Last Sunday, Compass asked a number of religious leaders and one Muslim identity to discuss their thoughts on the coming federal election.
Geraldine Doogue
Imam Ali, what do you believe are the major moral issues to be addressed in this campaign?Imam Afroz Ali
The issue of climate change is a moral issue. I think I’m quoting Al Gore there. That it’s not a political matter. It’s a moral matter. And we need to return to understanding what the environment is. What is the environment? Why does it exist? Do we use it until the last drop of water on earth? Is that how it is? Is there a cross generational responsibility?
It’s interesting to note that the other religious representatives made similar points. And recently the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils were calling on the government to:
Ensure Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions peak and begin to decline in the next five years, set a long term reduction target of at least 60-90% below 1990 levels by 2050 and a pathway of strong interim targets to meet that long term target.
Is this a “major moral issue” for religious figures to be speaking out about? Or is it, as Frank Furedi wrote recently in Spiked Online:
These days, moralisers find it easier to make people feel guilty about their impact on the environment than about committing one of the seven deadly sins. Not surprisingly, many religious institutions are busy reinventing themselves by promoting ecological virtues and preaching against the eco-sins of polluters.
On occasions, the attempt to recycle traditional theological concerns in a green form becomes a caricature of itself. In August, Dom Anthony Sutch, a Benedictine monk, announced that he would hear eco-confessions of sins against the environment at the Waveney Greenpeace festival, in a confessional booth carefully constructed from recycled materials. The good monk clearly practices what he preaches. He tries ‘very hard’ to live a green lifestyle and is proud of his principal achievement – reducing his electricity bill by 30 per cent. This mock ritual is unlikely to offer penitents’ salvation or redemption, but their ‘awareness’ will be raised. And these days being ‘aware’ is recognised as akin to being virtuous.
9 comments ↓
Replying in point form, because I can.
1. It’s common knowledge that to be a cool and progressive religious leader, you must be on the global warming bandwagon.
2. Given that global warming is still the subject of scientific debate, it is quite the leap to treat it as a moral issue. No offense to Al Gore who did, after all, invent the Internets, without which we would not be conversing right now.
3. Even if we concede that global warming is in fact a moral issue, it is hardly major when compared to supporting dictatorships, for example.
Oh, for crying out loud!!! I think the kind of cynicism expressed in Spiked is henious. Global warming is THE issue of our time. That the chattering classes need to debate this is, in my view, symptomatic of why we got into this pickle in the first place. As my best mate’s mum use to say, they need a damn good whacking!
In order for global warming to be a moral issue, it must be proven that it’s entirely man-made and the jury is still out on that one.
But let’s assume it is man-made. Then these religious leaders have to prove that the problem should be addressed or can be addressed by government. Faith in global warming might be misplaced but it’s even more misplaced to think that the government can somehow just magically solve it.
Did they give out the title of “Imam” at a raffle or something? Since when is Afroz Ali an imam?
Did you read the rest of the interview? Afroz “Our Farmers are Suffering” Ali eloquently defines what it means to be Australian.
“Losing Australian-ness means that we are becoming slaves to the economy. We are becoming influenced by other nations when Australia is fully capable of making its own decisions for its own people for its own good. We have an indigenous population that needs to be looked after, that needs to be learnt from, and we have an environmental problem in our own country. Our farmers are suffering. These are very Australian values that we need to uphold.”
Gold.
what the? Imams speaking out about social sustainability and the looking after the planet (our trust) as a religious obligation?? outrageous. they should go back to making people feel guilty and penitent about important things like sexual immodesty and listening to bad pop music.
They “speak out” about it but none of the imams have a solution to the problem, do they? It’s just vague and vacuous calls for the government to “do sumfin”.
Of course global warming is a religious issue!
Here is a wonderful presentation from Imam Afroz on the reality of Peak Oil that I encourage everyone to look at.
Global Climate Change is about as a done deal as there is in science. 900 collated peer-reviewed studies arrived at the conclusion that 90% of the change was caused by human activity. The only “debate” being offered is by biostitues hired by the energy industry.
And the ever shrinking ice caps give a lie to the “no warming going on here” meme. So forgive me if we might think that whole patches of land going under the waves might be a problem. Bangladesh is getting double hammered as it is slowly going under water and is getting hit by fiercer and more frequent cyclones. Katrina was just a taste of coming attractions.
So as a matter of life or death to the human race, there might be something a good Iman might want to say about Global Climate Change.
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