The Earth Is Your Mosque (and Everyone Else’s Too): Online Muslim Environmentalism and Interfaith Collaboration in UK and Singapore

Author(s)	Lisa Siobhan Irving
Contact	Lisa Siobhan Irving, Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW 2109, Australia. E-mail: lisa siobhan.irving@gmail.com
Issue	CyberOrient, Vol. 7, Iss. 1, 2013, pp. 34-63
Published	May 10, 2013
Type	Article
Abstract	The environmentalist group Wisdom in Nature (WIN) and the online network Project ME: Muslims and the Environment have been chosen for analysis, from the UK and Singapore respectively, to illustrate examples of Muslim environmentalists who use the Internet, as a complement to community-based activism, to raise awareness of environmental concerns among both Muslims and non-Muslims. I will explore how WIN and Project ME seek to promote an interpretation of Islamic practice that is both environmentally responsible and open to close collaboration with non-Muslims as a consequence of being holistically protective of all in existence, both human and otherwise. In so doing, I hope to demonstrate how the Internet is used to facilitate the introduction of interested Muslims and non-Muslims into practical, off-line environmentalism, seen as an emotional community (Hetherington 1998), by minimizing the differences in culture, communication styles or religious belief that could otherwise pose difficulties.
Keywords	environmentalism, social media, Islam, public sphere, activism, cyberactivism, United Kingdom, Singapore, interfaith