Dorothy Day grew up in Chicago and converted to Catholicism after a Bohemian early life. She founded the Catholic Worker movement in 1933, together with Peter Maurin, with the intent of creating a community in which it would be "easier to be good" — uniting workers and intellectuals in joint activities such as communal farming and housing and feeding the urban poor in New York City. As part of that outreach, Day edited the Catholic Worker, a radical monthly newspaper until her death in 1980. During the Great Depression, the Catholic Worker movement rapidly spread to cities throughout the United States and into Canada and the United Kingdom. Over 100 affiliated communities exist today. "Our rule is the works of mercy," said Dorothy Day. "It is the way of sacrifice, worship, a sense of reverence."

In March 2000, the Vatican declared Dorothy Day a "Servant of God" and began the process of beatification and canonization. To some in the Roman Catholic church, Day is a controversial figure — citing her autobiographical account in The Long Loneliness of having an abortion and a child out of wedlock, which prompted her conversion to the Roman Catholic church. To the late Cardinal John O'Connor, who presided over the archdiocese of New York and initiated the process of sainthood, she exemplified the spirit of living out the values of Christian teaching through her religious faith and commitment to the poor:

It has long been my contention that Dorothy Day is a saint — not a "gingerbread" saint or a "holy card" saint, but a modern day devoted daughter of the Church, a daughter who shunned personal aggrandizement and wished that her work, and the work of those who labored at her side on behalf of the poor, might be the hallmark of her life rather than her own self.

To hear the influence Day had on many in her generation, visit Speaking of Faith's "Faith Fired by Literature." There, author Paul Elie discusses her positive influence on him and other prominent writers of the 20th century.

(06:28) Gwendolyn Brooks Poem
One of the great American poets of the 20th century, Gwendolyn Brooks was the first African-American writer to win the Pulitzer Prize (1950) for her collection of poems, Annie Allen and was the Poet Laureate of Illinois until her death on December 3, 2000. The lines Patel recites from "Boy Breaking Glass" originally appeared in Brooks' 1968 collection of poetry, In the Mecca:

To Marc Crawford From Whom the Commission

Whose broken window is a cry of art
(success, that winks aware
as elegance, as a treasonable faith)
is raw: is sonic: is old-eyed premiere.
Our beautiful flaw and terrible ornament.
Our barbarous and metal little man.

"I shall create! If not a note, a hole.
If not an overture, a desecration."

Full of pepper and light
and Salt and night and cargoes.

"Don't go down the plank
if you see there's no extension.
Each to his grief, each to
his loneliness and fidgety revenge.

Nobody knew where I was and now I am no longer there."

The only sanity is a cup of tea.
The music is in minors.

Each one other
is having different weather.
"It was you, it was you who threw away my name!
And this is everything I have for me."

Who has not Congress, lobster, love, luau,
the Regency Room, the Statue of Liberty,
runs. A sloppy amalgamation.
A mistake.
A cliff.
A hymn, a snare, and an exceeding sun.

(07:17) Al-Qaeda Recruitment of Youth
As was reported in Time magazine in 2003, al-Qaeda is actively recruiting disaffected Muslim youth in countries such as Canada, the U.S., and Europe because they often have a command of the English language and hold Western passports. And, in the United Kingdom, The Observer's Jason Burke writes that terror videos showing graphic scenes of slayings by bin Laden's conscripts were being circulated around mosques in London to recruit young worshippers. Recruiters keep an eye out for ex-convicts who they help rehabilitate. A willingness to break the law serves as an identifying characteristic for extremist recruitring disaffected Westerners such as Richard Reid.

In August 1996, Osama bin Laden issued a fatwa entitled "Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places." Language throughout the text refers to youths fighting for Allah:

I have a very important message to the youths of Islam, men of the brilliant future of the Ummah of Muhammad (Allah's blessing and salutation on him). Our talk with the youths about their duty in this difficult period in the history of our Ummah. A period in which the youths and no one else came forward to carry out the variable and different duties. While some of the well-known individuals had hesitated in their duty of defending Islam and saving themselves and their wealth from the injustice, aggression and terror — exercised by the government — the youths (may Allah protect them) were forthcoming and raised the banner of Jihad against the American-Zionist alliance occupying the sanctities of Islam. Others who have been tricked into loving this materialistic world, and those who have been terrorised by the government choose to give legitimacy to the greatest betrayal, the occupation of the land of the two Holy Places (We bemoan this and can only say: "No power and power acquiring except through Allah"). We are not surprised from the action of our youths. The youths were the companions of Muhammad (Allah's Blessings and Salutations may be on him), and was it not the youths themselves who killed Aba-Jahl, the Pharaoh of this Ummah? Our youths are the best descendent of the best ancestors.

(08:47) Young People Articulating Their Traditions
Patel gives three examples of sacred texts and traditions commonly cited by young people when asked how their faiths inspire them to live out hospitality in their daily lives. Sura is the Arabic term for a chapter in the Qur'an, the sacred text of Islam. Each of the 114 suras is divided into ayat, or verses. Many Muslims believe the best way to encounter the suras is through verbal recitation and experiencing the sounds and rhythms of the Arabic. To hear several of suras recited, listen to "The Spirit of Islam," a Speaking of Faith program featuring translations and transliterations of Qur'anic passages and audio recitations by Seemi Bushra Ghazi. The following text of sura 93, the Surat Ad-Dhuna (The Morning Hours, Morning Bright), contains 11 ayat:

By the Glorious Morning Light,
And by the Night when it is still,—
Thy Guardian—Lord hath not forsaken thee, nor is He displeased.
And verily the Hereafter will be better for thee than the present.
And soon will thy Guardian—Lord give thee (that wherewith) thou shalt be well-pleased.
Did He not find thee an orphan and give thee shelter (and care)?
And He found thee wandering, and He gave thee guidance.
And He found thee in need, and made thee independent.
Therefore, treat not the orphan with harshness,
Nor repulse the petitioner (unheard);
But the bounty of the Lord — rehearse and proclaim!

The New Testament gospel of Matthew 25 contains several parables of Jesus. To many Christians, this passage serves as a key illustration of the Gospel's imperative to care for the poor and the needy:

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, "Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.' Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?' And the king will answer them, "Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.' Then he will say to those at his left hand, "You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they also will answer, "Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?' Then he will answer them, "Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Matthew 25: 31-46

The Jewish concept of tikkun olam literally means "world repair." "Repair the world" represents the core ethical directive of Judaism for many. In modern Jewish culture, the phrase generally connotes social action and the pursuit of social justice. In the Speaking of Faith program, "Religion and Our World in Crisis," Rabbi Harold Schulweis discusses how religion created by man has played a role in the world's fragmentation. In the Speaking of Faith program "Listening Generously: The Healing Stories of Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen," Remen describes the Jewish mystical understanding of the origins of the world's fragmentation and the meaning of tikkun olam in individual modern lives.

(09:46) Friday Prayer and Ramadan
Friday prayer (Jumu'ah) is congregational prayer required for all eligible Muslim males. The sermons often have a strong practical angle, aimed at integrating and applying historical Islamic teachings to contemporary daily life. In many Islamic societies, Friday prayers often play a significant social or political role. Many Islamic political movements (e.g., the Iranian Revolution) have had their origin in and drawn momentum from these communal prayers and sermons.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic year. Siyam or Saum ("fasting" in English) is the fourth of the Five Pillars of Islam. Siyam requires fasting every day until sundown during the month of Ramadan. Muslim families make a conscious effort while fasting to remember and experience solidarity with the poor and hungry. Ramadan reaches its height in its last ten days. One of the last five odd-numbered days of the month is called the Laylat al-Qadr (Night of Power), marking the date of the revelations of the first verses of the Qur'an to the Prophet Muhammad. The Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan.

(10:30–11:01 / 13:10–13:33) Music
"Out Of Egypt, Into The Great Laugh Of Mankind, And I Shake The Dirt From My Sandals As I Run" from Come On Feel The Illinoise!, performed by Sufjan Stevens

(13:40–14:54) Music
"Dawn: Rag Kirwani/Maqam Nahawana" from Saltanah, performed by V.M. Bhatt and Simon Shaheen

(13:56) Reference to Varshney's Study
Ashutosh Varshney, a political scientist at the University of Michigan, published his findings in Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India. Here Varshney explores the complexity of the civic ties between Hindus and Muslims to discern why violence occurs in some communities and not in others. He concludes that social organizations that cross religious lines — such as Hindu-Muslim trade cooperatives and joint community development committees — have a marked effect in reducing violence. Varshney discusses how vigorous and communally integrated life can serve as an agent of peace by restraining leaders, including powerful politicians, who would polarize Hindus and Muslims.

(15:15) Opening of Muslim Prayer
Each of the 114 suras — excluding the ninth sura — comprising the Qur'an are preceded by the phrase, bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, meaning "In the name of God the Compassionate the Caring." Interestingly, the terms Rahman and Rahim are derived from the Arabic word for womb, rahm. Listen to streaming audio of several Qur'anic suras recited by Seemi Bushra Ghazi that include this phrase. While listening, read the accompanying translated passages and sound charts.

(17:05) Interfaith Relationship of Heschel and King
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and Martin Luther King, Jr. first met in Chicago in 1963. Two years later, marching from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, Heschel described his experience walking arm-in-arm with King on that day: "For many of us the march from Selma to Montgomery was both protest and prayer. Legs are not lips, and walking is not kneeling. And yet our legs uttered songs. Even without words, our march was worship. I felt my legs were praying."

Both Heschel and King spoke of each other as prophets. On March 25, 1968, just ten days before he was assassinated, King delivered the keynote address at a birthday celebration honoring Heschel, convened by the Rabbinical Assembly of America, an umbrella organization of Conservative rabbis. In his introduction of King to the audience, Heschel asked, "Where in America today do we hear a voice like the voice of the prophets of Israel? Martin Luther King is a sign that God has not forsaken the United States of America. God has sent him to us. His presence is the hope of America. His mission is sacred, his leadership of supreme importance to every one of us." In his address, King stated that Heschel "is indeed a truly great prophet." He continued, "Here and there we find those who refuse to remain silent behind the safe security of stained glass windows, and they are forever seeking to make the great ethical insights of our Judeo-Christian heritage relevant in this day and in this age. I feel that Rabbi Heschel is one of the persons who is relevant at all times, always standing with prophetic insights to guide us through these difficult days."

For a contemporary perspective, listen to Princeton theologian Cornel West discuss the friendship and alliance between Rabbi Heschel and Reverend King. Also, the Interfaith Youth Core has published a guide, "From the Beloved Community to the World House" (PDF), which profiles King's interfaith work with prominent leaders of the 20th century, including Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Heschel, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Malcolm X.

(18:15) Notable, Contemporary Figures in Youth Movements
Abdul Ghaffar Khan, also known as Badshah Khan, (1890-1988) was a Pashtun political and spiritual leader who headed a Muslim nonviolent struggle for independence from the British in what is now eastern Pakistan. He is known as the "Frontier Gandhi" for forming a nonviolent army totalling nearly 100,000 troops to protect the India-Pakistan border. He spent nearly 30 years imprisoned at the behest of the British government and later the Pakistani state.

Farid Esack is a Muslim scholar, speaker and human rights activist, who served as a Commissioner for Gender Equality with Nelson Mandela's government in South Africa. He is currently Chair of Ethics, Religion and Society at Xavier University in Cincinnati. His book, Why I am a Muslim, helped establish him as an Islamic voice for a new generation.

(18:40–20:06) Music
"Dawn: Rag Kirwani/Maqam Nahawana" from Saltanah, performed by V.M. Bhatt and Simon Shaheen

(20:50) World Youth Day
World Youth Day is an annual gathering of Roman Catholic youths created by Pope John Paul II in 1984 "to consolidate the ordinary youth ministry by offering new encouragement for commitment, objectives which foster ever greater involvement and participation." It is celebrated locally within each diocese and internationally at a week-long retreat, every other year, at locations around the world. The most recent festival was held in Cologne, Germany in August 2005. It attracted over one million people from over 200 countries. To view the New York Times photo gallery Krista mentioned, see Vincent Laforet's of youths participating in the event.

(26:58–27:39) Music 
"Do-Re-Mi" from Folkways: The Original Vision, performed by Woody Guthrie

(27:40–29:00) Music
"Do Re Me" from 'Til We Outnumber 'Em: Woody Guthrie, performed by Ani DiFranco

Listen to an extended collage (RA, 4:19) of Ani DiFranco adapting Woody Guthrie's "Do Re Mi," a musical illustration of Patel's compelling definition of "tradition."

(29:01–30:00) Music
"Do-Re-Mi" from Folkways: The Original Vision, performed by Woody Guthrie

(31:18) IFYC Youth Exchange with Amman, Jordan
The Interfaith Youth Core is working with a young interfaith organizer in Amman, Jordan to build a virtual youth interfaith network, through which kids in Amman and Chicago will be able to share stories and reflections on their interfaith work online. Youth exchanges, in which youth travel from Chicago to Amman, or from Amman to Chicago, are planned for the summer of 2007.

(32:12) Lapham in Harper's
In the May 2005 issue of Harper's magazine, Lewis Lapham wrote an essay entitled "The Wrath of the Lamb," in which he addresses the rise of evangelical Christians and the political influence they wield. The passage Patel cites — of Lapham writing disparagingly of religion while recounting his own early college days — is as follows:

As an unbaptised child raised in a family that went to church only for weddings and funerals, I didn't encounter the problem of religious belief until I reached Yale College in the 1950s, where I was informed by the liberal arts faculty that it wasn't pressing because God was dead. What remained to be done was the autopsy report; apparently there was still some confusion about the cause and time of death, and the undergraduate surveys of Western civilization offered a wide range of options—God disemboweled by Machiavelli in sixteenth-century Florence, assassinated in eighteenth-century Paris by agents of the French Enlightenment, lost at sea in 1834 while on a voyage to the Galapagos Islands, blown to pieces by German artillery at Verdun, garroted by Friedrich Nietzsche on a Swiss Alp, and the body laid to rest in the consulting rooms of Sigmund Freud.

(33:18) Line from a Paul Simon Song
Patel cites the refrain from "Proof" by Paul Simon:

Proof
Some people gonna call you up
Tell you something that you already know
Proof
Sane people go crazy on you
Say "No man, that was not
The deal we made
I got to go, I got to go"
Faith
Faith is an island in the setting sun
But proof, yes
Proof is the bottom line for everyone.

(33:44) Social Outreach Efforts by Evangelicals
For an insightful perspective on American evangelicals fight against AIDS, read Holly Burkhalter's article, "The Politics of AIDS: Engaging Conservative Activists," in the January/February 2004 issue of the journal Foreign Affairs.

(34:31-35:10) Music
"Concerning The UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois" from Come On Feel The Illinoise!, performed by Sufjan Stevens

(40:25) Patel's Definition of Religious Totalitarianism
In his essay entitled "On Nurturing a Modern Muslim Identity: The Institutions of the Aga Khan Development Network," Patel explains his understanding of the phrase "religious totalitarianism":

New York Times Foreign Affairs columnist Thomas Friedman has written that World War III will be fought against religious totalitarianism. Religious totalitarianism is not just the belief that one religion is right, but also that there is only one correct interpretation of that religion and everyone should practice it or else. Violence is only one arm of this system. Friedman argues that the real battleground is religious education, where the ideology of religious totalitarianism is nurtured. Fifteen of the nineteen September 11 hijackers had Saudi passports. It's not too much a stretch to see them as products of an education system which wrapped an anti-modern ideology in Islamic rhetoric and injected it into impressionable young men.

(42:35–42:45) Music
"Sabura" from Heaven's Dust, performed by Ekova

(43:18) Citation from Chicago Tribune Article

Krista recites a passage from Patel's article entitled "Matters of loyalty: For country and the Koran," which was originally published in the July 31, 2005 edition of the Chicago Tribune:

I cannot stop staring at the map of central London, the one with the four explosion symbols on it. Edgware Road. Aldgate. Russell Square. Tavistock Square. It sounds like the itinerary of my regular trips to London when I was a graduate student at Oxford University a few years ago. … The calm those places provided was shattered by a group of young men who traced their heritage to the region of the world where I was born and who prayed in the same language I consider holy. A city I love was bombed by people my community could have influenced.

(45:47) The Montgomery Improvement Association
The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), led by Martin Luther King, Jr., was created on December 5, 1955 to boycott the Montgomery, Alabama bus system after Rosa Parks was forced to vacate her seat four days earlier. The association's aim was to "improve the general status of Montgomery, to improve race relations, and to uplift the general tenor of the community." After a prolonged boycott of nearly a year, in November 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down segregated seating on public buses.

(46:27–47:06) Music
"Sundust" from Unspeakable, performed by Bill Frisell

(47:17) Use of Phrase "Peace Be Upon Him"
You may have noticed that Patel used the phrase "Peace Be Upon Him." This phrase, or salawat, is a commonly used Arabic expression Alaihis Salam commonly used when the name of a prophet is spoken, as a sign of respect. When writing in English, the abbreviation PBUH or SAW is used. A variation of this phrase is sometimes used: "Prayers and Peace Be Upon All the Prophets."

(47:22) Story of the Prophet Muhammad
At the age of 40 while on a pilgrimage to the caves of Mount Hira outside of Mecca, the Prophet Muhammad reported that he had received the first revelation of many from God through the Angel Gabriel. The Qur'an is understood to be his direct recitation of sacred teachings that continued to be revealed to him over the next 23 years. Here is a text of the Prophet Muhammad's initial revelation:

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds,
The Beneficent, the Merciful.
Master of the Day of Judgment,
Thee (alone) we worship; Thee (alone) we ask for help.
Show us the straight path,
The path of those whom Thou hast favoured; Not the (path) of
those who earn Thine anger nor of those who go astray.

(48:11–52:40) Music
"Out Of Egypt, Into The Great Laugh Of Mankind, And I Shake The Dirt From My Sandals As I Run" from Come On Feel The Illinoise!, performed by Sufjan Stevens