Thirty ideas from people under 30: The Faith Leaders

They are explorers and activists, artists and educators, farmers and faith leaders – even mayors. And they have trenchant suggestions on how to improve the world.

Khalid Latif: Muslim bridge builder

Ann Hermes / The Christian Science Monitor
Imam Khalid Latif in Washington Square Park in New York City on December 12, 2011. Latif is the Executive Director of New York University's Islamic Center and the New York Police Department's youngest chaplain.

Khalid Latif has a suggestion for how to overcome everything from racial to religious differences: Walk in someone else's shoes for awhile. "A major issue we have in society today is one of indifference," says Mr. Latif, executive director and chaplain of the Islamic Center at New York University. "There's an absence of individual motivation to go out and learn about the experience of someone else."

In the interfaith world where Latif devotes his time, people are more likely to unite in times of hardship. "People don't often come together in celebratory ways," he says. "It takes tragedy to bring us together."

Yet Latif looks for ways to promote unions in positive ways, including in his personal life. When he got married last fall, a rabbi, Protestant minister, and Roman Catholic priest all attended. "You bring normalcy to these relationships by bringing them to a more personal and private sphere," he says.

In the faith world, Latif is known as an advocate for a pluralistic and inclusive American Muslim community and a leader with an unusual ability to bridge religious and cultural differences. In 2007, Mayor Michael Bloomberg nominated Latif, then 24, to become the youngest chaplain in the history of the New York City Police Department.

Latif finds that compassion goes a long way in empowering people to understand and support one another – the foundations of a healthy community.

"Start to engage those who you are least likely to engage with," he says. "When I know your name, I'm not going to sit by and watch something happen to you."

– Husna Haq

Next in the series: The Environmentalists

3 of 3

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.