Climate change and other environmental issues are everyone’s concern, but one gets the impression that the Muslim world has other things on its mind. But then again, much of my impression of the Muslim world is largely filtered thru the mainstram media, so so far as I know, there is a very active environmentalist movement.
How do the levels of concern and influence of activism compare with the Western world? I suppose verses from the Q’ran would be relevent, but I’m more interested in how this set of issues is playing out in contemperary politics. Also, distinctions can be made between concerns about how, say, the oil industry is contributing to emissions; more localized issues such as drinking water or the fate of nearby ecosystems; how the issue may be used to bash the West, if at all; and truly globalized concerns.
Given that most CO2 emissions are from non-Muslims countries, and that most Muslims countries are not major oil producers, I suspect your question doesn’t have an answer.
I don’t see why religion, instead of industrialisation, should be an issue with regards to global warming.
[QUOTE=GorillaMan]
Given that most CO2 emissions are from non-Muslims countries, and that most Muslims countries are not major oil producers, I suspect your question doesn’t have an answer.
[quote]
I don’t accept that. There are any number of political/cultural issues the Muslims tesd to have very strong positions on. Most pop music and pornography comes from non-Muslim countries too.
Why should religion be an issue with regards to what happened at Abu Garib prison or where the US sends its troops? Some Christian fundamentalists regard environmentalism as “pagan” or “worldly”, others de-emphasize it because the Bible de-emphasizes it, and others regard it as moot because “these are the End Times”.
I think it’s a perfectly reasonable thing to assume that there might be some cultural differences that coincide with different religions. And that there might be some different views on topics like global warming that coincide with those cultural differences.
And I’m curious if anyone on the board really knows enough about the various sects of Islam to say whether they have any positions based on their religion (just as many Christians do).
I think your question is best answered with another question:
“What is the Jewish position on global warming?”
Which is, I am unaware of any “official” position taken by any large sect or branch of Islam, Judaism, or Christianity which addresses global warming. I think the snake handlers welcome it, as the snakes might have less time spent in hibernation. But really…who else?
By going to Google, I can find articles written on Islamic and Muslim sites which for the most part are nearly identical in content and flavour to those on secular and other religious sites. If you search further you can find the usual rants about how Bush is reputedly “raping the planet” on Muslim message boards, but they appear identical to those on any other message board, including the SDMB.
I’m not sure, therefore, there is an accurate answer to the question. It will be interesting to see what others find or know.
To ask about an “official position” of Islam on an issue betrays a misunderstanding of the structure of that religion.
Christian religions are mainly a heirarchal structure, with an eventual top-level human authority that can give an official position for that religion. Such as the Pope (Bishop of Rome) for Roman Catholics, the Archbishop of Canterbury for Anglicans/Episcopalians, Archbishop of Constantinople for Eastern Orthodox Catholics, Archbishop of Moscow(?) for Russian Orthodox, etc. Protestant denominations are a bit more loose: they generally have a large group of delegates representing all the individual congregations that can vote on the official positions of their religion.
But Islam is quite different. As I understand it, it’s largely a personal matter between each believer and Allah, with each mosque being largely independent. So each leader (Imam, Alatollah, etc.) is basically equal to any other, without an overall heirarchy.
So regardding the OP, there really isn’t any person or group who can set the “official position” for all of Islam.
I don’t think the OP is asking the Muslim religion position on global warming. I think it’s asking the position of the Muslim region. And in so far as we can make generalizations about the western, or Judeo-Christian, world’s position on global warming*, I don’t see why we can’t make generalizations about the Muslim, or middle-east/central-Asia, world’s position.
So basically I agree with World Eater that the best thing to do is look at individual government’s positions.
*The western world’s general position on global warming is that it is bad, that it’s caused by human activity, and that governments should take an active role in reducing it. Some governments may disagree with this, but I think that represents the position of the majority of western nations.
Spot on, Carterba. I probably should have said “in the Muslim World” in the thread title.
If I were to ask, “What’s the Muslim position on femimism”, the answer might be complex and varied, but there would be no lack of one.
Well that would be a start. I think a 3-way distinction can be made between the wording of the Q’ran with regards to a particular issue, the law of the land in a given Muslim country, and the prevailing social attitudes that Islamic culture can bring to bear.
GorillaMan Quote:
Do you really need me to dig up quotes indicating that Muslims everywhere were outraged and that Muslims are particularly sensitive about issues involving nudity and sexual humiliation?
There are any number of issues that Muslims tend to make a huge, huge deal over. I’m just curious about how big a deal they make of cetain other issues. If the environment is widely disregarded because they focus on other issues, then there’s my answer.
That would be a very different matter - there’s a huge amount of detail in the Koran of women’s rights, everything from divorce to sexual satisfaction.
Maybe I was misunderstanding the context of the question. In any case, the sensitivities you describe are cultural, not religious.