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From Campus Rallies to Capitol Hill

Written by Sara Rahim
July 11, 2014

Looking back, I never would have imagined that my introduction to the interfaith movement would change the trajectory of my undergraduate career. Now, as a new graduate of Saint Louis University, I find myself at odds with this transitional moment in my life. For the past four years, the interfaith work in which I have been so thoroughly involved helped me find a voice for my passion and put my values into action. But more importantly, it allowed me to cultivate a community out of solidarity.

Interfaith organizing on a college campus can sometimes feel surreal. On a college level, I have had access to student groups, allies, and resources that help mobilize like-minded individuals to action. It’s easy to feel like you’re making a difference. The frustrating part can be when you feel like you’re preaching to the choir. Yet, at the end of the day, I can confidently say that my interfaith work has allowed me to strengthen my own leadership. It has helped me build a coalition of inspired young people, who are ready to create change.

The truth is, I feared not knowing how to access similar communities once I graduated. One of the biggest criticisms that the interfaith movement, like many other movements, is that it can tend to be idealized and focuses more on dialogue and less on action. I worried that this would become a reality for me without the network and resources I had previously worked so closely with.

This past month, I was one of two students who were selected as the St. Louis Citizens for Global Solutions Chapter Essay Contest winners. In the essay, we were asked to speak about what the US can do to solve our global issues. I wrote about the role that a global ethic could play towards creating a new cadre of religiously and culturally competent citizens around the world, and how it could serve as a call to action for faith and secular communities.

While in Washington D.C., we learned about a variety of issues including world federalism, international treaties, and grassroots leaderships. We attended a conference sponsored by Citizens for Global Solutions, and lobbied on Capital Hill. I was most surprised on the last day of the conference, when I attended a workshop about how the major World Religions can help establish a peace system of a democratic world federal government. Dr. Oughton, the guest presenter, referenced the Parliament of the World Religions’ Global Ethic as a guiding document to action.
I was, like everyone else in the room, truly inspired by the notion that interreligious dialogue can help build peace and justice in our global communities. I now understand that interfaith action is something that applies to all communities – both domestically and internationally. The world’s religions are responsible for building a foundation of peace by promoting the ideals of a global community through the teachings of the Golden Rule, the Global Ethic, the Charter for Compassion, and so forth. Interfaith is not limited to one network or community; it is all encompassing and inclusive to any worldview. As I begin this transition to the working world, I am certain that my motivation for interfaith action will continue to shape my experiences and interactions.

Above Right: “The Global Ethic” was a pleasant encounter at a recent global conference in D.C., says Sara Rahim, a Parliament of the World’s Religions Youth Rep to the UNDPI-NGO. The Citizens for Global Solutions conference featured a workshop exploring the context of a global utilizing common values across world’s religious as a basis for a global government system.

Ms. Sara Rahim, is a Parliament of the World’s Religions Youth Rep to the UN-DPI, and a recent graduate of Saint Louis University in Public Health and International Studies. Sara’s passion for social justice expands to global health, interfaith, and refugee/migration issues. She has studied Arabic in Egypt, offered healthcare in Honduras, and spent a semester in Morocco, where she conducted a study on access to healthcare for undocumented sub-Saharan migrants. She later returned to Morocco to work with grassroots NGOs that focus on sub-Saharan female migrants’ health. On campus, Sara has spearheaded the President’s Interfaith and Community Service Challenge for the past two years, while organizing student interfaith programming. Off campus, Sara has interned at Interfaith Youth Core coaching students to be leaders of interfaith action, and she has worked in refugee resettlement at World Relief. In the future, Sara would like to pursue a career in global health and international development, with a focus on communities in conflict, and she hopes to use.