Christian-Muslim Dialogue on Climate Change
With Delegations from the National Association of Evangelicals and the Kingdom of Morocco June 19, 2008 – The World Bank
Background: Bringing Faiths Together Around a Common Concern
The day-long event at the Bank formed part of a larger three-day event between the two delegations in Washington, DC. Events included receptions at the Moroccan ambassador’s residence and Mount Vernon, and meetings with legislators on Capitol Hill. Subsequent cooperation between the delegations is likely to include joint media and communication efforts. Commitments were made to broaden the dialogue to include a wider set of faith and interfaith communities in the United States and the Arab world on issues of climate change.
On Thursday, June 19, 2008, delegations from the Kingdom of Morocco and the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) met at the World Bank for a day-long discussion centering on the topic of “Creation Care,” or religiously inspired care for the environment [Box 1]. The Bank was invited to host the event to offer technical expertise on climate change, and also because of its long-standing commitment to development-faith partnerships. What made this event unusual was the Evangelical Engagement effort to address underlying issues on Climate Change of Christian-Muslim interfaith cooperation by means of dialogue The U.S. Evangelical community has become a global leader in climate about an issue of patent common change advocacy over the past several years. In 2006, the Evangelical Climate concern: climate change. Initiative (ECI) released a statement entitled “Climate Change: An Evangelical The meetings formed part Call to Action.” The declaration has 124 senior evangelical leaders as signatories, of a continued engagement beincluding Rick Warren, author of best-seller The Purpose Driven Life; David Neff, tween leading U.S. Evangelical editor of Christianity Today; and Todd Bassett, national commander of the Salvaand Moroccan Muslim leaders. tion Army. Led by Jim Ball, President of the Evangelical Environmental Network, The NAE delegation was led by the ECI lobbies top policy-makers for federal legislation to limit carbon dioxide President Leith Anderson and emissions. Vice President for Governmental Following some discord (in 2006 it stated that “global warming is not Affairs Richard Cizik, both widely a consensus issue”), the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) has become the leading evangelical Christian voice in advocating on climate issues. In known for their involvement in January 2007, NAE Vice President Richard Cizik and Nobel-laureate Eric Chivian, advocacy on climate change. The director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical Moroccan delegation, led by AmSchool, led a group of scientists and evangelicals calling for urgent changes in valbassador Aziz Mekouar, included ues, lifestyles, and public policy to address global warming. NAE President Leith several prominent Moroccan Anderson is now a signatory of the ECI’s “Call to Action.” Additionally, the NAE academics and government figures has been directly involved through its “Creation Care” environmental protection active in environmental work. initiative, with outreach materials that address issues of climate change in faith Katherine Marshall, of the World communities at the grassroots. Bank and Georgetown University, and Michael Kirtley, president of • Evangelical Climate Initiative - http://christiansandclimate.org/ the Friendship Caravan, moder• National Association of Evangelicals - http://www.nae.net/ ated the dialogue.
Welcoming Remarks: Climate Change as a Development Challenge
The common thread uniting all parties involved – the World Bank, the Moroccan Muslims, and the U.S. Evangelicals – was their concern about climate change as a development challenge that most directly affects the poorest countries and people in the world. In welcoming the delegations, Warren Evans, the World Bank’s Environment Director, highlighted how the Bank has come to view climate change as a crucial and cross-cutting development issue. He noted the important role of faith and interfaith communities as advocates to build the political will for effective policies. Leith Anderson, President of the NAE, described the responsibility of the Evangelical movement to care for the environment alongside the poor. He went on to emphasize the importance of Evangelical Christian-Muslim cooperation in areas of climate change to reach their growing constituencies
World Bank Presentations on Climate Change
The World Bank’s environmental experts provided a background and context for the delegates’ discussion on climate change [Box 2]. Richard Damania, Environmental Economist in the South Asia region, described climate change as a problem of immense complexity, and touched on the problem of uncertainty – both in predicting climate change’s effects and in assessing possible responses to the crisis. He stressed that, as a
problem that moves beyond national boundaries, cultures, and religions, climate change must be faced with a sense of unity and cooperation. Michele de Nevers, Senior Manager of the Environment Department, noted the remarkable parallels between the U.S. Evangelicals’ climate advocacy and the World Bank’s own Strategic Framework on Climate Change and Development. Both strategies shared a view of climate change in the context of helping the world’s poorest citizens. She emphasized that leadership in reducing CO2-intensity in production and consumption must come from the developed countries, which have the technology and institutional capacity to do so; however, more resolve is needed. Luis Constantino, Manager for Environment, Agricultural and Rural Development, and Social Development in the Middle East and North Africa for the World Bank described how higher temperatures, less rainfall, and environmental volatility pose challenges for Morocco’s economy. Desertification in North Africa as the Sahara Desert gradually expands may bring far-reaching consequences. Coastal areas, the region’s engine of economic growth, will be affected by rising sea levels and flooding, and the region can expect to see “climate refugees” who are no longer able to make a living in their original environments.
Religiously Inspired Social Advocacy
The Bank presentations gave context to the ensuing discussions, broaching issues of interreligious cooperation and dialogue, alongside climate change. Abdelmajid Tribak, head of Morocco’s Koranic TV and a member of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, spoke on the importance of
environmental protection in the Islamic tradivelopment work between Muslim and Christian tion, citing a broad number of Quranic verses. communities. He is currently in the ReconciliaSimilarly, Leith Anderson traced how the Evantion Program at the Yale Divinity School’s Center gelicals’ activism on climate change is rooted in for Faith and Culture, a program that emphasizes their theology and their reading of the Bible. He Christian-Muslim understanding and cooperadescribed the interplay between environmental tion [Box 3]. Themes of religious pluralism were degradation and its disproportionately adverse raised by Anouar Majid, Chair and Professor of effects on the poor as part of the Evangelical obEnglish at the University of New England, as he ligation to act. These perceptions have translated described the historical relations between Chrisinto action, and in recent years the U.S. Evangeli- tian and Muslim societies, highlighting periods of cal community has become increasingly engaged, deep-seated interfaith cooperation and pluralism not only on environmental issues but on global poverty more broadPrevious World Bank-Faith Community ly.
Engagement on Climate Change
Interfaith Dialogue
The importance of interfaith dialogue was a common refrain throughout the meeting, as the frank and authentic discussion also included reflection on the idea of Moroccan Muslims in conversation with US Christian Evangelicals. All found the discussion most enriching, fascinating, and certain that more discussions of this nature were critical in our globalizing (and too often polarizing) world. Deborah Fikes, a member of the U.S. delegation, powerfully echoed the importance of interfaith dialogue, even in the face of criticism from others within their own communities. In a lunchtime address, Rick Love spoke to the perceptions and misperceptions of conversion in international de-
Through an ongoing series of dialogues and consultations, the World Bank’s Development Dialogue on Values and Ethics has partnered with the Bank’s Environment team to engage faith leaders and communities on issues of climate change. In January 2005, the Bank hosted a diverse set of Catholic, Evangelical, and Orthodox Christian and Jewish leaders, alongside scientists and NGO leaders, to dialogue on interfaith cooperation and responses to climate change. More recently, in April 2008, a delegation of leaders from the National Religious Coalition on Climate Change met with Bank specialists, focusing on faith communities’ ethical and moral commitments to respond to climate change in developing countries. This June 2008 dialogue between U.S. Evangelical and Moroccan Muslim leaders forms part of these ongoing efforts, and fits within the World Bank Environment Department’s global consultations toward a Strategic Framework on Climate Change and Development. The global consultations include a far-reaching set of stakeholders, including the United Nations and other international organizations, representatives of national governments, the private sector, and members of civil society. The active role of faith communities, especially in recent years, has been most pronounced on issues of advocacy.
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World Bank Environment Department http://www.worldbank.org/environment/ Global Consultations http://www.worldbank.org/climateconsult/
A “Common Word” in Christian-Muslim Dialogue
In October 2007, a group of 138 Muslim scholars, clerics, and intellectuals released an open letter, entitled A Common Word Between Us and You, addressed to the leaders of Christian churches everywhere. The signatories represented every denomination and school of thought in Islam and represented every major Islamic country or region in the world. The Common Word website states, “The most fundamental common ground between Islam and Christianity, and the best basis for future dialogue and understanding, is the love of God and the love of the neighbor.” The Common Word letter is hoped to provide a basis for future interfaith dialogue and to bring together Christian and Muslim organizations working in this field. It was indeed a groundbreaking effort: “Never before have Muslims delivered this kind of definitive consensus statement on Christianity. Rather than engage in polemic, the signatories have adopted the traditional and mainstream Islamic position of respecting the Christian scripture and calling Christians to be more, not less, faithful to it.” A month later, a group of over 300 Christian theologians and leaders endorsed a statement entitled “Loving God and Neighbor Together: A Christian Response to A Common Word Between Us and You.” This response was written by scholars at Yale Divinity School’s Center for Faith and Culture. As a result of the original Muslim statement and the Christian response, a series of major conferences and workshops are currently underway, bringing together signatories of the two documents as well as other international Christian, Muslim, and Jewish leaders.
acknowledge the existence of global warming in the face of overwhelming evidence. Drawing a parallel between refusal to acknowledge climate change and refusal to engage in interfaith dialogue, he discussed ways in which the delegations could change other people’s negative beliefs on both issues.
Engagement on Gender and Youth
The role of faith communities to mobilize the voices of women and youth in response to climate emerged as a shared priority. Asma Chaabi, mayor of Essaouira and the first female mayor elected in Morocco, • A Common Word - http://www.acommonword.com/ spoke about women’s lead• Yale Center for Faith and Culture - http://www.yale.edu/faith/ ership, the mother’s role in development, and the importance of women in the in parts of North Africa and in the Iberian PenChristian, Jewish, and Muslim faith traditions. insula after the Muslim conquests and before the The need to harness media to convey isSpanish Inquisition. sues of climate change to religious communities also arose as a mutual concern. Asma El Kasmi, Managing Change professor at Al-Akhawayn University, described how many Moroccans’ perceptions of climate The idea of “managing change in a changchange is affected by the global media. A short ing world,” as Driss Alaoui M’Daghri, former documentary video on climate change produced professor and Moroccan government minister, by the NAE and viewed during the conference, coined it was a powerful theme. M’Daghri emshowed the use of media as outreach to grassphasized the importance of individual responsiroots congregations. bility in activism and touched on what he believes are the three crucial issues affecting the world today: the environment and climate change; scientific and technological breakthroughs that present new challenges; and misunderstanding between cultures that have caused violent conflict. By addressing both religious perceptions and issues surrounding climate change, interfaith dialogues on development issues serve a dual purpose. Richard Cizik, Vice President for Governmental Affairs of the NAE, discussed his frustration with those people, especially within the broader Evangelical community, who refuse to