Green Muslims

Islamic Foundation receives award for joining the greening spaces program thanks to the youths
I drive by these days seeing David Suzuki lying under a bus seat with a huge glue-gun and an even huger smile and I say ‘what a guy!’ Well who isn’t inspired by this father of the greenies? Last Saturday, April 12th 2008, I was even more inspired and so over 150 others at the U of T by the eloquent, erudite and committed Fr. Giorgio Di Ciccco as he cared for these attentive flowers in his garden of Ecology of the Heart, during his opening key note speech.

Hosted by Faith and the Common Good environmental organization, this one day "Greening Sacred Spaces Forum" afforded, easily, the various faith leaders and concerned citizens, from both urban and rural GTA, great motivation and insight to make their places of worship energy efficient and in turn for them to join the movement of saving our God-given planet.

Fr. Di Cicco, author of twenty odd books, including Municipal Mind, reminded the attendees that we are not independent of each other but dependent and therefore it's our loving duty to save the earth.
Among the workshops offered were: how to get funding for greening one's holy sanctuary, understanding the concept of spirituality in the eco-movement, renewable energy, organic gardening, sealing old roofs, green interior decor, etc
No doubt our duty to saving this planet goes way beyond walking to work and eating organic. It rather includes important questions about carbon emissions and globalization, legislation and education. But with single drop after drop an ocean is built and as we say in Guyana “one-one duty ah build dam”- it takes one brick at a time to construct a highway.
As Dr Ted Reeve, Director for this non profit organization aptly puts it: “To engage in the radical discipline of seeing deep beauty in changing seasons, the love in people’s faces, each interdependent element of creation, is to walk differently in the world. I find this profoundly challenging as I rush from one To Do, to the next. Yet, when I remember to focus on beauty my attitude shifts and I engage the world in a more loving way.”
Among the places of worship recognized for doing something positive about greening their space was the United Church of Parkdale and Islamic Foundation, Toronto.

As Muslims we are already chosen to help for Allah called humans Khalifa- one who succeeds and inherits and one who ensures that the heirloom remains safe and intact in order to pass it to the next in line.