Islamic declaration calling Muslims to fulfill religious duty and taking action on climate change to be launched on August 18. “Islamic faith community represents a significant section of the global population and certainly, can be influential in the discourse on climate change”
By TwoCircles.net, Staff Correspondent,
Istanbul/New Delhi: An ‘Islamic Climate Change Declaration’ that will explain why climate change is the world’s most pressing challenge, why 1.6 billion Muslims across the globe have a religious duty to play their part in tackling it and how they can fulfil this duty will be launched on Tuesday, August 18 at Istanbul.
This declaration is an important intervention by religious leaders and will act as a crucial rallying call ahead of the UN climate change negotiations which are to be held in Paris in December.
Wider previous consultation with leading Muslim scholars, academics and faith groups have been compiled to be part of the declaration. It will be the key outcome of a two-day symposium – on August 17 and 18 – on climate change here.
The declaration will also be important for India, as with approximately 180 million Muslims, India has the third largest population of Muslims outside the Arab world, next only to Indonesia and Pakistan. India, one of the leading countries from the developing world, has been part of the climate change negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
In December, government representatives from across the globe will gather at Paris to sign a new agreement to come up with emission reduction targets to avoid further heating of the earth to prevent global temperatures rising above 2 degrees Celsius danger level. The agreement will also see financial commitments by rich nations to help poor countries fight the adverse impact of climate change such as unprecedented floods, droughts, cyclones or rising sea levels to name a few.
The symposium to be held here at Istanbul on August 17 and 18 is co-organised by Islamic Relief Worldwide, the Islamic Forum for Ecology and Environmental Sciences and GreenFaith wherein Islamic scholars, academics, policy makers and Muslim activists as well as representatives of the UN, civil society and other faith leaders will participate, a statement from the organisers said.
Ibrahim Thiaw, UN Environment Programme Deputy Executive Director and Assistant-Secretary-General of the United Nations said: “In this pivotal year, when the international community will agree on how to bring about sustainable development and tackle climate change, it has been heartening to see growing consensus among faiths that humanity’s development trajectory needs to be fundamentally altered in line with moral and spiritual values.”
The Declaration will underscore the need for urgent global action in mosques and madrassas to emphasise the role that Islam can play in creating a world free from the ravages of climate change, free from polluting fossil fuels and built on a foundation of 100% clean, safe, renewable energy.
Apart from Ibrahim Thiaw, Dr Mohamed Ashmawey (CEO of Islamic Relief Worldwide), Fazlun Khalid (founder, Islamic Foundation for Ecology & Environmental Sciences) and Professor Din Syamsuddin (president of the Indonesian Council of Ulema) would be among those present at Istanbul when the ‘Islamic Climate Change Declaration’ would be unveiled.
“This year – 2015 – is a watershed year for the climate change movement. In December, government will converge in Paris where they are expected to forge a new, international climate agreement that is robust, ambitious and commensurate with the scientific imperatives outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),” the statement said.
The declaration will call upon the richest and most powerful countries to drastically reduce their greenhouse gas emissions as well as to support vulnerable communities, both in addressing the impacts of climate change and in harnessing renewable energy.
Speaking ahead of the event, His Eminence Sheikh Shaban Ramadhan Mubaje, the Grand Mufti of Uganda said: “Every person must recognise the role they are playing in harming our planet and the devastating impact this is having on some of the world’s most vulnerable and other communities. Islam teaches us: ‘man is simply a steward holding whatever is on earth in trust’, therefore man should ensure that we do everything possible to protect for this and future generations in order to leave this world a better place than we found it.”
Earlier on June 18 this year, as part of the papal Encyclical ‘Laudato Si’, Pope Francis laid out the argument for a new partnership between science and religion to combat human driven climate change. “Faith communities increasingly recognise that the climate crisis is also a moral crisis. The adverse impacts of climate change that we have witnessed so far, present a clear case for people of faith to examine the underlying moral cause of this phenomenon. It prompts faith communities to take action to halt the desecration of nature that leads to destruction of creation, human and otherwise,” the statement said.
Furthermore, this is an opportunity for faith communities to provide a vision, inspire others and lead the way in building a fairer, safer, cleaner world built on renewable energy – leading the way on a journey to an economic system that meets development goals and is also spiritually fulfilling, it said.
“The Islamic faith community represents a significant section of the global population and certainly, can be influential in the discourse on climate change,” the organisers have hoped.
For those further interested:
** Live stream of the Symposium will be available on the link here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyc0FSPCRDw)
** Live streaming of the press conference will be available here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGpKGYqt7gI)
** More details of the symposium can be found on the website http://www.islamicclimatedeclaration.org