In the ever evolving dialogue of environmentalism and how to make people more aware of the issue, where countries change their policies more often than they like to admit, Indonesia has approached the problem in a unique way. The emergence of “Green Islam,” a uniquely Indonesian approach to the clean energy dialogue has helped the common Indonesian populace to become aware of the importance of the environment and the need to transition into clean energy.
Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim community of 200 million people has always been an inherently religious country. Rather than focusing on statistics or profits to persuade the general public on the importance of energy transition as it was found that even as a survey in 2021 found that 88% of people recognized climate change, only 44% knew about its importance. Rather, Indonesia’s influential religious organizations and figures try to persuade the populace through more primordial instincts, such as culture and religion because the matter of fact is that even if Indonesia has a low knowledge on climate change, 80% of them recognized that preservation of the environment is part of humanity’s moral responsibility. Religious figures, who have always played a key role in Indonesian daily lives, have now also become one of the main actors in the fight for public opinion on matters relating to key environmental and energy issues.
The emergence of Green Islam can be attributed to Indonesia’s still-strong religious, cultural, and even supernatural belief. The words of the Prophet Muhammad PBUH that have become hadiths are often used as words of guidance expressing support for environmentalism. Locally, the influence of Sufism in Indonesia’s Islamic teachings also contribute to the Green Islam movement, where the belief that harming the environment is sinful as the universe is a divine revelation and so everything that God has created must be protected, including nature.
Institutional Growth
Indonesia’s two largest Islamic organizations, the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah who have both written and preached about the importance of preserving the environment. Ranging from public policies to advocacy within and out of government, religious organizations have acted both as proponents of policies, and also as representatives against excessive and damaging government actions that are contrary to the interests of the public at large.
NU in particular has been a massive advocate of environmentalism through its vast network of religious boarding schools, or pondok pesantren, where part of the curriculum is to teach students about environmentalism as part of the social fiqh, or Islamic guidance to make humans more just beings. Concurrently, they issued a fatwa in 2015 that prohibited the exploitation of natural resources that would endanger the environment. The fatwa itself, although not legally binding, has had its impact as it helps to make people who live near forests or peatlands know that to clear their land is haram, or prohibited. Opinion on environmentalism is also widespread within the organization, seen by the national conference agreement in 2021 that denounced Indonesia’s still-massive use of coal energy plants and recommended that the government transitions away from their use by reducing coal production.
On the other hand, Indonesia’s other largest Islamic organization, Muhammadiyah has stepped up its pledge to protect the environment through its own organization, the Majelis Lingkungan Hidup (MLH), or the Environmental Council. Through the MLH, they try to advocate the protection of the environment, and similar to NU, tries to preach and educate people about the importance of preserving nature as part of Islamic teachings.
These concerted efforts are not only done through organizations, but also influential individuals, such as Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar of the Istiqlal Grand Mosque. He has become one of the most active proponents of Green Islam itself as he tries to lead through example, such as when he installed 500 solar panels and made it as the first place of worship to be granted a green building certificate by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation. Ultimately, he hopes to make 70% of Indonesia’s 800,000 masjid’s into eco-friendly ones. Including Imam Nasaruddin Umar, there are so many others in the movement, united by the belief that the protection of the environment is peripheral to their own religious teachings, not separate.
Political Challenges Towards the Movement
For all their relentless advocacy on environmentalism, recent political issues have presented a new problem for the systematic growth of Green Islam. As mentioned before, the massive influence of various Islamic organizations have certainly helped to grow the awareness of environmentalism and push for more responsible energy policies, but it also seems that their influence has also become a massive liability to the movement.
Recently, the Indonesian government under President Joko Widodo has released a policy that would grant mining rights for religious organizations. While NU leadership has readily agreed to the new regulation, Muhammadiyah leadership was more hesitant, albeit leaning themselves in agreement. Yaqut Cholil Staquf, NU’s chief leader stated that, “First of all, let me say, NU needs anything that is halal, which can be a source of income to finance the organization.” He directed that because of the recent financial hardship that the organization is facing then the mining rights must be secured. Nevertheless, the decision to agree to the new law is met with hesitation, or even outright hostility by its members.
Many within the grassroots membership of the organization decry the move as they said that it is an about-face decision, contradictory to actions already done by these organizations for environmentalism. The presence of such organizationally-wide disagreement is testament to the fact that many in these organizations feel that such decisions were made by a one-sided agreement that only involved the elite leadership of the organization and the government themselves. Some disagreements ranged from a lack of discussion to even warning made by the youth wing of the NU, GP Ansor Purworejo Vice Head, Muhammad Hidayatullah, “If these mines are run as bad as they are now then NU as a religious organization will face suicide.” Many also feel that such actions are political decisions and can only benefit the elites of the organization. Members see that the decision to agree to mining rights are done without environment in mind, but only due to the potential wealth that can be procured through mining itself.
Conclusions
Even as politics shrouds the movement, it cannot be overstated the sheer importance of the movement itself. Within the complex and ever evolving policy discourse of energy sustainability and environmentalism, Green Islam provides an alternative within a society that has always had a complex relationship between logical belief in science and a still-strong spiritual population. By utilizing already existing spiritual beliefs with teachings exemplified through environmentalism then only the Indonesian mass can truly understand the importance of such matters. Making environmentalism a part of their daily lives through religion have certainly helped to galvanize support and knowledge on such issues, proven by the fact that most of Indonesia’s conservative population believes the fact that preserving the environment is a moral obligation.
This is not only limited to Islam, rather the religious community as a whole have embraced environmentalism as a fundamental aspect of religion itself. The growth of the so-called “spiritual ecology” movement, a belief that conservation of nature is part of spiritual beliefs and so environmentalism is rooted also in religious beliefs. The movement itself has grown considerably as a form of alternative way in growing environmentalism, especially through religion and spiritual belief. Spiritual ecology has been utilized considerably by leaders from various religions, such as when Pope Francis in 2015 declared in his Encyclical that environmental change needs a moral and spiritual response. It has grown to the point that in recent years, there have emerged several international conferences throughout the world that have regularly met and discussed the merits of environmentalism and even energy transition ideas rooted in spiritual ecology that are participated and led by religious leaders.
Green Islam has proven itself part of a wider phenomenon growing across the world, where movements that were once isolated only in academia or the occasional protest movements can be reached more extensively through embracing a more down to earth approach where it is something that everyone does and believes. In this case, it is religion which serves as a unifying factor on such matters.
