An Analysis Of Eboo Patel's Sacred Ground

With life comes hardship. Our individual struggles, our own trials and tribulations, vary far and wide. To some they are nothing but a mere splinter while to others they are a steak to the heart. With the hard times come hard questions that oftentimes we cannot answer alone. Why are we here? What purpose do I serve? Where do I go when I die? Such questions are too much for one lone man or woman to fathom. Religion has sought the answers for as long as there have been such inquiries into mankind. As with any opinion, people were quick to disagree with those that thought differently than themselves. For as long as religion has existed in society, it has been the cause of persecution, discrimination, and hurtful bias on a world wide spectrum. Though society today varies drastically from the past centuries, the unfortunate fact of the matter is that there is still a lot of growing left to do. Some persecutions are very apparent in our eyes: racism, sexism, and domestic violence. Yet some have taken the back seat in terms of acceptance and understanding. Complete pluralism in society with an emphasis on religious understanding and acceptance is the ultimate goal of Eboo Patel in his book Sacred Ground. In his eyes, it is “the idea that different religious communities can live in the same place and not simply coexist in a lukewarm tolerance, but …show more content…
In fact it is ironic how those so willing to point fingers tend to have dirtied their own in the process. After reading Patel’s book, I discovered that Catholicism used to hold a negative light similar to the that which Islam holds today. It grew to be such a problem that during Kennedy’s campaign he was forced to push his religion to the side and replace it with his political party in hopes of gaining the public’s attention. Now this seems silly. When candidates deliver speeches and host rallies, very rarely are they judged or seen in a negative light for being