5 reasons why people of faith are a powerful force in the fight against climate change and environmental crises

By Mehdi Leman

Whether religious or atheist, faith guides many of us. Simply because success is not guaranteed in most struggles. Our energy and motivation sometimes find their source beyond logic and rationality. Here are five reasons why people of faith can be a powerful force for a liveable planet.

1. 85% of the world’s people identify with a religion: a powerful force that can move mountains

Research has shown that over 5.8 billion people on our planet consider themselves to belong to a religious community. That means about 85% of the people on Earth identify with a religion.

Half of all schools and 40% of health facilities in some countries are owned or operated by faith groups, hence the importance of ensuring, as Ummah For Earth and many other groups are doing, that the training of faith leaders incorporates environmental issues and raises awareness of ecology in both theory and practice. 

In addition, faith-related institutions own almost 8% of the total habitable land surface – and constitute the world’s third largest group of financial investors. The issue of finance is key: in the face of deregulated international finance driven by short-term profit, alternative models are gaining strength, like Islamic finance. 

Among these billions of people driven by strong values, many have already committed themselves to fighting the ecological and social crisis in a variety of ways. Many others have not yet taken action, but are sensitive to the arguments highlighting the intersection between their religious values and environmental actionéé. A powerful force and a source of positive environmental impact that should not be overlooked.

2. Activism has always involved and been driven by people of faith

Throughout history, faith communities have played significant roles in advocating for environmental and social justice, often driven by their religious teachings and values. 

The history of the abolitionist movement, the Civil Rights movement in the United States, and the Anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa show that faith leaders and people of faith are often key players in bringing about change.

And yes, this also applies to environmental struggles. The Chipko Movement, a grassroots environmental movement led by local women in the 1970s and inspired by Hindu traditions of reverence for nature succeeded in protecting numerous forests and securing community rights over forest resources. In the 1980s, Brazil’s Indigenous communities, including the Kayapo people, resisted the construction of the Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu River, and successfully halted the dam’s construction for several years by drawing upon their spiritual beliefs and cultural heritage. In 2018, the Munduruku Indigenous People in Brazil fought to protect their territory from a construction project that would flood an area the size of New York City and would directly impact their lives and livelihoods, including spiritual practices. The Munduruku drew a map of their territory outlining sacred places that would be destroyed if the project was approved.

More recently (2016), the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, along with other Indigenous groups and environmental activists, protested against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which threatened their sacred sites and water sources, including the Missouri River. They organised prayer camps and nonviolent demonstrations, drawing support from religious communities across the country.

3. Religious leaders and faith communities are concerned about climate and nature crises

Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Si'” released in 2015, and reinforced in 2023 by the encyclical “Laudate Deum”, emphasises the moral imperative for environmental stewardship based on Catholic social teachings. The Islamic Declaration on Climate Change, also issued in 2015 by a diverse group of participants including Islamic scholars, academics, environmentalists, policymakers, and representatives from various Muslim organisations, emphasises the moral responsibility of Muslims to address climate change and its impacts. It is in the same spirit that a group of distinguished Islamic scholars from around the world released the Al-Mizan Covenant for the Earth a few weeks ago at the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6).

Commenting on extreme weather events like floods in Turkey and scorching temperatures in Iraq in 2021, the leading Sunni Muslim religious authority, Egypt’s Azhar Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb demanded serious action on climate change.

Recent surveys show that majorities in every major religious group believe the truth that climate change is happening. Survey data indicate that the majority of Muslims regard climate change as an important societal challenge.

4. Religious leaders and faith communities are actively involved in protecting the environment and the climate

Faith communities and faith-based initiatives continue to play crucial roles in fighting for the environment today, employing various strategies such as advocacy, education, community organising, and direct action.

Many faith-based organisations and religious institutions (United Church of Christ and the World Council of Churches, for example) have launched divestment campaigns, calling on religious communities to divest from fossil fuels and invest in renewable energy alternatives. 

GreenFaith, an international interfaith environmental organisation, offers training programs, resources, and campaigns to support faith-based environmental initiatives, including divestment from fossil fuels, promoting renewable energy, and advocating for climate justice policies. GreenFaith also organises interfaith environmental events and facilitates dialogue between religious leaders, environmentalists, and policymakers.

Ummah for Earth (U4E), a coalition that includes members such as Islamic Relief and the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences (IFEES), as well as Greenpeace Middle East North Africa and Greenpeace SouthEast Asia, aims to contribute to the climate movement amongst Muslims worldwide by building on Islamic values to address the vulnerability of Muslims and climate impacts. The project seeks to show how Muslim culture and values are an important guiding light for a more sustainable future while amplifying the voices of Muslim youth in the global conversation around climate.

5. Spiritual and religious values encourage environmental protection and respect towards nature

According to some estimates, our planet is home to more than 4,000 different religions and religious communities. Within this diversity there are a large number of shared values, enabling different faith communities to work together for social and environmental justice. Stewardship. Justice. Solidarity. Compassion. Balance. Peace. These are overarching values that can be identified in many religions.

Millions of people of faith believe that stewardship and upkeep of the Earth is one of the greatest offerings of worship they can give. It is part of how we practise our faith and express gratitude towards our presence on this Earth. 

Different spiritualities have specific words that echo these common values. The concept of Tikkun Olam (which means “repairing the world”) in Judaism, the principle of Ahimsa in Hinduism, Indigenous words about the environment that don’t exist in English, and the concepts structuring Islamic environmentalism that emphasise stewardship of the Earth (Khalifa) and ethical treatment of the environment (Hurma). 

People of faith understand that we all have a responsibility to maintain ecological balance and take wise decisions today to ensure a better future for generations to come. Together, we are a powerful force for a liveable planet.

Mehdi Leman is a Content Editor for Greenpeace International, based in France.

This piece was originally published on Greenpeace on March 17th 2024.

Muslims Can Welcome New Papal Decree

Pope Francis acknowledges Sufi mysticism when he stresses God’s presence in all nature in his environmental encyclical, writes Rashied Omar.

Pope Francis’s environmental encyclical entitled Laudato Si (“Praise be to you”): “On Care For Our Common Home”, which was released on June 18 is undoubtedly one of the most important interventions in the campaign for environmental justice in the 21st century.

It is not surprising that the 184-page document, released in eight languages, took more than 18 months to draft.

This second papal encyclical has already had a significant impact on shifting the global debate in favour of those who advocate that humanity should act with greater care for our common home. This is clearly in evidence at the discussions taking place at the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) which is convening in Paris until Friday.

Moreover, Laudato Si has had a ripple effect within the inter-faith community. The imminent release of Laudato Si inspired the issuing of a statement in June by more than 330 rabbis in a letter on the climate crisis entitled: “A call to action to prevent further climate-fuelled disasters and work toward eco-social justice.”

Laudato Si no doubt has also inspired the Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change released in Istanbul in August.

Muslim scholars, such as Joseph Lumbard, who have engaged with Laudato Si, have concurred that the important themes in Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment resonate well with the teachings of Islam on the environment.

Here I would like to highlight two of them that were also evident in the exegesis and commentary on Laudato Si, by Father Peter-John Person.

First and foremost, one of the most significant aspects of Laudato Si is that it frames the issue of environmental conservation within a framework of justice. In Pearson’s interpretation, Laudato Si is a document about justice with a focus on the environment, rather than the other way around.

Pope Francis sees the issue of climate change through the eyes of the poor and this is the key hermeneutic or interpretive lens.

In other words, the pontiff wants the economic, social and environmental world orders to be fairer to the poorest.

Laudato Si criticises consumerist, profit-seeking economies, and emphasises acute sensitivity to debt, inequality, and poverty, and suggests differentiated responsibilities based on wealth and ability. Compassion and justice require voices to speak up for the most vulnerable and marginalised – those often left voiceless, those who have been pushed into poverty, those who have been denied access to food, water and other basic human rights, those who stand to suffer the most from climate change, while having contributed the least to the problem.

The social, economic and environmental dimensions cannot be considered in isolation, but should be treated integrally as a complex joint crisis. These social justice concerns resonate fully with the teachings of Islam.

It is most eloquently depicted in the Qur’an in Surah al-Rahman, chapter 55, verses 5-7, where God proclaims:

“God has raised the cosmos,

And set up (for all things) the balance.

So do not transgress the balance.

Weigh, therefore, (your deeds) with justice,

And cause no loss in the balance!”

From an Islamic perspective, the environmental crisis humanity is facing today can be viewed as a symptom of a deeper spiritual malaise.

This spiritual malaise has come about through extravagant and consumerist lifestyles that have transgressed the balance between humans and nature. An imbalance or altering of the mizan (balance) has taken place at the individual, social and global levels and this is now being reflected in the environmental crisis.

Such a perspective is also evident in the nomenclature and mission of The Claremont Main Road Masjid’s environmental programme: Muslims for Eco-Justice.

A second new theme that Laudato Si takes up is that of acknowledging the existential rights of those with whom we share this planet, namely animals and plants, etc, and more importantly, recognising their spiritual essence.

In the sixth chapter of the encyclical, Francis writes that humanity can “discover God in all things”. Hence, the pontiff asserts, “there is a mystical meaning to be found in a leaf, in a mountain trail, in a dewdrop, in a poor person’s face”.

Interestingly, in order to drive home and substantiate this point, in footnote 159 of the encyclical, Francis credits a 9th century Muslim Sufi mystic Amir al-Khawas for the concept of nature’s “mystical meaning”. In his theology, al-Khawas was obviously inspired by the abundance of Qur’anic verses that depict the natural environment in this manner.

Joseph Lumbard in his response to Laudato Si has provided the following examples of Qur’anic verses wherein God affirms the spiritual essence of our natural environment. The Qur’an proclaims, “whatsoever is in the heavens and on the earth glorifies God” (59:1; 61:1; 62:1; 64:1).

“The stars and the trees prostrate” (55:6), “the thunder hymns His praise” (13:13), and “unto God prostrates whosoever is in the heavens and whosoever is on the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, the mountains, the trees, and the beasts” (22:18). In these and many other verses, the whole of creation is presented as a divine symphony, for “there is no thing, save that it hymns His praise, though you do not understand their praise. Truly He is clement, forgiving” (17:44).

According to an Argentinian priest, Father Augusto Zampini, “it is certainly unusual for a Pope to cite a Muslim Sufi in support of his theology of environmental transcendence, but those who have known Pope Francis since his days in the slums of Argentina know that this shows his personal touch on the encyclical”.

By quoting al-Khawas, Zampini argues Francis is “inviting all human beings to transcend, to go out of themselves and therefore to improve the relationship that we have with other people, with the Earth, with God”.

Moreover, Zampini contends that through his citing of a Muslim mystic “Pope Francis is trying to foster ecumenical and interfaith dialogue about shared spirituality”. Such a view is confirmed by the following quote from Laudato Si in which Francis emphasises the importance of interconnectedness and shared spirituality:

“Everything is connected. Concern for the environment this needs to be joined to a sincere love for our fellow human beings and an unwavering commitment to resolving the problems of society.”

In conclusion, it is my considered view that through Laudato Si, Francis has inaugurated a constructive platform for credible faith and secular leaders to enter into renewed dialogue on the critical question of climate change and discuss ways in which we can bring ourselves closer to living in harmony and reverence with nature.

Moreover, by locating such a conversation within the broader framework of Francis’s theology of compassion for the poor, which offers a powerful social critique of our global culture of consumerism, covetousness, and opulence – inter-religious dialogue should find even greater resonance among Muslims.

It is my sincere hope that more Muslim scholars will take up the dialogical challenge presented in Laudato Si in a spirit of reverence and hospitality comparable to that with which the 12th century Muslim leader, Sultan al-Kamil, welcomed Saint Francis of Assisi, from whom the current pope takes his name. Muslims can and should engage substantively with Laudato Si in order to build broad solidarity with meaningful global commitments for the collective good, through responsible stewardship of the earth.

* Rashied Omar is imam of the Claremont Main Road Mosque located in Cape Town, South Africa.

This article was originally published on IOL on December 8, 2015.