Islam and the Environment

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Preface

It is now universally accepted that the environmental crisis is one of the greatest problems of the contemporary world. Different groups are pondering over the predicament from their own discrete angles. Amidst several perspectives propounded sofar, the Islamic perspective seems to be the most promising one since it accentuates the much needed process of moderation among various polemics and provides a strong basis for mass compaigns in a large part of the world as regards the ongoing environmental degradation.

Motivation for the present contribution was provided by the works of Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Ismail R. al. Faruqi and may others who have played a significant role in generating ecological consciousness.

It is a matter of great pleasure for the Institute of Objective Studies to bring out this anthology, Islam and the Environment edited by A.R. Agwan. Hopefully the present rendering will receive a wider appreciation from the concerned circles and will induce furhter academic input on the theme.

Introduction

The ongoing environmental crisis is so alarming and catastrophic that it has sensitized almost the entire humanity. Scientists, technocrats, policymakers, development agencies, social workers, communicators and, of course, enlightened masses are now unitedly striving at various levels to find out some lasting solution to the present predicament. More recently, the advocates of religious wisdom have started intervening in this process by highlighting religious point of views having bearing on the environmental crisis. Consequently, various religious perspectives are emerging in the area of ecological thought. Although it has been discussed that the religious response in this regard could be traced back from the seventeenth century onwards, almost simultaneously with the onset of the industrial revolution, however, these low-key voices could never be turned into concrete ecological ideas.

Perhaps it is only since the early eighties in the current century that not only well-considered religious perspectives on various environmental issues are being propounded but there are certain attempts also to create an interfaith understanding in this regard, some aspects of the emerging religious perspectives are briefly discussed here to mark this recent trend in the ecological thought.

Although it is commonly held that the environmental crisis has been caused by the scientific and technological misdemeanour and mismanagement of resources, but Lynn White Jr. (1967), a Professor of History, University of California, USA has alleged for the first time that the world religions are the root cause of the environmental problems. In his essay The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis he argues that by destroying animism, Christianity made it possible to exploit nature in a mood of indifference to the feeling of natural objects.

Alastair M. Taylor and Duncan M. Taylor (1989) further justified such claims while trying to demonstrate that the dualistic nature of Sematic religions has had caused separation of human beings from the rest of the nature and thereby has paved a way for the onset of the evironmental crisis. Even the famous historian Arnold Toynbee joins such critiques by expressing that.

The reckless extravagant consumption of nature's irreplaceable treasure- and the pollution of those of them that man has not already devoured can be traced back in the final analysis to a religious cause and this cause is the rise of monotheism.

Lynn and others argue that the dualism of spirit verses matter lies at the root of the contemporary problem. It is also felt by them that the mainstream Judeo-Christian attitudes took to heart the admonition in the Genesis to "subdue the earth" which in itself provides a strong motive to development and endorsement of an exploitative ethic. 200
It seems that the religion has been alleged by these scholars as the cause of environmental degradation with the same logic as has been applied in case of the Baconian scientism and the materialism for creating this alarming situation. What they have simply done is that they have turned the target of the criticism from scientism and materialistic ideologies to religions. Furthermore, it has been ignored altogether that the overall impact of religion in one's life is always leading to self restraining, ethical and caring attitudes which can not be compared with value-free, self-oriented and utilitarian behaviour generally inculcated by the modern scientific knowledge. Their study is also lacking in understanding the distinctive features of Judaism, Christianity and Islam for their treatment to nature and environment rather they tend towards an easy generalization of their arguments by classifying all of them under one category, i.e. Sematic religions. Perhaps it could not strike to their mind aswell that monotheism in its true sense provides a firm justification for the notion of ecological order.

It can be seen that the alleged dualism is not an important aspect of religions only but it is a salient feature of almost the entire human thought. For example the dualism of traditional Western philosophy and science as has been expressed in the form of rationalism and empricism or facts and values, or subject and object, nature and man, etc. may be considered in the light of these allegations. The dualism of spirit and matter is an inseparable aspect of animistic ideas and that of the Eastern religions which these critiques of religions try to appreciate for their ecological worth.

Hence, it is obvious that the criticism of religions for stipulating and encouraging exploitative ethic as regards natural resources rests on a very superficial analogy of various religions and contemporary environmental processes. Morever, it could not be marked by such critiques that religions are being interpreted for several hundred years under the pressures of contemporary dominent paradigms, leading to interpolation of several alien ideas into religious thought. Perhaps these and several other defficiencies of the critiques resulted into cold welcome to them from the mainstream environmentalists.

The emerging ecological consiousness of religiously oriented scientists and scholars and those who realize the importance of religious wisdom in the contemporary world could be markedly observed since the early seventies. Such terms as theology of ecology, environmental ethics, deep ecology, ecosophy, religious ecology, ecology of religion, etc. have got slowly entered into various academic discussions. It gradually paved the way for interfaith understanding of the environmental crisis on the one hand and, on the other, for a growing concern to integrate scientific and religious wisdom to redress the alarming situation. The Assi Declaration (1986), Brutland Report (1987) and Agenda-21 (1993) and other important documents have realized an indespensable role of religions and cultural imparatives in the field of ecology. Consequently, the environmental ethics have become a key-word now. Green Movement and the movement of deep ecology are hamarring at the root of political and social activism leading towards a wider ecological consciousness.