... of environmental degradation.
Huh?
A class of madrassahs (called a "pesantren") in Indonesia uses Islamic principles to teach environmental conservationism. Sure, you must be thinking, this is some glitzy, new age PR by Jihadists hoping to win over Greenpeace types.
One such institution, however, is Pesantren Guluk-Guluk, also called Al Nuqayah, which was established in 1887 -- more than a century before the invention of powerpoint presentations, let alone the greening of Al Gore. Its founders recognized that many social problems came from the island's poor ecology.
Respect for the environment arose both out of ethics and necessity. Indonesian Muslims, like the Muslims of the prophet's times, lived in environs where the state of nature was close to people's lives, an essential part of survival and important spiritually.
Saleem Ali, associate dean of graduate studies at the Rubenstein School for the Environment at the University of Vermont, said "There is a reverence of nature that stems from essential pragmatism within the faith."
