I'm Krista Tippett, today, religious passion, pluralism, and the young.

Young people want to impact the world.

They want their footprint on Earth, and they're going to do it somehow.

So when people say to me, oh, Ibu, you know, you run this sweet little organization called

the Interfaith Youth Corps, and you do such nice things you bring kids together, say, yeah,

you know, there's another youth organization out there.

It's called al-Qaeda, and al-Qaeda has been built over the past 25 years, and with lots

of ideas of how you recruit young people, and get them to think that this is the best

way they can impact the world.

Ibu Patel is a young Muslim out to create an alternative.

We will not save ourselves and the next generation of every faith he says by taming religious

energy, but by emboldening it.

This is speaking of faith.

Stay with us.

I'm Krista Tippett.

This hour, we revisit my 2005 conversation with Ibu Patel, who's just released a new book

Acts of Faith, the story of an American Muslim, the struggle for the soul of a generation.

Ibu Patel calls al-Qaeda the most effective youth organization in the world today.

But contrary to the wisdom of secular society, he's working to deepen rather than tame

the religious energies of the young across many traditions.

And he believes this may be our only chance for survival.

From American public media, this is speaking of faith, public radio's conversation about

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