{"id":39341,"date":"2024-04-30T18:09:26","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T18:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/30\/green-islam-drew-a-reporter-to-indonesia\/"},"modified":"2024-04-30T18:09:26","modified_gmt":"2024-04-30T18:09:26","slug":"green-islam-drew-a-reporter-to-indonesia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/30\/green-islam-drew-a-reporter-to-indonesia\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Green Islam\u2019 Drew a Reporter to Indonesia"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Times Insider<\/a> explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.<\/p>\n

Sometime early last year, I stumbled across an article<\/a> by two scholars that described the rise of the \u201cGreen Islam\u201d movement in Indonesia. One phrase in particular stood out: Muslim environmentalists there saw themselves as \u201ckhalifahs,\u201d or guardians, of the earth.<\/p>\n

As the Southeast Asia bureau chief for The New York Times, I knew this was a story I wanted to tell<\/a>. It melded religion and environmentalism \u2014 two themes that I wanted to focus on in my coverage of Indonesia, the world\u2019s most populous Muslim nation and a top greenhouse gas emitter. And in a sea of negative headlines, it was a hopeful story.<\/p>\n

With Hasya Nindita, one of The Times\u2019s freelance reporters in Indonesia, I started looking for ways to explain the movement. I am based in Bangkok, and at first, I was not sure whether we had enough for a story. I had learned about several initiatives by Muslim activists to promote environmentalism in Indonesia, but it was difficult to tell how broad their reach was. So we kept gathering information.<\/p>\n

Then in early November, we heard that Muhammadiyah Green Cadre, the environmental arm of the second-largest Islamic organization in Indonesia, was co-hosting a seminar about Islam\u2019s attitudes toward climate change. Hasya got in touch with the founder of Green Army, a group of tree-planting volunteers, who told her that even though the group did not push an explicit religious message, they were motivated by Islam.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n