therealnews--2020-12-14--Faith and the fight against climate change, Part 1

In a society increasingly driven by science and technology , world religions and the communities they inspire remain a vast and rock-solid political force .
Going by the numbers alone , Pew Research Center estimated in 2015 that there were over 5 billion people of faith in our contemporary world , belonging to Christianity , Islam , Hinduism , Buddhism , and other faith-based cosmologies , including Indigenous and Native belief systems .
Despite their outsized influence on so many aspects of our personal , social , and political lives , however , religious thinking and morality have struggled to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ number of critical issues confronting our world today , including climate change and environmental justice , consumer capitalism , and solidarity struggles .
In this four-part series , host and climate correspondent Aman Azhar shines a light on how faith-based cosmologies inform and influence our political conduct , even in the most intimate of ways .
These interdisciplinary conversations with thought leaders from different faith groups explore the intersections of religion and the politics of climate change .
What sort of political actions do—and can—these worldviews inspire ?
Do the gods and followers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have a say in the future of our warming planet ?
If the answer is a resounding “ Yes , ” then why can ’ t we hear their voices more in popular media ?
Have they been muted ?
If so , why ( and by whom ) ?
In the first interview of this four-part series , Aman Azhar talks to Abdul Rehman Malik of Yale Divinity School about how Muslim belief systems interact with climate discourse—and what counsel Islam has to offer its adherents on caring for the planet .

In a society increasingly driven by science and technology, world religions and the communities they inspire remain a vast and rock-solid political force. Going by the numbers alone, Pew Research Center estimated in 2015 that there were over 5 billion people of faith in our contemporary world, belonging to Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and other faith-based cosmologies, including Indigenous and Native belief systems. Despite their outsized influence on so many aspects of our personal, social, and political lives, however, religious thinking and morality have struggled to gain a foothold in debates over a number of critical issues confronting our world today, including climate change and environmental justice, consumer capitalism, and solidarity struggles.
In this four-part series, host and climate correspondent Aman Azhar shines a light on how faith-based cosmologies inform and influence our political conduct, even in the most intimate of ways. These interdisciplinary conversations with thought leaders from different faith groups explore the intersections of religion and the politics of climate change. What sort of political actions do—and can—these worldviews inspire? Do the gods and followers of Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism have a say in the future of our warming planet? If the answer is a resounding “Yes,” then why can’t we hear their voices more in popular media? Have they been muted? If so, why (and by whom)?
In the first interview of this four-part series, Aman Azhar talks to Abdul Rehman Malik of Yale Divinity School about how Muslim belief systems interact with climate discourse—and what counsel Islam has to offer its adherents on caring for the planet.
Studio: Tunde Ogunfolaju
Post-Production: Sebastian Pituscan
Transcript
Aman Azhar: Hello, and welcome to Real News Network. I’m your host, Aman Azhar, and my guest this time around is Mr. Abdul Rehman Malik. He’s a lecturer at Yale’s Divinity school and has a keen eye on interfaith responses to the climate justice issues of our time. Thank you, Mr. Malik, for your time today on Real News Network.
Abdul Rehman Malik: Aman, it’s good to be here with you.
Aman Azhar: Now let me fire away with my question. How central is the climate justice issue to the communities of faith? And of course, I mean the major world religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Abdul Rehman Malik: I think it’s an important question and I think it has to be answered in a number of different ways. I think first we have to think about the ways in which religious institutions, particularly churches and the networks that are built around them have been responding to the issue of the climate emergency. And I think when I think about that, the first thing that comes to my mind is Pope Francis’ Laudato si, this very important document on preserving the environment, that’s come from the head of the largest Christian community in the world. So clearly in certain religious institutions and certain major world traditions, there’s been an increased importance around the climate emergency and around environmental protection.
I think the question for us is often where does the rubber hit the road? How important are conversations around climate justice and the climate emergency? And what is happening to the natural world are part and parcel of the conversations that are taking place within communities. And I think here the ground is a lot more sketchy and actually is a lot more nuanced. I think, particularly in Muslim communities, what I’ve been seeing, not only over the last five years, but probably over the last 25 years, is an increasing concern amongst scholars, religious leaders, and actually the development of organizations and spaces where scholars and religious leaders are talking more and more about the obligation that people of faith have to ensure that the earth is protected and that we make significant changes of human behavior that will circumvent our abuse of the abuse of the planet.
And within the Muslim tradition, this goes right back 30 or 40 years. And if you look at the work of scholars, like Seyyed Nasr, professor emeritus at George Washington University, he was calling to question the tenets of scientism, the tenets of inexorable human progress way back in the 1960s and ’70s, when he was writing about these issues through the lens of Islamic spirituality and Islamic mysticism. So I think actually the terrain, Aman, is far more complicated than it first seems. And I think a lot of the ways in which these issues have been framed for a lot of us have been through conservative Christian churches who are seen as God’s voice on capitalism and inexorable economic progress. And I think as we begin to look at various faith traditions and the plurality of voices of those traditions and the complexity of those traditions, we find a lot more nuance in the way in which this is being addressed.
Aman Azhar: Right. Well, I agree that this terrain is quite complex in itself, and there are many nuances, but here we are yet in the middle of a pandemic, which in so many ways can be linked back to the manmade or human made interventions in the name of development and other extractive practices. So, what went wrong? Are these just voices and not too much of an action?
Abdul Rehman Malik: Yeah, I wonder. Again, it’s a fascinating question. To what extent do faith traditions and faith guidance influence the way in which we behave in the world, particularly in relation to the natural environment? I’ll answer that in one of two ways. I think that, I mean, there is dilemmas. As a journalist who covers the climate emergency and responses to it, you know how much it takes to move human behavior, how much it takes to move individual human behavior, and let alone the important work of moving institutions and moving structures of power and privilege along this spectrum to addressing climate emergency. I think religious communities are no different than that. I think in some ways, faith communities have paid lip service to these things. They sound good in sermons and in [hut-bahs 00:05:18] and in epistles from the pulpit or the minbar, but actually when it comes to the bonafide human changes that we need to take place, we’re as capitalist as anyone else.
What I see happening, particularly in the global South, in places like Indonesia, where I’ve spent a lot of time, is something different going on because the climate emergency in those particular places is acute. What we’re seeing is religious leadership institutions and bodies engaging far more robustly with climate activists and with policy makers, because it’s a matter now of life and death. In a city like Jakarta, which you and I know is literally sinking into the ocean, and potentially tens of millions of lives are at risk, I think what we’re looking at is major Islamic organizations like the Nahdlatul Ulama, the largest Muslim organization in Indonesia, the Al Muhammadiyah organization actually issuing fatwas about behavior vis-a-vis the environment. In places where there has been over fishing, for instance, in places where there has been deforestation, you now see Ulama religious scholars uniting with indigenous and local communities to actually create action, not just ideas and theology, but action in terms of protecting those places.
An interesting organization, the Islamic Foundation for the Environment and Ecological Science, IFEES, started a program many years ago on the east coast of Africa, looking at the problem of over fishing. And what they were finding was that fishermen often who are at very difficult economic circumstances were using TNT and dynamite on coral reefs to basically blow them apart, and they would pick up the fish who had passed away. It was actually the intervention of local religious leaders that stopped that from happening. So I think there’s parts of the world where we’re finding a far more robust engagement on the ground in terms of practical action. I also think that there is the growing development of a kind of a theological terrain. I think in the Christian tradition, there’s well-established now fields of what we would call ecological or environmental theology, even climate theology that are being developed.
Aman Azhar: Right. Right. But I guess the question then becomes, in the time of pandemic, which is as a close as you can get to an emergency all around the world, including the United States, yet do you see any articulation from the standpoint that you are talking about that this is also very closely linked to the human intervention and all the extractive practices? I don’t hear that voice in the mainstream media. Do you?
Abdul Rehman Malik: I don’t hear it in the mainstream media, which is why we’re on the Real News Network right now, because I think what we’re finding is, is that in the mainstream, not only are these voices marginalized, but these voices are often ignored. This Ramadan, for instance, which as you know, has been such an unusual Ramadan. Ramadan is a time of community, a time of people coming together in service, in fasting together and breaking our fast. So much of Ramadan is around community, isn’t it? However, given that this Ramadan has been so unusual and so and so different, and we’ve been called to become much more internal in many ways than connect with our families. There’s been a proliferation of programming online, as you can imagine, as people try to connect the virtual community.
One of the popular and important programs that has been taking place has been out of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and the Cambridge Muslim College, which is an emerging seminary institution, has actually been highlighting these issues through the work of its Dean, Dr. Tim Winter, also known as Shaykh Hakim Murad. And actually it’s interesting because Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad, Dr. Tim Winter in the lead up to Ramadan issued a really important almost manifesto around a theological understanding of the pandemic, and core to that was issues around climate emergency. Core to that was issues around human consumption. Core to that was a deep questioning of the systems and the ways in which we act as humans in the world in an extractive and exploitative way.
So what I’m seeing happening is, is that not only are those ideas emerging, I think they’re emerging in a way to suggest that they are core and fundamental to our religious traditions. And it is vital at this time to recapture that ethical and moral core, which speaks to our relationship with creation. I mean, I think as someone who’s engaged at times, and more than engaged, learned from indigenous communities in Canada, where I’m originally from, we often with indigenous communities and in that language speak about the earth as our mother, which I’ve always found an incredibly emotive way of seeing our relationship with the earth. But I have to go back into my own tradition. And I find that when the prophet Muhammad spoke about the earth, he says, “Preserve the earth because the earth is your mother.” So these are shared values across broad cross sections of not just monotheistic traditions, but of faith itself.
Aman Azhar: Right. Which actually brings me to the question I’ve been meaning to ask you. Does faith have much of a pull on its followers in this day and age, given all the competition from Amazon, from Netflix, from buying things, from visiting places, having a good time? I mean, especially when you look at the younger generations.
Abdul Rehman Malik: Yeah. I mean, there’s a constant tension, constant battle. There was a point at some point where people thought faith would disappear. I spent 15 years in the United Kingdom and was deeply engaged in the secular non-secular controversies of modern day Europe. The fact is faith is not disappearing. Faith and faith identity continues to remain vitally important for billions of people on the planet, even in the heart of the “secular West”. We only have to see this in the case of the United States, as an example of that. In places like Europe, of course, the revival of faith in the public square has really been through the emergence of robust dynamic Muslim communities who mitigate against the atomized capitalist Christianity that surrounds them.
Is faith important? I think it is. I think faith identity continues to remain important. And especially, Aman, in a time when certain faith identities are highly politicized, I speak about things like the Muslim ban, rising Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, rising anti-immigrant feeling connected to rising Islamophobia. This kind of political situation is going to create an environment, a terrain if you will, where people are going to express their faith identities more and more. Now for some people, that faith identity isn’t going to be religious. It’s going to be around Muslimness. It’s going to be around holding to a certain type of culture, but I’m not one of those people who likes to categorize those things. I see faith and culture as these ecosystems where a lot is happening. Muslimness is as important to those for whom Muslimness is important.
And I think we’re reaching a point when it comes to the issue of the climate emergency, where we need all hands on deck. We need religious institutions, we need scholarship, we need faith inspired and faith based civil society action. And I think what we’re seeing is more and more, whether it’s the faith climate action weeks that have taken place all around the world, whether it’s the interfaith summit on climate change that’s happened, whether it’s the representation of faith communities during the broader climate summits that are taking place, or it’s the local actions that multi-faith communities are taking place, faith is a powerful source of not only solidarity, but a powerful source of organization.
Aman Azhar: Okay. So could you tell me if there’s a worthwhile effort or efforts on part of the faith or interfaith communities in the United States that are putting their weight behind the movement for climate justice?
Abdul Rehman Malik: Interfaith Peace and Light, which is a really interesting climate organization, IPL, has been doing some important work around this. The Faith Climate Action week, which they sponsor, is an opportunity for faith communities across the United States to come together. A lot of the major humanitarian organizations, and on the Muslim side of the equation, those are organizations like Islamic Relief, have at their core now advocacy around climate change and are engaged in that conversation, and in fact are engaged in humanitarian work, which now takes into account issues around the climate emergency. When I was in the United Kingdom, for instance, I was involved in, at that time the first interfaith effort around climate change, which involve organizations like Islamic Relief, Christian Aid, the largest Christian inspired humanitarian organization in the UK. And it was a coming together not only faith leaders, but young people and people from communities around this issue.
Does more need to happen? Absolutely it does. Here in the United States, we’re lucky. I’ve been seeing particularly this Ramadan an incredible emergence of locally organized online efforts, Green Muslims, Green Deen, the excellent book and work by Ibrahim Abdul-Matin called Green Deen has been the catalyst for a number of community actions around the climate emergency. I think we’ve got to see this whole thing, and particularly the movement around the climate emergency, we have to see ourselves as a broad church, so to speak, or a broad synagogue or a big temple, where a whole variety of voices have to be engaged. You know, Aman, I think where the real work has to be done, if there’s work that has to be done, it has to be done amongst the influential evangelical Christian organizations in the United States, places where things like the prosperity gospel reign supreme, where the church itself supports mass consumption, where somehow religiosity and Christian identity is tied to capitalism. I think that’s where a lot of the work at this country needs to be done. And there are important movements that are doing that work.
Aman Azhar: Right, right. And yet when we go to polls and when we look at the candidates and we look at the political discourse from one end of the spectrum to the other, we don’t find much of the candidates, neither Republican nor Democrats, to really talk about going green or conservation practices, anything that can bring a cut to this unreal consumption. Why is it that? Are these two disconnected discourses, one on the ground and one in the power quarters?
Abdul Rehman Malik: I mean, I think that there is that disconnect. And I think we have to ask candidates from all sides of the political spectrum why this is important. I think we saw in Bernie’s campaign and other campaigns a strong centering of issues around the climate emergency. In some ways, Aman, this pandemic moment is such a confusing moment, isn’t it? Because I think what’s happening is, is that right now in terms of economic devastation, in terms of the fact that we have 40 million people in this country who are now unemployed, the fact that the people who are most at risk of getting the novel coronavirus are people of color and marginalized people who have no choice but to work in dangerous jobs, raises all kinds of issues around personal survival in our most marginalized and segregated communities.
In many ways, this is a challenge for the climate movement. Isn’t it? How do we not only acknowledge, but work for economic justice while working for climate justice? And the truth is that, and the people who are leading this movement know it, economic justice, justice for the global South, is deeply tied to climate justice. A weaning ourselves off extractive economic practices and developing new forms of economic wellbeing are vital to this work. And it’s true. I think we are living in a time where the political will behind this has decreased because of the emergency that we’re in. The question for me, as someone who engages in faith and faith communities, is how can we as faith communities be a catalyst to bring these issues back into the center? And I think that comes from speaking maybe in some ways, at times in a risky way, speaking about these things holistically, that we cannot separate out climate emergency from economic justice. We can’t separate economic justice from racial segregation and racial injustice. And none of that can be separated from institutional violence against people of color and those who are marginalized.
Aman Azhar: Right. The question also is, do we really need religion to tell us something as basic as caring for the planet?
Abdul Rehman Malik: I mean, we clearly do and we clearly don’t. Our faith traditions, whether you’re a believer or not is irrelevant. Our faith traditions, and I say faith traditions in the broadest possible way, not merely in an Abrahamic way, I’m talking about indigenous traditions, I’m talking about Vedic traditions, I’m talking about Abrahamic traditions, I’m talking about tribal [inaudible 00:20:19] traditions. Faith is a repository of human wisdom that takes us back thousands and tens of thousands of years into our humanity. What we need now is for our faith to be wisdom traditions. My friend and mentor, the late [Fahad Al Nahdi 00:20:38], who passed away of COVID-19, just as the pandemic was beginning, had an incredible phrase, which he used to use and which I come back to. He talked about the need in this time of fragmentation and this time of emergency. He said, “We need convergence, not conversion.”
The goal of faith now is faith to animate us to action. Why? Because we need to converge. We need to converge together in terms of dealing with this. So, is faith needed? For some it’s not, but I would say that we ignore faith at our peril. We ignore the wisdom tradition. We ignore the powerful, ethical, moral frameworks that faith gives us. And faith has been an animating force, and it is the time that that force be animated for good. And I think in that way, Pope Francis is very early intervention in his papacy on this issue, the Laudato si, was so vital. You read the Laudato si, it is a manifesto clarion call to action for people of faith to jump deeply into the work of repairing the planet. And why I raise Pope Francis again is that often it is these large religious institutions who we are deeply and appropriately critical of, but there are times when those very institutions and their ability to move people is actually exactly what we need.
Aman Azhar: Right. Well, which also brings me to my last question on that point, and which is that and yet we find ourselves in the middle of a catastrophe, a catastrophe which is propelled also by our extractive practices and increasing deforestation. So in retrospect, do you think that the organized religions have failed us in the manner that they have historically put their weight behind such extractive practices?
Abdul Rehman Malik: I think some organizations have failed us. I think institutions like the church have failed us, and those religious institutions which have supported imperialist exploitation, extraction, that have taught the prosperity gospel, I think they have failed us indeed. The failure of certain interpretations of religion doesn’t mean that I and so many others are willing to throw the baby out with the bath water. Aman, I feel like I’m incredibly pragmatic about this. I think the pragmatism of the moment right now is that we need to create as many linkages as we can, as many possibilities as we can for people to engage. And if that means calling on the divine, and that is the way that we are moved by it, and certainly that’s the way in my own faith practice I am moved by it, deeply moved by it.
I see it at a place like Yale Divinity School, an incredibly progressive institution with incredible young people who are going to go out into not only the work of ministry, but are actually going to go out into the work of non-profits and public service. I see them being animated by faith, and animated by faith in a way that’s not merely parochial and tribal, but they see the work as being the work of connectors. And the best of religion that I’ve seen from the work of chaplains and community activists and incredible individuals who are doing incredible work out there is that the best of them are those who want to connect with others. And I think definitely the growing interfaith work and consensus around this issue is vital. I think the real rubber, and you were right to mention it, when the rubber hits the road, it is really about how that changes our behavior.
But I also caution about that. And I recently was speaking to a student about this and she had written a very provocative and exciting paper on Slavic theological approaches to personal responsibility for the environment. One of the things that I didn’t push back on, but I wanted to put into the equation of that particular conversation was we, as individuals, can take action, but you and I know that these are systems and institutions that are exploitative and extractive. You and I can do what we need to do, reduce our consumption, reduce our carbon footprint. That is the right moral and ethical thing to do. I totally agree. However, where are we in pushing our governments and our policy? Because that’s where the problem is. The problem is in policy and state driven policy. The problem is in our support for corporate entities that do the extraction. It’s in removing environmental safeguards, as governments are doing today. That is the real issue. Isn’t it?
These are big systemic issues. And I think this is one of the challenges of the climate movement. How do we move the needle on these massive systemic issues which are causing catastrophe, while at the same time taking personal responsibility?
Aman Azhar: Right. Yeah. Which brings us back also to the point that we discussed earlier in this conversation about the disconnect between a grassroots movement and the political structures on top of it. Well, that brings us to the end of this conversation. Let me thank you, Mr. Abdul Rehman Malik, for taking out time, speaking with us in such a holistic manner and telling us about shedding light on the matter of faith as they’re tying to the climate justice issues in the United States and the rest of the world. Also, thank you, thanks to the audience for tuning in. If you want to look us up, we’re at therealnews.com. For myself and the rest of the team, for now it’s goodbye and be well.
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therealnews--2020-12-15--Proud Boys run wild while police stand by (again)

Far-right Trump supporters affiliated with the Proud Boys brought mayhem to D.C. and several other cities this week , resulting @ @ @ @ @ , and the vandalizing of multiple churches .
Predictably , police showed more restraint than @ @ @ @ @ left-wing demonstrators .
Journalist Chuck Modiano , editor and founder of Black House News Sean @ @ @ @ @ photographer Shauna Sowersby , and a representative from Independent Media PDX join us for the @ @ @ @ @ 15 .

Far-right Trump supporters affiliated with the Proud Boys brought mayhem to D.C. and several other cities this week, resulting in stabbings, a shooting, and the vandalizing of multiple churches. Predictably, police showed more restraint than they have routinely shown toward left-wing demonstrators.
Journalist Chuck Modiano, editor and founder of Black House News Sean Michael Love, reporter and photographer Shauna Sowersby, and a representative from Independent Media PDX join us for the discussion on Tuesday, Dec. 15.
Studio: Dwayne Gladden
Production: Genevieve Montinar
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therealnews--2020-12-16--What a radical basketball coach looks like; Kamilah Forbes brings Ta-Nehisi Coates’s words to life

Marc Steiner , interim co-Editor at TRNN , is a Peabody Award-winning journalist who has spent his life working on @ @ @ @ @ He walked his first picket line at age 13 and at age 16 became the @ @ @ @ @ for Civil Rights protests , in the Freedom Rides through Cambridge .
As part of @ @ @ @ @ Campaign in 1968 , Marc helped organize poor white communities with the Young Patriots , @ @ @ @ @ the Black Panthers .
Early in his career he counseled at-risk youth in therapeutic settings @ @ @ @ @ in the Maryland State prison system .
He also taught Theatre for 10 years at @ @ @ @ @ Arts .
From 1993 through 1997 his signature “ Marc Steiner Show ” aired on @ @ @ @ @ airwaves , both WYPR – which Marc co-founded – and Morgan State University ’ s @ @

Host, The Marc Steiner Show
Marc Steiner is the host of "The Marc Steiner Show" on TRNN. He is a Peabody Award-winning journalist who has spent his life working on social justice issues. He walked his first picket line at age 13, and at age 16 became the youngest person in Maryland arrested at a civil rights protest during the Freedom Rides through Cambridge. As part of the Poor People’s Campaign in 1968, Marc helped organize poor white communities with the Young Patriots, the white Appalachian counterpart to the Black Panthers. Early in his career he counseled at-risk youth in therapeutic settings and founded a theater program in the Maryland State prison system. He also taught theater for 10 years at the Baltimore School for the Arts. From 1993-2018 Marc's signature “Marc Steiner Show” aired on Baltimore’s public radio airwaves, both WYPR—which Marc co-founded—and Morgan State University’s WEAA.
marc@therealnews.com
@marcsteiner


therealnews--2020-12-16--Faith and the fight against climate change, Part 2

In a society increasingly driven by science and technology , world religions and the communities they inspire remain a vast and rock-solid political force .
Going by the numbers alone , Pew Research Center estimated in 2015 that there were over 5 billion people of faith in our contemporary world , belonging to Christianity , Islam , Hinduism , Buddhism , and other faith-based cosmologies , including Indigenous and Native belief systems .
Despite their outsized influence on so many aspects of our personal , social , and political lives , however , religious thinking and morality have struggled to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ number of critical issues confronting our world today , including climate change and environmental justice , consumer capitalism , and solidarity struggles .
In this four-part series , host and climate correspondent Aman Azhar shines a light on how faith-based cosmologies inform and influence our political conduct , even in the most intimate of ways .
These interdisciplinary conversations with thought leaders from different faith groups explore the intersections of religion and the politics of climate change .
What sort of political actions do—and can—these worldviews inspire ?
Do the gods and followers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have a say in the future of our warming planet ?
If the answer is a resounding “ Yes , ” then why can ’ t we hear their voices more in popular media ?
Have they been muted ?
If so , why ( and by whom ) ?
In Part 2 of this four-part series on interfaith approaches to climate change , Aman Azhar talks to Stephanie Kaza , educator and author of several books , including “ Green Buddhism ” and “ Mindfully Green.
” Besides exploring what personal and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fix our contemporary problems , such as climate crisis and runaway consumerism , this conversation also foregrounds the atrocious acts of violence against the ethnic Rohingya population in Myanmar—a Buddhist majority country .
Set against this brutal political reality , Aman Azhar engages with Stephanie Kaza to ascertain if Buddhism as a political thought is in crisis , and whether it still holds any promise for our hyper-modern and gravely unequal world .

In a society increasingly driven by science and technology, world religions and the communities they inspire remain a vast and rock-solid political force. Going by the numbers alone, Pew Research Center estimated in 2015 that there were over 5 billion people of faith in our contemporary world, belonging to Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and other faith-based cosmologies, including Indigenous and Native belief systems. Despite their outsized influence on so many aspects of our personal, social, and political lives, however, religious thinking and morality have struggled to gain a foothold in debates over a number of critical issues confronting our world today, including climate change and environmental justice, consumer capitalism, and solidarity struggles.
In this four-part series, host and climate correspondent Aman Azhar shines a light on how faith-based cosmologies inform and influence our political conduct, even in the most intimate of ways. These interdisciplinary conversations with thought leaders from different faith groups explore the intersections of religion and the politics of climate change. What sort of political actions do—and can—these worldviews inspire? Do the gods and followers of Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism have a say in the future of our warming planet? If the answer is a resounding “Yes,” then why can’t we hear their voices more in popular media? Have they been muted? If so, why (and by whom)?
In Part 2 of this four-part series on interfaith approaches to climate change, Aman Azhar talks to Stephanie Kaza, educator and author of several books, including “Green Buddhism” and “Mindfully Green.” Besides exploring what personal and political action Buddhist values can inspire to fix our contemporary problems, such as climate crisis and runaway consumerism, this conversation also foregrounds the atrocious acts of violence against the ethnic Rohingya population in Myanmar—a Buddhist majority country. Set against this brutal political reality, Aman Azhar engages with Stephanie Kaza to ascertain if Buddhism as a political thought is in crisis, and whether it still holds any promise for our hyper-modern and gravely unequal world.
Studio: Taylor Hebden
Post-Production: Taylor Hebden
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therealnews--2020-12-17--This is how far cops will go to stop you from recording them

Stephen Janis is an award-winning investigative journalist whose work has been acclaimed both in print and on television .
As @ @ @ @ @ the now defunct Baltimore Examiner , he won two Maryland DC Delaware Press Association Awards @ @ @ @ @ number of unsolved murders in Baltimore and the killings of prostitutes .
His in-depth work @ @ @ @ @ policing policies garnered an NAACP President 's Award .
As an Investigative Producer for WBFF/Fox @ @ @ @ @ three successive Capital Emmys : two for Best Investigative Series and one for Outstanding Historical/Cultural @ @ @ @ @ author of three books on the philosophy of policing : Why Do We Kill ?
@ @ @ @ @ Baltimore ; You Ca n't Stop Murder : Truths About Policing in Baltimore and Beyond @ @ @ @ @ Cop : A Testament to Policing That Works .
He has also written two novels @ @ @ @ @ and Orange : The Diary of an Urban Surrealist .
He teaches journalism at Towson @ @

Host & Producer
Stephen Janis is an award winning investigative reporter turned documentary filmmaker. His first feature film, The Friendliest Town was distributed by Gravitas Ventures and won an award of distinction from The Impact Doc Film Festival, and a humanitarian award from The Indie Film Fest. He is the co-host and creator of The Police Accountability Report on The Real News Network, which has received more than 10,000,000 views on YouTube. His work as a reporter has been featured on a variety of national shows including the Netflix reboot of Unsolved Mysteries, Dead of Night on Investigation Discovery Channel, Relentless on NBC, and Sins of the City on TV One.
He has co-authored several books on policing, corruption, and the root causes of violence including Why Do We Kill: The Pathology of Murder in Baltimore and You Can’t Stop Murder: Truths about Policing in Baltimore and Beyond. He is also the co-host of the true crime podcast Land of the Unsolved. Prior to joining The Real News, Janis won three Capital Emmys for investigative series working as an investigative producer for WBFF. Follow him on Twitter.


Stimu-less

Democrats have seemingly caved to Mitch McConnell ’ s grim will once again and are now leaning toward passing an @ @ @ @ @ package .
In case it wasn ’ t obvious before , it ’ s certainly @ @ @ @ @ re on our own .
In today ’ s episode of Burn It Down , @ @ @ @ @ Managing/Baltimore Editor Lisa Snowden-McCray , and TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez to discuss the failures of @ @ @ @ @ hour of need .

Democrats have seemingly caved to Mitch McConnell’s grim will once again and are now leaning toward passing an abominably paltry second COVID-19 relief package. In case it wasn’t obvious before, it’s certainly obvious now: We’re on our own. In today’s episode of Burn It Down, Kim is joined by TRNN Managing/Baltimore Editor Lisa Snowden-McCray, and TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez to discuss the failures of both parties in our collective hour of need.
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therealnews--2020-12-18--In mainstream media, capitalism’s failures are always your fault

Host & Producer Before joining TRNN as an investigative journalist , Taya worked in Baltimore ’ s neighborhoods of color @ @ @ @ @ and was awarded the Coalition of 100 Black Women ’ s Torchbearer Award and YANA @ @ @ @ @ Never Alone ) “ Love in Action ” award .
Her years of outreach to @ @ @ @ @ her to connect with city residents .
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therealnews--2020-12-18--Faith and the fight against climate change, Part 3

In a society increasingly driven by science and technology , world religions and the communities they inspire remain a vast and rock-solid political force .
Going by the numbers alone , Pew Research Center estimated in 2015 that there were over 5 billion people of faith in our contemporary world , belonging to Christianity , Islam , Hinduism , Buddhism , and other faith-based cosmologies , including Indigenous and Native belief systems .
Despite their outsized influence on so many aspects of our personal , social , and political lives , however , religious thinking and morality have struggled to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ number of critical issues confronting our world today , including climate change and environmental justice , consumer capitalism , and solidarity struggles .
In this four-part series , host and climate correspondent Aman Azhar shines a light on how faith-based cosmologies inform and influence our political conduct , even in the most intimate of ways .
These interdisciplinary conversations with thought leaders from different faith groups explore the intersections of religion and the politics of climate change .
What sort of political actions do—and can—these worldviews inspire ?
Do the gods and followers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have a say in the future of our warming planet ?
If the answer is a resounding “ Yes , ” then why can ’ t we hear their voices more in popular media ?
Have they been muted ?
If so , why ( and by whom ) ?
In Part 3 of “ Faith and the Fight Against Climate Change , ” Aman Azhar engages author Ibrahim Abdul-Matin in a spirited debate about his 2010 book , which many have praised as groundbreaking , “ The Green Deen : What Islam @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his book , Abdul-Matin argues that “ the earth is the mosque , ” and that caring for the planet is enshrined in Islamic teachings .
That ’ s not the message we hear in mainstream Western media , though , which seem to only be capable of stereotypical and largely ahistorical representations of the world ’ s second largest faith and its respective sects and followers .

In a society increasingly driven by science and technology, world religions and the communities they inspire remain a vast and rock-solid political force. Going by the numbers alone, Pew Research Center estimated in 2015 that there were over 5 billion people of faith in our contemporary world, belonging to Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and other faith-based cosmologies, including Indigenous and Native belief systems. Despite their outsized influence on so many aspects of our personal, social, and political lives, however, religious thinking and morality have struggled to gain a foothold in debates over a number of critical issues confronting our world today, including climate change and environmental justice, consumer capitalism, and solidarity struggles.
In this four-part series, host and climate correspondent Aman Azhar shines a light on how faith-based cosmologies inform and influence our political conduct, even in the most intimate of ways. These interdisciplinary conversations with thought leaders from different faith groups explore the intersections of religion and the politics of climate change. What sort of political actions do—and can—these worldviews inspire? Do the gods and followers of Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism have a say in the future of our warming planet? If the answer is a resounding “Yes,” then why can’t we hear their voices more in popular media? Have they been muted? If so, why (and by whom)?
In Part 3 of “Faith and the Fight Against Climate Change,” Aman Azhar engages author Ibrahim Abdul-Matin in a spirited debate about his 2010 book, which many have praised as groundbreaking, “The Green Deen: What Islam Teaches About Protecting the Planet.” In his book, Abdul-Matin argues that “the earth is the mosque,” and that caring for the planet is enshrined in Islamic teachings. That’s not the message we hear in mainstream Western media, though, which seem to only be capable of stereotypical and largely ahistorical representations of the world’s second largest faith and its respective sects and followers.
Transcript
Aman Azhar: Hello, and welcome to The Real News Network. I’m your host Aman Azhar and my guest today is Mr. Abdul Ibrahim-Matin. He’s the author of the book Green Deen, which argues that Islam teaches caring for the planet and the species that we share this planet with. Thank you, Mr. Matin for taking out time and speaking with us here today.
Ibrahim Abdul-Matin: Thanks for having me.
Aman Azhar: So let me fire away by asking how central is the climate justice to the Islamic faith?
Ibrahim Abdul-Matin: First, I want to preface this by saying that there are in the work that I’ve done developing Green Deen, and also just working in the environmental field. One of the things that we try to do is to try and find ways to connect with other faith groups. And seeing that as another part of the larger environmental movement. And one of the things we wanted to do is to find specific texts, scriptural evidence that points to the relationship that human beings have to the natural world and specifically the human being having a negative or positive impact on the planet.
And I’ll just read briefly. It says, it’s Ar-Rum 30:41 it’s corruption has appeared on the land and then the sea because of what the hands of humans have brought, this is in an order that we give them a taste of the consequences of their misdeeds. And so I’ll just remind is that corruption has appeared on land and the sea because of what the hands of humans have brought. Specifically scholars throughout history of all different communities and schools of thought. I said that this corruption, it specifically points to pollution and that human beings, and they have used this as evidence time and time again, that human beings have a negative impact on the planet. And from my understanding, there is no other scriptural evidence from any of the other Holy books that specifically says that humans have a negative impact on the planet or can have a negative impact on the planet.
Aman Azhar: So it kind of ties into my next question, which is the title of the first chapter of your book is The Earth is a Mosque and looking at it from today, it seems that this mosque reeks of confusion, greed, selfishness, and a pandemic. So what went wrong?
Ibrahim Abdul-Matin: Well, I think for a long period of time, we’ve been caught up in this one way of looking at it. I think this is another point of scripture in a way people have understood scripture. To say that human beings have a responsibility to be on a planet. We are the protectors or the [inaudible 00:02:28] on the earth, meaning that we are the masters and controls of the earth. And I think for many Christian and Muslim and Jewish scholars have seen that particularly in medieval times up until sort of the industrial age.
As human beings can do whatever they want. We can take from the earth. We can do whatever we want on the planet because we are essentially the gods on earth. I think that there’s a better way to look at that role and that we have a trust and a responsibility to maintain the delicate balance and the bounty of the planet. So to ensure that it will continue to have bounty for future generations. So I think that that what went wrong was that we used that idea that we could do whatever we want. And then we did whatever we wanted. And for hundreds of years, we sort of extracted things out of the planet. We’ve destroyed natural habitats, we’ve poisoned the skies and poisoned the air, we’ve made our water’s murky and undrinkable, and now we’re paying the price.
Aman Azhar: So let me ask you, why did you feel the need to write this book? I mean, do American Muslims or Muslims in general don’t know what their religion says about caring for the planet?
Ibrahim Abdul-Matin: I would say that American Muslims are, there was some research done sometime ago that America Muslims are very wealthy. American Muslims are by and large, obviously that’s not the, you know, I live in New York city and there was a lot of this huge immigrant populations that aren’t necessarily the typical Midwestern, suburban Muslim communities in large Masjid and that sort of thing. See American Muslims as just like you would see other Americans in the way that in their consumption patterns. So there’s not that as much reflective. They’re not very reflective about how they use their power and use their wealth. And in that sense, there needed to be a sort of, we needed to shake them up a little bit, remind them that their faith has an ecological element as well.
Aman Azhar: So have you managed to shake them up?
Ibrahim Abdul-Matin: If you had asked me that question when the book came out, I would say a little bit. But of late, I’ve been extremely impressed with the younger generation. I would say gen Z and gen Y young folks that are really stepping up and really taking… I’m actually looking at a list there’s about 15 different Instagram accounts where young Muslims have sort of taken their Islam and the environment and they’re taking it all in different ways where they’re really saying, it’s not just about let’s protect the planet and preserve the natural areas, but also let’s create sustainable products. And there’s a huge growing movement of young Muslims that are really taking that to heart.
Aman Azhar: And do you think that kind of an activism when we see an Instagram or Facebook for that matter is really tying into the national political discourse in any way at all? Because the only instances that we hear the references of religion in the national debate is in a negative connotation, really. So is it more symbolic activism? Or is it really paying some dividends looking at this situation, the climate as well?
Ibrahim Abdul-Matin: That’s a great point. I think if you had asked me that question maybe five years ago, I would’ve said, “Well, I’m not sure if these efforts are really useful.” But the reality is that more young people and people who are greater numbers are getting their news from different sources. They don’t trust CNN and Fox News and MSNBC. They may have value and merit, but they’re not really going to them for their primary news source. Or, and also, what do you go to news for? You go to news to get inspired. You go to news to get an idea of what opportunities are available to you.
And I’ve truly think that there’s other young people are finding that they can find those, that sense of a source of inspiration and the information that they need from other sources, from people like their peers or people that are doing work in fields that they want to get involved in outside, and you’re not going to find those things and not represented in mainstream media. So they’re really just saying, “You know what? I’m going to create this, or I’m going to find it.” You know, a good friend of mine was saying, “I’ve found that leaders and voices online that are speaking to me in ways that would never be found on the corporate media.” And so I think that they’re bypassing corporate media, and I think corporate media is sort of on notice, that their days might be numbered.
Aman Azhar: Do you think the religious discourses or the faith really have a lot of pull on people in this day and age, with so much of competing demands from so many other mainstream discourses?
Ibrahim Abdul-Matin: Yeah, I think that that’s a great point. Do people even care anymore? Are they looking for that kind of, yeah. I think that they are. This is an existential crisis that the world is in right now. The only other time that we’ve been able to explain a global phenomenon like this pandemic is thinking about is like the flood. This is at the scale of that because every human being community will have a story of what they were doing in this particular moment. So I do think that people are looking for a deeper meaning, right?
Barack Obama was elected President, but there was not a fundamental power shift. It was a sort of a nip and tuck reform. And it didn’t shake the foundations or transformed the way that our society is structured so that the powerless are becoming more powerful. So I think we’re seeing that representation just for the sake of itself isn’t the answer. Having people that look like you in power isn’t necessarily the answer, if they’re not going to do anything fundamentally different. And so people are looking now, they’re saying, “Wow, those things don’t matter anymore.” There’s a lot of lies that are being sort of uncovered. And in that they’re saying, “Well, where is the deeper meaning?” And a lot of folks who are saying, “The deeper meaning perhaps is in some of the traditional sources and let’s understand those traditional sources before we throw them out.”
Aman Azhar: So is there a really, a worthwhile effort on the part of the interfaith communities in the United States to put their weight behind the movement for climate justice and tackle climate issues?
Ibrahim Abdul-Matin: Practical expressions of interfaith work are more important now than just your old fashion, a bunch of it’s almost sounds like a joke about a bar. You know, you get a man and a priest and a rabbi. They walk into a bar together. Now you have the man and the priest and a rabbi they get at a press conference and they say, “We’re brothers.” But then nothing happens after that. I think what’s happening now is that people are saying, “Well, let’s not just talk about it. And let’s, maybe we don’t even need to talk about the nuances or our faith or the differences in our belief. Let’s just actually get to work.”
Aman Azhar: But the question though remains, why are these voices muted in the national mainstream debates? And especially the national politics, we’ve heard lots of candidates, democratic candidates included. And we did not really listen to any of the references to the faith or the calling of the faith in terms of tackling the challenges of today. And there’s no bigger challenge than the pandemic. And it’s what might have caused it, including the climate issues.
Ibrahim Abdul-Matin: I teach at Baruch College, and I usually have all the students stand and they give me all their wallets and their cell phones and their money. And I had them put it all on the table. And then I have everybody in the class stand up and stand in the corner. And then two people in the class stand near the wallet and the cell phones and the money. And then I asked them, what is keeping the people who are the large group of people from getting their money and their stuff back?
And that’s just a sort of a class representation of the 1%. The 1% really has nothing, except for just the idea that they are in charge, the idea that they are in command of things. Institutions reinforced their power and their controls. Institutions like schools and even the religious institutions reinforced this idea of this power structure, this power dynamic. What I think we need to do is when we talk about reform. Reform would say, we’re still going to keep power, but maybe you can have some seats, or we’re still going to keep power, but here I’ll give you your wallet back. In this context, I’m saying we need transformation. Transformation is different. And that’s where we need to move the needle. And I think what’s the problem with the mainstream media is that they don’t want any voices about transformation.
They only want voices that will maintain the existing power dynamic. If you are about poking at this structure and the system, and saying, “This needs to fundamentally change from the bottom to the top.” They are not interested in hearing from you.
Aman Azhar: And do you think in going forward, there’s going to be any hope in terms of this basic matrix being changed from top down, from the grassroots to the way up? Do you really see that happening in a time so given the gravity of the situation that we feel today?
Ibrahim Abdul-Matin: The framework that I operate within is around basically saying we are in a transition from an extractive economy based on extracting things out of the ground and extracting people from place to place through slavery and colonialism, all these projects, from the extractive economy to regenerative one where we heal earth.
So for example, we were talking to folks in Jordan and in parts of Yemen where they’re literally going into deserts and making deserts bloom again. We have the technology, we have the energy, we have the will. We just haven’t focused on that. So I think that we are, and the problem is to get us off of this extractive economy, we’re addicted to oil and addicted to sugar and addicted to drugs that fundamentally, we’re sort of part of this economy to get us away from that. We need to move into this regenerative way. It’s probably going to get worse before it gets better. So I don’t know if in my time we are going to definitely see a dramatic transformation that I would like to see, but I do know that we have to set up the people that are coming after us so that they can make that happen.
Aman Azhar: I moved my last two questions. And I think what I’m asking now is do we need religions to care for the planet?
Ibrahim Abdul-Matin: I think that we have, that’s a good question. That’s like one of those existential questions that shakes you a bit. From my understanding of the way that as a Muslim, I literally physically come from the earth. What I am part of physically comes from the planet earth. When I die, my body will go into the ground and my body will recede away. And it will go back into the planet earth. We are inextricably linked to this planet. This is our planet. So I do think that we have a fundamental responsibility because we have conducted all of our fairs and all of our life to ensure that it is maintained and taken care of. Now, religion holds people account and sort of reminds people of that.
And I think that that’s the role of religion in some ways, it’s to remind people that they have this fundamental relationship with nature, and that they can not extract themselves from that relationship. And we have to treat the planet the way we want to treat ourselves. And that means that it will enable us to actually have a good life. So if you want to live a good, happy, healthy life, you have to treat the natural world around you in a way that you would want to treat yourself. And I think religion facilitates that conversation. Religion reminds us of the importance of that. Now you don’t have to have that, obviously. I think it’s great that there’s a lot of humanist expressions that really isn’t it in the same way. And I think usually when it comes to people that are really caring for the planet, you don’t actually care what perspective they’re coming from.
You really come at it. But the fundamental thing is that we’re in this together. And I think that that’s one of the beauties of all the different paths and phase and walks of life is that if you understand your fundamental humanity, your responsibility to each other, then you’re not going to get caught up in those details. But that faith allows you to be more focused and to be more mindful.
Aman Azhar: I’m all for this expression of hope, but also looking at the situation which we’re in today. Do you think for a moment that organized religion have failed us in terms of motivating their followers to care for the planet?
Ibrahim Abdul-Matin: I think so, a hundred percent, I think so a hundred percent, I think, you know, you have it for centuries. Basically religion has basically facilitated large scale mining industries, each tradition, and in terms of the large religions on the planet, Islam and Judaism and Christianity we’re part and we’re leaders of the slave trade. You can’t say that none of them were not, they were all part of it. So they were all part of the whole project that put us in this situation that we’re in today. And then they doubled down on it when they found oil in places like Saudi Arabia and other places, when they said, “Oh, we can make more money out of this.” I think greed was a fundamental factor. And I think religions have typically wrapped themselves in rulers and facilitated the installation of rulers that oppressed people, without a doubt. Organized religions, have a big, big problem and have always had that problem. And that’s where this constant tension between the flock and the faithful and what they’re supposed to do and holding their religious leaders and political leaders accountable.
I’ve always felt that if you are a good… I actually was once on a panel or not, I wasn’t on the panel. I was actually just a volunteer at an event. Where the Dalai Lama was there. Sheikh Hamza Yusuf and Imam Syed are two American Muslim leaders and scholars of merit, and they’re relevant in a global scale. Imam Syed was the one who gave the funeral service for Muhammad Ali, just to give context. There was a bunch of other religious leaders there from all different faiths, every single faith you can imagine. And they were on a stage. And what was the thing that was connecting them all? They were all laughing, they’re all smiling, but they all [inaudible 00:16:33] essentially said the same thing. If you are dedicated to your faith and dedicated to your tradition, you don’t have time to tell someone else how to live.
And I think that that’s a lesson for us, is that you can come from all different angles, but if you are focused on doing and following your path and following your tradition, you’re not going to try and impede someone else’s others’ path, someone else’s path or their tradition. And I think that that’s an important lesson. I think for religious groups is that they’re constantly trying to impose their will on other people. And then this time we know that faith is not by you can’t force faith on anybody. You can’t impose your religion, you can’t make someone become a Muslim. You can’t force someone to become a Christian.
And I think that the heavy hand in this of religious scholars sometimes and heavy handed of religious institutions has definitely turned people away.
Aman Azhar: Well, that also brings us to the end of this conversation. Thank you, once again, Mr. Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, for speaking to us today and for your efforts to highlight the climate urgency through your advocacy and through your writing. Thanks also to our audiences for tuning in, you can look us up at therealnews.com. And for myself and the crew at The Real News for now it’s goodbye and be well.
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