LONDON - Muslims Declare are preparing a travelling exhibition to display letters from Muslims around the world, across the UK. These letters will communicate ordinary people’s concerns, fears, hopes and visions for a healthier and sustainable world in the run up to COP27 in Egypt. In these letters, Muslims declare a climate and ecological emergency. Muslims Declare aims to raise awareness of how physically distant communities are deeply connected through sharing of natural resources, manufacturing, trade and movements of people. Yet, carbon emissions and environmental and climate-related impacts are unequally distributed across the world, with communities who have contributed the least to carbon emissions being disproportionately affected and least prepared to deal with the devastating impacts of climate change, such as extreme weather events that threaten homes, jobs and exacerbate food insecurity.
Muslims Declare have partnered with Zero Hour, the campaign for the Climate and Ecological Emergency (CEE) Bill in the UK, to tour the UK’s mosques, multi-faith spaces, schools, colleges and public squares with a travelling exhibition of the ‘Green Letters to Imams’, in order to amplify the voices of those ordinary people who are underrepresented in the environmental movement. Muslims Declare want to educate the general public about the impacts of climate change in different countries, raise awareness of the CEE Bill and encourage people to ask leaders, whether faith leaders, educators, entrepreneurs or policy-makers, to take real action on the Climate and Nature Crisis.
A call for submissions
Climate activists and environmentally conscious individuals are invited to write letters addressed to world and community leaders (including faith leaders, or imams, and business leaders) about their climate and environmental concerns, fears, hopes and proposed solutions. These letters will become a central part of an exhibition that will travel around the U.K. to highlight the impacts of climate change on the Majority World / Global South, and Muslim majority countries in particular.
These letters will be displayed in squares, streets and mosques up and down the United Kingdom. Wherever the exhibition travels, it will create opportunities for awareness events, such as workshops, talks, and community meetings on the climate and ecological emergency.
You can write letters as individuals or as a community, for example by organising a small family or workplace activity. All are welcome to participate and work together to write one or more letters: nephews and nieces, parents, grandparents, uncles, aunties, cousins, friends, neighbours and colleagues.
You can be as creative as you like with your letters: they could be poems, stories, drawings, paintings, collages etc. You can use any visual media to communicate your thoughts and feelings about the climate and ecological emergency and the need for urgent action.
A selection of letters will be displayed in a physical exhibition that will travel around the U.K. from June 2022. All letters will eventually be displayed online on a dedicated website.
Please submit high resolution, scanned copies of your letters by 30th of March 2022 by emailing to:
muslimsdeclare@gmail.com.
Please include in your email the following information:
• Name and age of author(s) of the letter(s)
• Country and city of residence or country of origin
• Contact details
If image files are too large please send them via wetransfer.com. Feel free to email us if you need support with this.
About Muslims Declare
Muslims Declare aims to develop an inclusive alliance of Muslim organisations and individuals who work together to become active agents of change towards a healthier and more sustainable society. We are committed to addressing the climate and ecological emergency (CEE) by harnessing the collective agency of the world’s 1.9 billion Muslims. In doing so, we aim to bring about substantial legislative change on a micro and macro level. We aim to achieve this by playing a leading role in:
• Supporting the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill in the UK (www.ceebill.uk) via a range of collaborations with Muslim faith spaces and groups.
• Encouraging the active involvement of communities in the development of green policies on local environmental issues.
• Opening up spaces to promote climate justice with regards to the Global South and its diaspora connections.
Muslims Declare aims to provide spaces for Muslim communities to share their political knowledge, campaigning experience and aspirations for a sustainable and just society. The overarching outcome of these activities is to empower ordinary Muslims to communicate their concerns about the scale and urgency of the climate and ecological emergency to those in positions of power (e.g., politicians, faith leaders and business leaders).
About the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill
The Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill is a Private Member's Bill first presented in the UK Parliament in September 2020 by Caroline Lucas MP, along with supporting MPs from seven political parties. Over the last year, it has gathered the backing of over 140 MPs and Peers from all major parties – as well as from hundreds of organisations, businesses and local councils. For the full list of our supporters, click here. The Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill, if made law would ensure that:
• The ecological emergency is tackled shoulder to shoulder with the climate crisis in a joined-up approach.
• The Paris Agreement is enshrined into law to ensure that the UK does its real fair share to limit global temperature rise to the most stringent end of the Paris agreement - 1.5°C.
• Ensure that the UK’s ecosystems are protected and restored with a focus on biodiversity, soils and natural carbon sinks.
• The UK takes full responsibility for our entire greenhouse gas footprint (ie. consumption emissions plus passenger shipping, flights and land-based transport) by accounting for all of the emissions that take place outside of the U.K. to manufacture, transport and dispose of the goods and services the U.K. imports and consumes at home.
• The UK takes full responsibility for our ecological footprint so that we protect health and resilience of ecosystems along both domestic and our global supply chains
• An emergency strategy is drawn up via a temporary Climate and Nature Assembly, representative of the UK population, working directly with the Government and Parliament to find a way forward.
Zero Hour is campaigning to get as many politicians, local authorities, businesses, faith and civil society organisations across the UK to support the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill.
We welcome questions and requests for interviews about any aspect of the ‘Green Letters to Imams’ exhibition and the CEE Bill.
Contact details:
The Muslims Declare team can be reached at muslimsdeclare@gmail.com
Read about the Zero Hour campaign and the CEE Bill here: www.ceebill.uk
