Category Archive

From NPR:

Recent allegations of employee abuse at an Iowa kosher meat plant have shaken the religious meat industry. For the millions who buy ritually-slaughtered meat, the raid fueled questions over where it really comes from. Some Muslims in Chicago aimed to find an answer. They began one of the nation’s first sustainably-raised “halal” meat cooperatives, bringing together two groups that don’t usually interact — rural midwestern farmers and urban Muslims.

Taqwa Eco Halal Co-op in Illinois

Mission

To return worship back into the entire process of food production so as to ensure a lawful and wholesome product that will secure the blessings of God Most High in the lives and communities of people. To serve four communities – consumers, food production workers, animals, and the earth; and to make that food production affordable in middle to lower income brackets through special programs.

Coincidentally, I was just talking to the husband about this issue.  I’d like to contact some local organic/humane farmers in the Twin Cities area and see if they’d be willing to do some halal slaughtering for us.  Granted, I think this may have to wait until we have a house and a huge freezer so we can buy in bulk, but it’s definately something on the to do list.

NPR has recently featured two stories about muslims working in an environmentally friendly manner in two very different ways.

 First, there is a story on the group Solar Cities in Cairo, who are devoloping solar water heaters at the grass roots level for inhabitants of medieval Cairo.  Not only are they tackling environmental issues, they’re also doing interfaith work as well.  Muslims and Christians make up the organization, and they serve both communities.

 And his young team says that fighting over religion, politics, class and culture wastes time in an urgent period of environmental upheaval.

“If we’re still thinking Christian, Muslim, Christian, Muslim, we will never move and we will stay in our place. We’ll never do anything,” Fathy says.

Second, we have Abu Dhabi using some of it’s enormous oil wealth to build the first carbon neurtral city.

The project, called Masdar City, will burn no gas or oil, so its contribution to greenhouse gases will be minimal. Masdar is the centerpiece of emirate Abu Dhabi’s plans to get into the renewable energy market, a hedge against the day its oil wells run dry.

Two groups of muslims working towards a healthier planet, one from the grassroots, one from the top down.  inshaAllah more members of our ummah will wake up and take part in the green revolution.

The husband and I attended a CAIR MN dinner on Saturday on African American Muslims and the Civil Rights Movement.  I was looking forward to some down home southern cooking, but alas, it was catered middle eastern food.  Dude, we’re at a predominantly african american mosque that has it’s own kitchen and puts out delicious bean pie.  Why are we eating kabobs and hummus?   Ah, but I digress.

Rep. Keith Ellison and Br. Dawud Walid from CAIR-MI were the two main speakers.  Unfortunately, I don’t think Keith’s speech was recorded, but it was quite inspiring.  I’m kicking myself for not taking notes.  In particular, he called on muslims to get involved in a wider variety of issues, including environmental justice.  I’ve noticed that green muslim movements have been springing up across the country, so now I need to get back in touch with my inner tree hugger and get one going here in Minnesota.

As Br. Dawud was speaking, I was thinking, mashaAllah this guy is an awesome speaker.  I wonder if there’s anyplace online that has his speeches.  Low and behold, there is, and there’s even a recording of Saturday’s speech.

Unfortunately, we had to duck out right after the end of the program, so I didn’t have a question to ask Br. Dawud about one comment in particular – that some were accusing BA muslims of being manipulated into supporting foreign causes like Palestine, but that in reality, it was that BA muslims understand suffering, can empathize with the suffering, and so feel a connection to these causes that naturally lead to their support.  I was wondering if this had anything to do with the recent accusations by a blogger alleging that the immigrant muslim mafia controls BA muslim leadership.

Via Mr. Moo

The fourth Issue of the newsletter EcoIslam is out.  Check out the 3 previous issues on the website as well.

It’s been ages since I’ve been all tree-huggery.  inshaAllah that’s something I need to revive.

Last week, I read an article in the NYT on the effects our abundant meat consuption has on the environment.  As a bonified tree hugger who has lusted after hybrid cars, I was especially impacted by this assertion:

To put the energy-using demand of meat production into easy-to-understand terms, Gidon Eshel, a geophysicist at the Bard Center, and Pamela A. Martin, an assistant professor of geophysics at the University of Chicago, calculated that if Americans were to reduce meat consumption by just 20 percent it would be as if we all switched from a standard sedan a Camry, say, to the ultra-efficient Prius. Similarly, a study last year by the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Japan estimated that 2.2 pounds of beef is responsible for the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the average European car every 155 miles, and burns enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for nearly 20 days.

Dude!  I totally cannot afford a hybrid vehicle, but I can reduce my meat consuption.  My freezer is stuffed full of meat.  I buy it when it’s onsale, break it into meal sized portions and freeze for later consumption.  Since it’s always on hand, it’s an easy option for week night dinners.  Simply toss in the microwave, slap on some breadcrumbs and spices, throw in the oven and an hour later, wa’la, it’s a meal.   Um yeah, so we’ve been eating a ton of meat, like meat every single night.

Apprehensively, I proposed a meat minimalist diet to the meat loving husband – let’s limit ourselves to 2 meat based meals a week.  Suprisingly, he agreed!  Whoh, that meant that I needed to come up with something to serve every night other than noodles.  Don’t get me wrong, I love noodles, especially in their macaroni and cheese form, but after a few days of noodles in a row, it gets a little old.  Ok, well, not for me.  I could eat mac n cheese every day for the rest of my life.  It gets old for the husband.

Luckily, a friend of mine transitioned to a vegan diet a few years back, and has quite a library of vegetarian and vegan cookbooks.  I had borrowed her copy of Madhur Jaffrey’s World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking when I was briefly inspired to make indian food, which I had done a few times and then gotten bored.  I pulled out the book and eagerly began to skim, soaking in the wide variety of non meat based meals that were out there.   Later, I paid my friend a visit, returned her long lost book (after ordering my own copy on Amazon), and borrowed Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian.  I also flipped through her most recent aquisition, Veganomics, which I promptly added to my “must get” list. 

Thus far, I’ve made a Chickpea, Tomato and Carrot stew, Lentils with Spinach and Stewed Tomatoes and Chickpeas.  The lentils received a very favorable review from the husband (ie, he actually told me it was good without me having to ask), and the other two were dubbed “good” after I asked.  Success!

Now, I bet you’re thinking, um, yeah, this is all interesting (or increadibly boring), but what is this doing on an islamo-centric blog?  Ah, yes.  When I proposed the meat minimalism to the husband, he said, “yeah, you know, that’s probably a good thing to do.  After all, the Prophet (saws) didn’t eat a lot of meat.”

So of course now I’m intrigued.  It’s obvious the Prophet (saws) wasn’t a vegetarian, nor was he opposed to slaughtering animals.  However, he did stress kindness to animals, and I’m pretty sure most modern factory farms, even those that produce “halal” meat, are not humane to the Prophetic standards.  In some Zaytuna classes I’ve listened to, Imam Zaid has frequently mentioned the importance of eating not just zabiha, but meat from animals that were raised in an organic, free range environment, as well as being aware of the footprint we leave on the environment with our consumption.

I haven’t found much in the way of what the Prophet’s diet actually composed of, but it’s on my list of things to investigate further.

I’m a bad, bad blogger.  I signed up for yesterday’s Blog Action Day, and was suppose to post something re: the environment.  I had grand plans to post, if not a dissertation on islam and the environment, at least to write a bit about my favorite environment friendly hadith:

 ”If the Day of Judgment begins while one of you is planting a shoot (of a tree), let him finish (planting it) if he could.”

Well, the weekend rolled around with both Eid and my anniversary (has it been 2 years already).  No problem, I think, I’ll just get into work early and write something.  Ah, never get into work early if you’re doing trial prep for 3 cases (ok, 1 trial, one arbitartion, and one mock trial).  Nope, not a second to write even a sentence on the ol blog yesterday.  The lesson?  Procrastination doesn’t pay.

 So, here I am, a day late and a dollar short.  Instead of my own thoughts on being a green muslim, I’ll just throw up some links.  Bah.

What does Islam say about the Environment?

Towards an Islamic Jurisprudence of the Environment

An Islamic Approach to the Environment

 Islam and Earth Day

Islam and the Environment

Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences