Patel outlined two major traps he believes the interfaith movement must be wary to avoid.

1. Defining “the enemy” (religious totalitarians) too broadly is incorrect and sets up insurmountable odds.
2. If the pluralism faction is made up of senior leaders talking and the religious totalitarianism movement—which can be very attractive to disenfranchised youth—is made up of young people doing, everyone on the side of peace and coexistence will lose. Dialogue on the subject, while necessary, is not enough to face down an enormous and growing population of violent activists. Inaction on our part, he said, means that someone else will take the opportunity to act.

The extremists have easy advertising on their side, said Patel. “If a toothpaste company wants to buy a primetime ad, they have to pay millions of dollars to the television company. If religious extremists want to advertise, they just send in a videotape of a beheading and it gets played on our evening news.” Currently, he said, the dominant image of Islam is that of a plane flying into a building. That image will not change until something more compelling is proffered.

Another challenge the interfaith movement faces is funding. In response to a clergy member’s question, Patel noted that terrorists have vast resources available to them while the interfaith movement is not well known to the philanthropic world and may not take off unless a “serious philanthropic field” is created. Yet we are still in the beginning stages of the work—something, he suggests, akin to the year 1963 of the Civil Rights movement—and momentum is building.