Indonesia’s Imams Are Doing Their Bit For The Environment

Clerics enjoy the highest level of trust among the population

Jakarta is constantly under aquatic assault, from above and below. Last month three pupils
died when their school collapsed amid a downpour. In 2020 the worst deluge in over a
decade killed dozens and displaced nearly 400,000 people. With 13 rivers flowing through it,
the Indonesian capital has always flooded. But the frequency and severity of floods is
growing. Parts of the city are sinking into the sea at a rate of 25cm (ten inches) each year.

A similar story is unfolding in other parts of Indonesia. Floods displaced over 600,000
people in the archipelagic country last year. The World Bank warns that up to 4.2m
Indonesians could be exposed to permanent flooding by the end of the century. In the drier
seasons, droughts cause forest fires, threatening Indonesia’s 94m hectares (230m acres) of
forest.

Yet a country so exposed to the dangers of climate change is also a hotbed of climate
denialism. A recent YouGov-Cambridge poll found that 13% of Indonesians say climate
change is not caused by humans, just a shade less than the proportion in America.
Indonesia’s imams, part of the influential Islamic establishment, want to change that. In July
the country’s top Islamic representatives gathered at Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta to establish
the Muslim Congress for a Sustainable Indonesia, a forum for co-ordinating Islamic
environmental activism among clerics, teachers, academics and politicians.

Nasaruddin Umar, Istiqlal’s grand imam, declared at the gathering that a mosque should be
a place to “green the mind and the heart”. He has started by installing solar panels and
water-recycling systems in his own mosque. Another 1,000 mosques will be fitted with solar
panels and smart energy meters. Istiqlal is part of a growing movement. In 2018 Nahdlatul
Ulama, Indonesia’s largest Islamic organisation, launched a series of sermons on waste and
recycling. Muhammadiyah, the second-largest such body, created a programme to teach its
imams to become “environmental preachers”.

The Indonesian Ulema Council (mui), the top body of religious scholars, is also involved.
Over the past decade it has issued a series of fatwas, or non-binding legal opinions, to
promote green causes. In 2011 it declared environmentally destructive mining operations
forbidden under Islamic law. Three years later it banned the killing of endangered species.
In 2016 it condemned slash-and-burn farming practices as haram (proscribed by Islamic
law).

Indonesia is officially a secular country. But its clerics wield serious clout. A survey in 2020
by Katadata Insight Centre, a local research firm, found that Indonesians place the highest
level of trust in information from religious institutions. Imams have sought to convert that
trust into political power. Ma’ruf Amin, Indonesia’s vice-president, was personally involved
in drafting and defending the environmental fatwas as an mui leader. He still gives green
sermons from his political perch.
Indonesia’s pesantrens, or Islamic boarding schools, have become testing grounds for what
some call the eco-Islam movement. Around 4m pupils study in these schools. Alumni often
go on to lead important religious and political institutions. At Darul Ulum, a pesantren in
Java, teachers tell stories of the Prophet Muhammad planting trees and protecting wildlife.
Students must plant a tree (among other things) to graduate.

Clerics have also been active in finance. They helped design Indonesia’s “green sukuk”, or
green bonds. To comply with sharia prohibitions on usury, these instruments involve direct
ownership of assets rather than interest-bearing debt. Since 2018 Indonesia has issued nearly
$3bn of these Islamic bonds, which fund renewable-energy and climate-adaptation projects.

Indonesia is the world’s fifth-largest carbon emitter, and its economy depends on exporting
coal and palm oil, two highly polluting industries. The country’s transition to a clean
economy will be long and difficult. Its imams are keen to help accelerate that shift. (Diakses
pada 10/11/2022, 01.47 WIB)