'Big Green Jummah': UK mosques dedicate Friday sermon to climate change awareness

Mosques around the United Kingdom dedicated their Friday sermons to raising awareness about the environment and devastating impacts of climate change as part of one-week initiative.

Making the announcement on their social media pages, the Muslim Council of Britain - the UK's largest umbrella body for Muslim-led organisations – said they teamed up with the Muslim Charities Forum for the Great Big Green Week, or The Big Green Jummah, which began on 18 and will finish on 26 September.

♻️🕌 Calling all Mosques: Big Green Jummah!

❇️This Friday 24th September we are asking mosques across the UK to dedicate Friday Khutbah to raising awareness about the environment

👉🏼 Check out our Friday Eco Khutbah herehttps://t.co/xKeZIi8ZMU@muslimcharities pic.twitter.com/qTGf96WpZS

— MCB (@MuslimCouncil) September 23, 2021

"As Muslims, we have a religious duty towards protecting and preserving this Earth, and all that’s in it," the MCB wrote.

Verses from the Quran were shared to stress from a theological point of view the importance of preserving the environment and tackling climate change.

There are over 2.6 million Muslims of different ethnicities living in the UK, with over 1,800 mosques.

A landmark United Nations climate science report in August warned that human activity has already locked in climate disruptions for decades - but that rapid, large-scale action to reduce emissions could still stave off some of the most destructive impacts.

So far, governments do not plan to cut emissions anywhere near fast enough to do that.

The UN said last week that countries' commitments would see global emissions increase to be 16% higher in 2030 than they were in 2010 - far off the 45% reduction by 2030 needed to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.