“Muslim Environmentalisms and Environmental Ethics: Theory and Practice for Rights and Justice”

Abstract

This presentation was the Biennial Willem A. Bijlefeld Lecture at Hartford International University in 2023. Muslim religious responses to environmental change highlight the importance of multispecies perspectives, rights of nature and environmental justice. These areas are also the most central to the development of current environmental engagement and advocacy. Muslim moral teachings and praxis of the past and present in just these areas are communal in focus, blend law and ethics around rights‐based notions, and they also scale horizons meaningfully in the area of justice. Additionally, relative autonomy from post‐Christian philosophical tradition allows such Muslim perspectives to re‐ground to ethics away from investments in neoliberal and colonial heritage. Islamic theory and practice addressing concerns at the forefront of environmental studies thereby shape the future of environmental ethics beyond the Anthropocene.