Long term plan
In November 2009 the Muslims launched their Seven Year Plan to protect the living planet. Amongst more than 30 faith plans they celebrated the launch at Windsor Castle in the presence of HRH The Prince Philip, founder of ARC, and UN Secretary General Mr Ban Ki-moon who, during his speech, reminded the faith representatives that "You can, and do, inspire people to change".
There are 1.4 billion Muslims worldwide. In Istanbul in July 2009, more than 50 religious scholars from across the Muslim world endorsed this long term plan for action on climate change. This support was led by Dr Youssef Al Qaradawi, the President of the International Union of Muslim Scholars.
The MACCA Seven Year Plan
It was agreed to establish an umbrella organisation, the Muslim Association for Climate Change Action (MACCA), to manage and implement a seven year climate change plan. The MACCA Seven Year Plan includes aims to:
- Work towards printing all 15 million Qur’ans produced every year, on paper from sustainable wood supplies.
- Establish Islamic labels for different products. This would be an Islamic environmental labelling system with strict authenticity standards.
- Work towards a ‘Green Hajj’ with the Saudi Minister of the Hajj. Aim to have the Hajj free of plastic bottles after two years and introduce environmentally friendly initiatives over the next five to ten years to transform the Hajj into a recognised environmentally- friendly pilgrimage.
- Develop two to three Muslim cities as ‘green cities’ which can act as a role model for greening other Islamic cities. Madinah is the first to be chosen for this initiative.
- Make more material on the conservation of the environment available to places of Islamic learning, focusing on the training of imams and in schools and develop guidebooks for teachers in primary, middle and secondary schools over the next three years.
- Develop a best practice environment guide for businesses.
- Apply environmental principles in the publication of the Qur’an. Work towards printing a ‘green Qur’an’ on paper that comes from sustainable wood supplies.
- Re-introduce Islamic rituals from an environmental perspective. Use the Hajj season to distribute these ideas and the Friday Khotbas.
- Establish a special TV channel for Islam and the environment to be broadcast in different languages.
- Develop an international prize for research related to environmental conservation.
Links:
Full list of 31 faith plans
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