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Muslim leaders issue call to act on climate change

Muslim leaders and scholars from 20 countries made a joint declaration at a conference in Istanbul, calling on Muslims and all nations worldwide to address climate change.

“Our species, though selected to be a caretaker or steward (khalifah) on the earth, has been the cause of such corruption and devastation on it,” the August 18 statement says.

Supporters of the Islamic Declaration on Climate Change included the grand muftis (the highest authorities in religious law) of Uganda and Lebanon and government representatives from Turkey and Morocco. The conference itself, the Inter­national Islamic Climate Change Sympo­sium, was cosponsored by Islamic Relief Worldwide, the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences, and GreenFaith.