Eboo Patel: Obama Faith Adviser Preaches Religious Tolerance

Readers should watch Patel on TV. He claims to speak for all Muslims through the way he speaks, but he is Ismaili, which is considered a sect. Sunnis and Shias don't consider Ismailis Muslims, so it is very presumptuous of him to speak as he does. Furthermore, he is not devout and is highly secular, so it is odd as a Muslim to hear him use expressions such as "Muhammed, Peace Be Upon Him". He is a presumptuous hypocrite.

Patel has lived his entire life in the US and claims to understand radicalism in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He has no clue. People in Pakistan don't send their kids to Madrassas because they're poor and coerced. Many people in fact believe what is taught in Madrassas and make the choice to send their kids there.

Only someone as blinkered as Patel could write something so stupid: "a gut-wrenching feeling of being excluded from mainstream society . . . a vague sense of being Muslim . . . a growing consciousness that people with whom I shared an identity were being horribly treated elsewhere, often by people who looked just like the ones who were bullying me here." So whites are bullying Muslims everywhere? How about Hindu on Muslim violence in India, or Muslim on Muslim violence in Pakistan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The US and Europe are far more tolerant than anything he'd ever find in the Muslim world. That is one reason why secular Muslims feel more at home in the US.

Patel is very adept at playing his audience. Only in a country like the US with white guilt and complete ignorance of Islam could Patel get away with all the clap trap he says.

Abdul Karim of DC 7:28AM October 22, 2009