Pope's encyclical is a wake-up call to all religions

There is much common ground between Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato si' and Islamic teaching on the environment. I have been working with experts and scholars to produce an Islamic Declaration on Climate Change, and making comparisons with other faiths emphasising the common origins of our traditions. We will invite scholars, activists, mosques and community leaders to comment on the draft document and release the final declaration in Istanbul in August.

Followers of the Abrahamic faiths are off to a good start because we share the common tongue of creation, but we haven’t been that clever in discharging the sacred duty of stewardship given us. Eastern traditions – Buddhism, Taoism – have an empathy with the natural world, but they likewise have become alienated from it as a new breed of Asian Tiger stalks the stock markets.

The secular world only has more economics, unsustainable consumption and quantitative easing to offer. But Muslims today are integral to consumer culture, even though the Qur'an tells us that, "The creation of the heavens and the earth is far greater than the creation of mankind. But most of mankind do not know it" (Surah 40:57).

It is self-evident that the biggest contributors to global warming are the so-called developed nations of the West, who are seen as being part of the Christian world. It is equally self-evident that the oil-producing Muslim states are also pro rata some of the highest polluters in the world. But the best way to look at this, as the Pope points out, is the difference between the rich and the poor nations. The poor belong to all faiths and none and poor nations aspire to be developed nations – with the attendant consequences.

Francis’ encyclical rightly draws our attention to the connection between the degradation of the planet – largely by rich over-consuming nations – and the effects of this on the poor. There is common ground here between the Pope’s vision and the approach of the Qur’an when it asserts: “Corruption [or profligacy] has appeared in both land and sea because of what people’s own hands have brought, so that they may taste something of what they have done, so that hopefully they will turn back” (Surah 30:41). In another verse, about hoarding, the Qur'an says: "Fierce competition for this world distracted you; until you went down to the graves" (Surah 102:1-2). And the person who denies the divine law is “he who pushes aside the orphan and does not urge others to feed the needy.” (Surah 107:1-3).

The encyclical is also critical of the banking system which was bailed out but has not been reformed. At the root of our crises is a debt-based system of financial intermediation run by a privileged elite. But Christians and Muslims have a common prohibition of usurious transactions. Speaking of the poor, the Bible asserts: “Do not take interest or any profit from them, but fear your God, so that they may continue to live among you” (Leviticus 25:36). And the Qur’an observes that those who indulge in usurious transactions “will be tormented by Satan’s touch” (Surah 2:275).

Both traditions emphasise the role of stewardship. This was exemplified by the behaviour of both Jesus Christ and the Prophet Muhammad, who spoke up for the weak and the poor, abhorred ostentatiousness and shared their meagre possessions.

There is depth to what is in common between our Muslim and Christian faiths, and we have much to gain by working together. I echo the Pope’s call to climate negotiators to waste no time in coming to an agreement that is fair to all. I call upon rich nations to tighten their belts a little so that the poor may have a fairer share of Earth’s gifts.

Fazlun Khalid is the founder and director of the Birmingham-based Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences

Above: Buddha's birthday is marked in an Indonesian shopping centre. 'All faith groups have become alienated from the natural world and need to rediscover a sense of stewardship of the earth.' Photo: PA