Future of green Ramadan : representing Islamic environmental organizations in contemporary academic literature

In the political climate of the early 21st century, environmentalism and religious pluralism are two issues at the forefront of the cultural consciousness of the United States. As this is the case, a remarkable number of environmental organizations have sprung out of a variety of religious traditions in the past few decades. These organizations are engaged in a myriad of different environmental movements from the promotion of recycling and sustainable energy, to footprint reduction and community mobilization. Many of these organizations have been studied by scholars over the last 30 years, but a striking hole has been found in the literature: Islamic environmental organizations. This paper addresses the lack of research devoted to Islamic environmental organizations in the United States by exploring the studies conducted in the last 30 years while discussing the successes and shortcomings of each and contextualizing each study in the historical arc of this conversation. Next, this lack of representation and diversity is tackled by exploring why this issue is a moral imperative for our species as a whole. Finally, this paper explores some avenues for further research beginning with Green Muslims and the Islamic Society of North America.