Normativ muslimsk ekoteologi

Abstract

Many Muslim theologians have been engaged in the debate over environmental destruction, global warming, and humanity's role in the emission of greenhouse gases threating the Earth, humanity, and all animal and plant life. One element of the debate in the West has been the role played by Christianity in the environmental and climate crisis. The Christian creation theology, which elevates human beings to lords of creation with sovereignity over the Earth, has been a prominent target of criticism. Its perspective has been accused of conferring legitimacy upon humanity's plundering of nature. A similar viewpoint can be found in the Islamic creation theology, which presents human beings as the supreme creation in whose service God has created everything under the heavens. Muslim ecotheologians reject any criticism of the Islamic creation theology as a contributing factor to the environmental and climate crisis. Rather, they seek the root of these problems in the Western worldview and its anthropocentrism and individualism. Furthermore, the criticism is directed at Cartesian deism, industrialism, colonialism, the capitalist economic system, and, last but not least, the European model's claim to universalism. These are identified as the most important factors that have laid the foundation for a destructive impact on the environment and climate.