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By Daniel Hayes
Muslim Link Contributing Writer

A new brand of environmentalism is hitting the scene in a big way. On a national scale, Muslims, Christians and Jews are reexamining their faiths to identify their ecological responsibilities.

The new film, “Renewal,” was screened in the basement of Washington D.C.’s, Foundry United Methodist Church on July 16. It is a series of four vignettes featuring Catholic evangelists, Baptist Christians, Muslims and Jews who are working toward reversing the damage done to Earth by humans, and living a cleaner, healthier life with sustainable growth. The novelty of their dedication to preserving and restoring the environment is that it emanates from their religious convictions.

“When I first saw it, what I remember is, these ayats [verses] from the Quran, just kind of coming at me,” said Mohammad of D.C. Green Muslims about the film. He saw the film several weeks ahead of attendants, at its premier in Vermont. A member of the Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light’s steering committee, Mohamad suggested screening the film, according to Allison Fisher of GWIPL.

“He came back from there [Vermont] like, ‘we have to show this movie, we have to show it’,” said Fisher about Mohamad.

Corruption, pollution, and treachery are apparent on land and in the sea, and people pay for it with their health, Mohamad said, referring to the aforementioned verse.

The first vignette, which featured evangelists attempting to thwart the progression of mountain top removal, done for the purpose of extracting coal, was particularly moving to Nadia Janjua who hails from the mountainous region of Cumberland, Md. “People need to speak out against it and it needs to be a concerted effort,” said Janjua.

The debris from the process of removing mountain tops has been responsible for polluting the rivers in which it falls, as well as flooding.

The film was well received by members of the audience. “I liked it. It was concise and accessible and gave good examples of how people get involved,” said Alan of Moishe House Silver Spring, a Jewish community youth organization.

Although the content was in line with the views of the crowd, a concern was the limited influence of the film due to the tapered level of distribution, not uncommon among independent films. “This won’t accomplish anything. The audience already knows about these problems. This needs to be shown to others,” remarked one audience member.

The content of the vignettes ranged from recovering from the havoc wrought by Hurricane Katrina to the raising of free range, organic grain fed animals to be slaughtered in accordance with Islamic law. The theme however was constant throughout; religion behooves humanity to preserve the Earth that has been entrusted by God.

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