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Globalized Eco-Islam a Survey of Global Islamic Environmentalism

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Globalized Eco-Islam a Survey of Global Islamic Environmentalism Globalized Eco-Islam A Survey of Global Islamic Environmentalism Draft version: 23 February 2012 Leiden Institute for Religious Studies (LIRS), Leiden University Author: A.M. Schwencke (Religious Studies) Supervision: Prof. dr. M.S. Berger (Islam in the contemporary West) Prof. Dr. W.B. Drees (Philosophy of Religion and Ethics) Funded by Leiden University Fund, pilot study grant Initial report submitted to LUF 28 March 2011, revised (draft): 23 February 2012 Globalized Eco-Islam: a Survey The role of Islam could be one of the decisive factors tipping the planet towards a sustainable future. This commitment in Istanbul to a low carbon future can be of historic significance in the path to resolving climate change and other pressing environmental issues. This could turn out to be the largest civil society movement in history. Statement made by Assistant General Secretary of the UNDP, Olav Kjorven, about the 2009 Istanbul Declaration and the Muslim Seven year Action Plan on Climate Change. AM Schwencke Revised version: February 2012 p1/70 Globalized Eco-Islam: a Survey Content 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 4 1.1 Outline ......................................................................................................................... 4 1.2 Objective ..................................................................................................................... 5 1.3 Scope and approach ..................................................................................................... 6 1.4 Setting the Stage: Environmentalism and Sustainable Development ............................. 7 1.5 Structure of the report .................................................................................................. 9 2 Islamic Environmental Principles and Ethics (1970s-2000) ............................................... 10 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 10 2.2 Pioneering intellectuals (1970s and 1980s) ................................................................. 10 2.3 Islamic Principles for the Conservation of the Natural Environment (1983/ 1994) ...... 14 2.4 The Assisi Declarations: engaging the world religions(1986)...................................... 16 2.5 Academic platforms: ‗Islam and Ecology‘ .................................................................. 18 2.6 Academic research about Islamic environmentalism................................................... 20 2.7 First broad analysis: a variety of approaches ............................................................... 21 3 Practices in Nature Conservation (Hima and Fiqh al-Bi’ah) .............................................. 23 3.1 IUCN, WWF and ARC programs ............................................................................... 23 3.2 Green Indonesia movement ........................................................................................ 26 4 International Policies: Islamic Sustainable Development ................................................... 28 4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 28 4.2 Islamic Declaration on Sustainable Development (2002) ............................................ 28 4.3 Preparatory studies: Islam and sustainable development ............................................. 29 4.4 Follow up: Conferences of Environment Ministers (2006, 2008, 2010) ....................... 30 5 Global Ethics and the Search for Common Grounds .......................................................... 32 5.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 32 5.2 World Religions and Global ethics (1995) .................................................................. 33 5.3 The Earth Charter (2000) ........................................................................................... 34 5.4 Tehran, the Environment, Religion and Culture (1998-2006) ...................................... 34 5.5 Parliament of the World‘s Religions Melbourne (2009) .............................................. 36 5.6 Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril (2010) .......................................... 37 5.7 Muslim critiques of the universality of ‗common grounds‘ ......................................... 38 6 Muslim Civil Society and Global Activism ...................................................................... 39 6.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 39 6.2 First Muslim Convention on Sustainable Development (2002) ................................... 39 6.3 One of the key players: Fazlun Khalid and IFEES (2005) ........................................... 40 6.4 Climate Change Summits in Bali (2007), Istanbul (2009) and Bogor (2010) ............... 41 6.5 Discussion ................................................................................................................. 43 7 Eco-Islamist Activism and Radical Social Reform ............................................................ 45 7.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 45 7.2 The Eco-Islamists and an Islamic Ecotopia ................................................................. 45 7.3 Islamism and Environmentalism: converging movements? ......................................... 46 7.4 Potential impact of Eco-Islamist discourses ................................................................ 47 8 The Green Deen Movement: Greening Lifestyles and Economies ..................................... 49 8.1 The Green Deen ......................................................................................................... 49 8.2 The Blogosphere: Eco-Muslims, Green Sufis and Hijabis ........................................... 51 9 Islamic Sustainable Finance, Economics, Commerce and Trade ........................................ 52 9.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 52 9.2 Islamic finance ........................................................................................................... 52 9.3 Islamic sustainable economics .................................................................................... 53 9.4 Islamic markets, business ethics and fair sustainable trade .......................................... 54 AM Schwencke Revised version: February 2012 p2/70 Globalized Eco-Islam: a Survey 9.5 (Islamic) Developmental sector: linchpin? .................................................................. 55 10 The Religious Establishments ........................................................................................... 57 10.1 Absent voices: Where are the scholars? .................................................................. 57 10.2 Increasing active engagement ................................................................................. 58 11 Conclusion and Discussion ............................................................................................... 60 11.1 Globalized Eco-Islam: an emergent movement? ..................................................... 60 11.2 Missing links.......................................................................................................... 61 11.3 Islamic Environmentalist Discourses: varieties and blends ...................................... 62 11.4 The role of Islam in sustainable futures? ................................................................. 63 11.5 Understanding Eco-Islam: a countercultural revival of social ethics? ..................... 64 11.6 Practical relevance: Islamic ethical finance, trade, food and markets? ..................... 65 12 Future research ................................................................................................................. 67 AM Schwencke Revised version: February 2012 p3/70 Globalized Eco-Islam: a Survey 1 Introduction 1.1 Outline Does ‗Islamic environmentalism‘ exist? This is one of the key questions guiding this survey. We argue that indeed: it does exist. It exists in a variety of forms, reflecting both the varieties of contemporary Islamic as well as environmentalist thought. It exists in theories but also in several places in the world as practices. In this survey we have searched for and found a great number of actors, essays, declarations, publications, internet posting and blogs of Muslims who reflect on the relevance of Islam for the environmental challenges of our times. We confined ourselves to English literature, so in no way it presents a comprehensive overview. Even so, these findings are sufficiently significant to substantiate the claim that further research is more than welcome, which was one of the objectives of the survey. We also argue that, considering that English is the lingua franca of global society (also amongst Muslims), the Islamic environmentalism identified here is also most likely to contribute to global discourses. We take an observation made by the Assistant General Secretary of the UNDP, Olav Kjorven, as a starting point. In 2009, he addressed a gathering of faith leaders at Windsor Castle organized by the Alliance of Religions and Conservation
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