Islamic and Muslim Environmentalism

Abstract

Kurdish environmentalism is gaining ground but has not yet become significantly influential in society. The environmental movements have long been held to belong to left wing politics and to be less identified with religious ideas, but today environmental awareness is also reaching the religious establishment. This article presents some of the current secular and religious environmental trends in Kurdistan region of Iraq. Recent scholarly interest in religions and ecology reaffirm the importance of religious models in understanding humanity’s place in nature. While Islam provides detailed ethical principles on the environment, the majority of Muslim majority countries show an apparent indifference to environmental issues. Due to the complexities in Muslim majority countries in relation to environmental issues, this paper contends that there is a need for an examination of the different aspects of Muslim environmentalism, and to what extent environmental practices are influenced by Islamic environmental ethics. Therefore, this paper develops a multipronged approach whereby both environmental and non-environmental practices by Muslims are discussed, giving an overview of Islamic attitudes towards ecology and environmental practices and suggesting reasons for Muslim nonconcern for the environment. Moreover, the paper illustrates how Muslims in western and Muslim majority countries implement Islamic environmental ethics. Finally, western and eastern Muslim thinkers who have written on Islam and the environment are explored.