Liberal Arts Forum

Support for Toxics Reform – Islamic View:

By Faraz Khan

Islam requires an ethical life with consideration for others. God is the Giver and Sustainer of all goods. The Quran declares, “He provides for you all that you ask for. But if you count the favors of God, never will you be able to number them” (14:34). An individual is obliged to God and fellow human beings to live a righteous life. The Quran confirms “God does command you to render back your trusts to those to whom they are due. When you judge between two people, deal with justice. Verily, how excellent is the teaching which He gives you (4:58).

Humans are seen as being created “in the best of forms” (95:4) and honored by God as His vicegerent or stewards on this planet. However, this honor is attributed with a great responsibility and accountability to God. Any action away from the right path can be a cause for oppression. Thus, Quran declares that “whoever does an atom’s weight of good shall see it and whoever does an atom’s weight of evil shall see it” (99:7-8). The verse confirms the importance of moral obligation.

Social justice is central to Islamic teachings. Prophet Muhammad once declared, “Help your brother whether he is an oppressor or he is an oppressed one”. People asked, “O Messenger of God, We understand that an oppressed person should be helped but how can we help the oppressor?” The Prophet Muhammad replied “By preventing the oppressor from committing acts of injustice” (Sahih Bukhari 45:4). The Quran calls people to task by reminding them they should deal with others with care and humility as God has been good to them. It is a call to help alleviate pain and sufferings especially of the downtrodden and poor who are marginalized in their own society. It is a call to seek God by helping one’s brother, “do not forget your portion in this world but do good as God has been good to you and seek not mischief in the land. God does not love those who do mischief” (28:77). Thus according to the teachings of Islam, environmental justice and social equity is a sacred act that needs our immediate and utmost attention.

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Madagascar bird declared EXTINCT
Last seen 25 years ago, alaotra grebe.

It has been reported that introduction of non-native fish species and nylon nets led to the extinction of a water bird in Madagascar.

“Obviously the suspicion that it has disappeared has been there for some time,” said Martin Fowlie, a spokesman for BirdLife, compiler of the “Red List” of threatened bird species.

On Monday 8/17/09, I was on a field expedition jumping wetlands and streams, hoping to catch a glance of a few pretty birds. The water from the brook was trickling down as I walked up to the green riparian corridor with a few trees that the builders have not paved over to make a killing profit. Unfortunately I got to see a brook defiled with floating paint buckets near apartment buildings in Hamilton, NJ.

In disgust, I approached the stream hoping that these buckets would be empty. I could see a few fish swimming in the brook. But this happy moment turned belly-up when I found a thin film of blue paint on the water surface. I quickly jumped on the other side of the bank and put my hand auger to haul in the three buckets of death – paint is poisonous to the aquatic life.

Someone had painted their walls and decided to dump the remainder in the stream. I was shocked and outraged by the stupidity of those who decorate their walls and destroy homes of other living creatures. Every life is precious and their habitats are sacred. When we act blasphemously toward these sacred creatures of God, we risk our own demise.

In the words of James Speth:

“Half the world’s tropical and temperate forests are now gone. The rate of deforestation in the tropics continues at about an acre a second. About half the wetlands and a third of the mangroves are gone. An estimated 90 percent of the large predator fish are gone, and 75 percent of marine fisheries are now overfished or fished to capacity. Twenty percent of the corals are gone, and another 20 percent severely threatened. Species are disappearing at rates about a thousand times faster than normal. The planet has not seen such a spasm of extinction in sixty-five million years, since the dinosaurs disappeared. Over half the agricultural land in drier regions suffers from some degree of deterioration and desertification. Persistent toxic chemicals can now be found by the dozens in essentially each and every one of us.

Human impacts are now large relative to natural systems. The earth’s stratospheric ozone layer was severely depleted before the change was discovered. Human activities have pushed atmospheric carbon dioxide up by more than a third and have started in earnest the dangerous process of warming the planet and disrupting climate. Everywhere earth’s ice fields are melting. Industrial processes are fixing nitrogen, making it biologically active, at a rate equal to nature’s; one result is due to overfertilization. Human actions already consume or destroyed each year about 40 percent of nature’s photosynthetic output, leaving too little for other species. Freshwater withdrawals doubled globally between 1960 and 2000, and are now over half of accessible runoff. The following rivers no longer reach the oceans in the dry season: the Colorado, Yellow, Ganges, and Nile, among others” (James Speth in The Bridge at the Edge of the World 1-2).

Such is the picture of a world guided by a troubling ethic or perhaps lack of it. These episodes of environmental pollution are milestones or signs of humanity run amuck. The problem is not the environment but rather human stupidity, selfishness, arrogance, and the gluttonous bottom line.

Environmental Ethics

Environmental ethics is an emerging field of philosophy that deals with the moral implication of human interaction with their surrounding. Environmental ethics and environmentalism was a reaction or response to the environmental degradation due to the rapid industrialization. Humans are destroying this planet fast. All of us are in this boat that is fast sinking while nations and corporations of the world compete in capitalistic venture to outdo each other.

Muslims & Environmental Ethics

Islam calls for environmental integrity. The Qur’an reminds us “Eat and drink but do not waste”. God says about the planet “the Earth he created for all of the living creatures [not just humans]”. Modernity brought a new way of looking at the world as it is clearly demarcated in the new fields of Islamic bioethics, Islamic economics, and the emerging Islamic environmental ethics. There are experts in this new field as well. A few names that come to mind:

S. H. Nasr

Mawil Izzi Dien

Fazlun Khalid

Richard Foltz

Othman Llewellyn

Ibrahim Ozdemir

Ziauddin Sardar

However, this emerging field of ethics has yet to develop into an Applied Ethic (practical involvement of Muslims not just ink on paper about how Islam views environmental protection as a religious duty). Neither fish nor humans drink paint. If pollution kills marine life, it will surely not pardon us. We are not detached from the environment. I hope and pray that Muslims in the West would lead the rest of the world in protecting the environment.

Faraz Khan

“It should be obvious that every masterpiece of art deserves not only
our attention, appreciation, and admiration, but also our protection. We are
quick to recognize that a masterpiece of painting deserves every sort of care
and appreciation. Nature, likewise, which is full of signs of God and is
furthermore a masterpiece of His creative effort, deserves our watchfulness,
gratefulness, and respect.”

Ibrahim Ozdemir, Towards an Understanding of Environmental Ethics from the Quranic Perspective.

Towards Caring for the Environment
By Faraz Khan

at ICPC after ‘Esha.
Friday, May 15, 2009

The Islamic sources on the preservation of the environment are very clear. There is ample evidence in the Quran – over 700 verses that relate humans to their environment. The Prophet Muhammad was reported to care for all the creation of God. The Qur’an quotes that he was sent only as a mercy to all the universe (not just mankind).

However, Muslims behavior have been very confusing if not dismissal in regards to the environmentalism and the green movement. Many Muslims perceive environmentalism as another Western agenda to conquer Muslim minds. However, a sad future looms over us if we fail to understand and act to preserve the very fabric of life we are destroying collectively as a human race. James Speth and other scientists have mentioned that in order to destroy life on this planet we simply have to continue living the way we live our lives today.

So how and where do Muslims fit into this environmentalism phenomena? Are these environmental threats such as global warming, deforestation, acid rain, desertification, real? What about recycling stuff, eating organic food, and lowering carbon footprint? How can American Muslims make a difference in greening of America and the world?

Find out more on Friday Night at ICPC (May 15th, 2009).
Muslim Environmental Ethics

Religious leaders have faith in green

published on 4/22/09 in Columbia Spectator

As part of Greenspiration—a student-led ten-day series of environmentally-focused events—a panel of religious experts discussed the relationship between religion and going green.

The event, moderated by Erin Lothes Biviano, Earth Institute Fellow, featured panelists who discussed the idea that religion is crucial to guiding people towards better environmental habits, strategies, or practices. The panel featured Dr. Ben Chaudhary, assistant commissioner in the Department of Environmental Protection, Lisa Sharon Harper, co-founder and executive director of NY Faith & Justice, Nati Passow, co-founder and director of the Jewish Farm School, and Faraz Kahn, wetland scientist and advisor to Muslim Student Associations at Rutgers and Princeton Universities.

“When I go back and I look at what is it that influences me in my work in environmental justice it is the understanding that I am made in the image of God,” Harper said. “When we break our relationship with God it affects the environment and when we break the environment our relationship with God is broken.”

Passow explained that Shabbat—the day of rest—is a tradition that can provide insight into understanding the environment.

“Even in the process of what could be considered doing some of the most holy work—even that work you’re not allowed to do on the Sabbath,” Passow said. “There’s this tremendous value in rest. … There’s a lot of ecological wisdom that we can glean from it.”

Khan emphasized that the environment is constantly brought up in the Quran, asserting that “the Quran talks about the earth created for all living creatures. … There are 700 verses that actually bring humanity to think about and reflect on the environment.”

Chaudhary spoke about the way in which human beings have become more neglectful towards the environment, referring to India’s transformation after it was colonized by Britain. The other panelists agreed that a wasteful culture has emerged.

“What we’re starting to see globally [are] systems that we have been pointing too and saying, ‘that’s not a sustainable system,’ are starting to collapse,” Passow said. “The problem is within us, the human thinking, that waste culture is a way of life, … this is a modern phenomenon.”

The panelists also spoke about inequalities in wealth, stating that lower classes are particularly affected by the environment. According to Passow, “globally, you have 2 percent of the world’s population controlling some ridiculous percentage of the world’s wealth.”

“Issues of environment affect the poor and people of color,” Harper said.

The panelists also touched on the nations’ leaders lack of accountability concerning the environment, and how that affects its sustainability.

“We have to hold our leadership accountable,” Khan said, referring to the Bush administration’s “ten years of avoiding, not talking about environmental issues.”

Harper also discussed the environmental implications arising from decisions made by the country’s leaders, saying, “I was personally devastated when America pulled out of the Kyoto Accords,” Harper said.

Ultimately, Harper said, those who are most knowledgeable about environmental problems should guide those who are not.

“The reality is that the people who are under the burden of environmental justice understand it better than we do.”

Green Faiths: Religious Perspectives on Environmentalism

Presented by CU Greenspiration

Tuesday, April 21 @ 8:00 pm

Roone Arledge Auditorium, Lerner Hall (doors open at 7:30pm)

• Lisa Sharon Harper
• Dr. Ved P. Chaudhary
• Faraz Khan

What is the relationship between religion and the environment? How do our centuries-old scriptures inform our views about nature and our interaction with the planet? Is there any intersection between our archaic traditions and the trendy green movement? Join us for a panel discussion with audience Q&A on these topics and more that will include four faith perspectives: Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism.

Brought to you by CU Greenspiration, The Veritas Forum, Hillel, The Hindu Students Organization, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, and The Muslim Students Association

With help from the Office of the University Chaplain and the Presidents and Provost Fund