FaithInvest Trustee Hayu Prabowo was recently featured in a New York Times article, What Can ‘Green Islam’ Achieve in the World’s Largest Muslim Country? The article describes how 'clerics in Indonesia are issuing fatwas, retrofitting mosques and imploring congregants to help turn the tide against climate change'.
The story describes the efforts of clerics in Indonesia to inform and inspire the faithful in this country of 200 million – mostly Muslims – to recognise the theological basis for environmentalism, and to take action. Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar, the 'influential head of the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta', is cited in the story as believing that:
'Like fasting during Ramadan, it is every Muslim’s Fard al-Ayn, or obligation, to be a guardian of the earth. Like giving alms...congregants should give waqf, a kind of religious donation, to renewable energy. Like daily prayers, planting trees should be a habit'.
Locally, neighborhood activists are beseeching friends, family and neighbours that 'environmentalism is embedded in the Quran'.
FaithInvest Trustee Hayu Prabowo, the head of environmental protection at the Indonesian Ulema Council, the nation’s highest Islamic authority, is quoted in the story saying that people 'listen to religious leaders because their religious leaders say you can escape worldly laws, but you cannot escape God’s laws'.
'We're very fortunate to have Hayu on our board' said FaithInvest CEO Dr Lorna Gold, 'and we're delighted to see his environmental efforts in Indonesia being recognised in this important story in the New York Times.'
Hayu Prabowo is a corporate finance expert with more than 20 years in financial modelling on company valuations for mergers and acquisitions. He is currently a lecturer in Islamic Economics and Finance, with a social interest in sustainable financing. His interest in sustainable finance relates to his position as the Chairman of the Environmental and Natural Resources Board of the Council of Islamic Scholars of Indonesia (MUI), the nation's top Muslim clerical body.