Islamic scholar condemns bioethanol
Biofuels are un-Islamic, scholar says, as he warns Saudi students not to drive ethanol-powered cars when abroad
Comments (35) Digg it
An operator displays a handful of corn at an ethanol plant. Photograph: Mark Blinch/Reuters
It's taken a week or so for this story to go viral, but as of today it is one of the most Digged (dug?) environmental story on the web, with over 500 Diggs. It's not a surprise as it's a corker of a story with all manner of implications. You can read the original story at AlArabiya.net (and the follow-ups at Treehugger and GreenCarReports.com), but here's a quick summary …
Sheikh Mohamed Al-Najimi, a scholar at the Saudi Islamic Jurisprudence Academy, reportedly warned students travelling outside Saudi Arabia not to drive any vehicles powered with ethanol because the "prophet prohibited all kinds of dealings with alcohol including buying, selling, carrying, serving, drinking, and manufacturing".
As ethanol is "basically made up of alcohol", it must be avoided.
The sheikh was keen to stress that he has not issued a fatwa, but does believe the matter needs further clarification from the relevant Islamic institutions.
Now, where do we begin? With the question of what other possible motives there might be for why ethanol might be perceived to be a threat in an oil-rich nation? Or what other environmental innovations (the jury is still out on ethanol, in my view) might come under further scrutiny by religious scholars?
For example, Catholicism isn't exactly keen on birth control, which logic suggests might be one of the ways to help reduce population growth. And how might Jewish and Islamic scholars view the use of any fuel made from pig slurry, as has been proposed? (The US anthropologist Marvin Harris once suggested that any religious objections to the rearing and eating of pigs might have been initially formed by concerns about the animal's voracious appetite and, hence, negative impact on the local environment in the region once known as Canaan.)
Ignoring for one moment the goings-on in Iran, there also seems to be some debate among Islamic scholars about whether the use of nuclear power is allowed. For example, Indonesia's conservative Sunni Islam group Nahdlatul Ulama decreed in 2007 that the building of the country's first nuclear power plant in central Java would be "haraam", or forbidden, under Islam as its potential dangers would outweigh its positives.
So, where else might religion and the environment potentially clash?
Finally, I hereby decree, with the almighty authority bestowed upon me, that the comments be free of any wisecrack references to environmentalism being "a fanatical religion". OK, I accept this is a futile command.
Biofuels are un-Islamic, scholar says, as he warns Saudi students not to drive ethanol-powered cars when abroad
Comments (35) Digg it
An operator displays a handful of corn at an ethanol plant. Photograph: Mark Blinch/Reuters
It's taken a week or so for this story to go viral, but as of today it is one of the most Digged (dug?) environmental story on the web, with over 500 Diggs. It's not a surprise as it's a corker of a story with all manner of implications. You can read the original story at AlArabiya.net (and the follow-ups at Treehugger and GreenCarReports.com), but here's a quick summary …
Sheikh Mohamed Al-Najimi, a scholar at the Saudi Islamic Jurisprudence Academy, reportedly warned students travelling outside Saudi Arabia not to drive any vehicles powered with ethanol because the "prophet prohibited all kinds of dealings with alcohol including buying, selling, carrying, serving, drinking, and manufacturing".
As ethanol is "basically made up of alcohol", it must be avoided.
The sheikh was keen to stress that he has not issued a fatwa, but does believe the matter needs further clarification from the relevant Islamic institutions.
Now, where do we begin? With the question of what other possible motives there might be for why ethanol might be perceived to be a threat in an oil-rich nation? Or what other environmental innovations (the jury is still out on ethanol, in my view) might come under further scrutiny by religious scholars?
For example, Catholicism isn't exactly keen on birth control, which logic suggests might be one of the ways to help reduce population growth. And how might Jewish and Islamic scholars view the use of any fuel made from pig slurry, as has been proposed? (The US anthropologist Marvin Harris once suggested that any religious objections to the rearing and eating of pigs might have been initially formed by concerns about the animal's voracious appetite and, hence, negative impact on the local environment in the region once known as Canaan.)
Ignoring for one moment the goings-on in Iran, there also seems to be some debate among Islamic scholars about whether the use of nuclear power is allowed. For example, Indonesia's conservative Sunni Islam group Nahdlatul Ulama decreed in 2007 that the building of the country's first nuclear power plant in central Java would be "haraam", or forbidden, under Islam as its potential dangers would outweigh its positives.
So, where else might religion and the environment potentially clash?
Finally, I hereby decree, with the almighty authority bestowed upon me, that the comments be free of any wisecrack references to environmentalism being "a fanatical religion". OK, I accept this is a futile command.
