Religious Totalitarianism and Terrorism - a comment for Eboo Patel

Dear Eboo Patel

I heard you on NPR's Interfaith Voices today and really applaud the work you are doing in spreading a great idea of religious pluralism and tolerance. But there were a few points I wanted to bring to your attention. You describe the charity done by the Catholic workers and your grandmother as manifestations of their religious beliefs and traditions but I beg to differ. The good deeds done by people professing different faiths or religions are manifestations of their spirituality and spirituality has nothing to do with religion but is a very personal trait. People can explain their spirituality using the faith they were born into or converted to but that very faith/religion can also be rightly used to explain the violence perpetuated by other followers of the same faith/religion as has been done since the beginning of civilizations. Why is it the we want to believe that religion only tells us to be good, kind, loving, merciful, etc. and ignore/deny its dark side. Religion can also do just the opposite and equally well as we see it all too often these days. Lets start calling a spade a spade. Truth alone would liberate us from our ignorance and take us into an awakened and enlightened world.

Hope you would appreciate my point of view and expecting to hear from you.

Keep up the good work and good luck!!