Islam

Islam and Ecology

May 7-10, 1998

 

  • Opening Sessions and Plenary Address
  • Science, Environment, and Islam
  • The Creational Balance and Environmental Responsibility
  • Plenary Address
  • Islamic Law and Environmental Ethics within Islam
  • Islamic Principles and the Generation of Wealth
  • Development Models within Islam
  • Women and Ecology in Islam
  • Islamic Aesthetics in the Natural and Constructed Worlds

 

 

Opening Sessions and Plenary Address

Opening Remarks:

Lawrence Sullivan, Director, CSWR,

John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker, Bucknell University/CSWR

Fazlun Khalid, Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences

Presentation on the Earth Charter - Chair - Mary Evelyn Tucker, Project Coordinator, Bucknell University, and Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University, USA

Reflections on the Process and Principles of the Earth Charter - Steven Rockefeller, Middlebury College, Vermont, USA

 

Interdisciplinary Panel:

Chair - John Grim, Project Coordinator, Bucknell University, CSWR, Harvard

Peter Rogers, Environmental Engineering and City Planning, Harvard University

Hynd Bouhia, Division of Engineering and Applied Science, Harvard University

Frederick Denny, University of Colorado/Boulder, USA

 

Plenary Address

Seyyed Hossein Nasr, University Professor of Islamic Studies, George Washington University, Washington, D.C. - The Religious Dimension of the Environmental Crisis - The Case of Islam

 

Opening Welcome

Chair - Kambiz GhaneaBassiri, Fellow, Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University

Ali Asani, Professor of the Practice of Indo-Muslim Language and Culture, Harvard University

 

Science, Environment, and Islam

Chair - Susan Gilson Miller, Associate Director, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University

Azizan Baharuddin, Institute for Policy Research, University of Malaysia - Science, Religion, and Environment - An Islamic Theology of Nature

Muhamad Awang, Dean, Faculty of Science, University Putra Malaysia - Ecophilosophical Development in Malaysia

Zekai Sen, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey - Role of the Environment in Human Faith and Ibn Sina's Perspectives

Ayub Ommaya, M.D., Bethesda, Maryland, USA - Integrating Science and Religion for Global Environmental Security : An Islamic Ecologic Perspective

 

The Creational Balance and Environmental Responsibility

Chair - Shahla Haeri, Anthropology, Boston University, USA

Muhammad Aslam Parvaiz, New Delhi, India - Genetic Engineering, Cloning, and Al-Mizan (The Balance)

Dawud Noibi, IQRA Trust, London, England - The Khalifah and His Trust: An Islamic Perspective on Ecological Responsibility

Saadia Khawar Khan Chishti, Federal Council, Parliament of Pakistan - Islam, Environment, and Sustainable Development

Ibrahim Ozdemir, Faculty of Divinity, Ankara University, Turkey - Toward a Qur'anic Concept of Environmental Ethics

Muhammad Zafar Mahafooz Nomani, Faculty of Law, Aligarh Muslim University, India - Environmental Pollution and Conservation of Ecological Balance - A Search for an Islamic Development Model

 

Plenary Address

Introduction - Tom Kessinger, General Manager, Aga Khan Trust for Culture, Geneva, Switzerland

Hasan-Uddin Khan, Department of Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA - Architecture of Islam - Responsibility and the Natural Environment

 

Islamic Law and Environmental Ethics within Islam

Chair - Roger Owen, Director, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard

Yasin Dutton, Lecturer in Islamic Studies, University of Edinburgh, Scotland - Islamic Law and the Environment

Mohamed Hyder, Emeritus, University of Nairobi, Mombasa, Kenya - Islam and Ecological Conservation - A Dichotomy of Principle and Practice

Hassim Ismail Dockrat, Director, Institute for Human and Enviromental Development, Pretoria, South Africa - Mu'amalat - Religious Behavior and Environmental Concern

Othman Llewellyn, National Commission for Wildlife Conservation and Development, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - The Basis for a Discipline of Islamic Environmental Law

Mawi Izzi Dien, Senior Lecturer in Islamic Studies, University of Wales, UK - The Fracturing of Islamic Social Bonds and Environment

 

Islamic Principles and the Generation of Wealth

Chair - Wolfhart Heinrichs, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization, Harvard University

Nabil Maghrebi, Faculty of Economics, Wakayama University, Japan, with Ronaldo Potmis - Environmental Risks and Financial Returns: Conflicts and Compromises

Fazlun Khalid, Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Birmingham, England - Foundations of Modernity: An Islamic Critique of the Root Causes of Environmental Degradation

Abdul Aziz Said, School of International Service, American University, Washington, D.C. - Peace in Islam - An Ecology of the Spirit

Safei-Eldin Hamed, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Texas Technical University, Lubbock, TX, USA - Towards Environmentally Sustainable Development - An Islamic Approach to Capacity Building

 

Development Models within Islam: Muslim Communities and Environmental Concern

Chair - A. Karim Ahmed, Deputy Director, Health, Environment and Development, World Resources Institute, Washington, D.C.

Abdulaziz H. Abuzinada, Secretary General, National Commission for Wildlife Conservation and Development, Saudi Arabia - Wildlife Conservation and Development in Islamic Society - The Experience of Saudi Arabia

Abu Bakar Abdul Majeed, Institute of Islamic Understanding, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Islam in Malaysia's Planning and Development Policy

Azim Nanji, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA - Reimaging the Environment in African Muslim Contexts

Mohammad Yusuf Siddiq, Islamic Legal Studies Program, Harvard Law School - An Ecological Journey to the Islamic East (Bengal)

Tazim R. Kassam, Department of Religion, The Colorado College, USA - The AKDN's Ethic of Sustainable Development in South Asia

Richard Foltz, Department of Religion, Gettysburg College, USA - Islamic Environmentalism: A Matter of Interpretation

 

Women and Ecology in Islam      

Chair - Nargis Virani, Fellow, Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University

Nawal Ammar, Kent State University, Girard, OH, USA - Ecological Justice and Human Rights for Women in Islam

Tahera Aftab, Professor of History & Director of Women's Studies, University of Karachi, Pakistan, Visiting Professor Gettysburg College - Women and Environmental Projects in Muslim Societies

S. Sabra Bokhari, Basic Education and Literacy, UNESCO, Paris - From Rio to Reality: Religious Perceptions, Cultural Barriers and Economic Factors in Case Studies of Muslim Women of Bangladesh, Egypt, Pakistan, and Senegal

 

Islamic Aesthetics in the Natural and Constructed Worlds

Chair - Alnoor Dhanani, Fellow, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University

Shakeel Hossain, Research Associate, Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, Harvard/MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA - Between Sinful Innovation and the Ethos of the Land: Sacred Traditions and Ritual Art of the Indian Muslims

Ahmad-Mahdavi Damghani, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University /University of Pennsylvania, delivered by Mr. Dara Chafik - Protection of the Environment and Preservation of Natural Resources - A View Through Islamic Primary Texts

S. Nomanul Haq, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA - Nature in the Cosmology of Sufi Poetry and Imagination

Attilo Petruccioli, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA - Nature in Islamic Urbanism: The Garden in Practice and in Metaphor