Doing its share in fighting global warming, a mosque and community center in north-east London is acting to become the first-ever carbon-free Muslim worship place.

"In Islam we are obliged to respect the environment we live in and we have to contribute to natural resources," Dr Mohammed Fahim, chairman of South Woodford mosque, told the Ilford Recorder newspaper on Thursday, January 10.

"We cannot just use them without protecting or preserving them, or trying to add to them."

The mosque's annual carbon emissions have been calculated by the Tolerance International charity, which will help the mosque reduce its energy usage.

All of the carbon emissions produced through use of gas and electricity will be offset by planting trees in the Peruvian rainforest. 

This will cost the mosque £5.70 per ton.

"When a tree provides fruit it does not provide fruit for itself, for its own use. It provides fruit for humanity," says Fahim.

"I want every Muslim to be like a tree, which provides fruit not for himself, but for other people to benefit from it."

Pioneer

The South Woodford mosque is setting an example for others to follow. 

"We are the first mosque in the country to be carbon free and we are trying to be pioneers," Fahim, the head imam, has told the Guardian.

"We are going to ensure that we promote environmentally friendly things so people will start to recycle more and not be wasteful.

"People at the mosque will have to start to think about how to be carbon free in their lives as well."

Hamid Bayazi, the chief executive of Tolerance International, said the mosque's initiative will give a boost to fighting global warming.

"We feel it's up to religious institutions to take a stand on the whole subject of climate change, because it's something that basically businesses talk about, something that the government talks about, but it's seldom that religious institutions get involved in it."

Scientists predict that average temperatures will rise by between 1.8 and 3.0 degrees Celsius this century because of greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, causing floods and famines and putting million of lives at risk.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says that by 2080 up to 3.2 billion people -- one third of the planet's population -- will be short of water, up to 600 million will be short of food and up to 7 million will face coastal flooding.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has accused the US, the world's economic and military superpower, of being climate enemy number one and ignoring science when it comes to global warming combat.

Source: Islamonline.net 

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