Tenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

This research project explores how environmental consciousness ranks among other important topics in the definition of morality among religious elites in Kuwait. There is a sizable body of literature that highlights the emphasis in Islamic teachings on embracing a stewardship environmental ethic that mandates active sustainable management of the environment. Yet since the start of the Islamic Awakening in the late 1970’s, social causes have dominated what religious leaders in Kuwait communicate as the definition of a moral society and hence the policy agenda of religious organizations. Those political changes have had little effects on the political and economic systems that contribute to environmental degradation. The absence of environmentalism from the narrative of morality among the religious elites has led to a growing sense of stigmatization of environmentally friendly attitudes such as reduction of waste. This paper tries to answer the following question: Do narratives of morality among the religious elite in Kuwait elevate or degrade values of stewardship and sustainability? To answer the question, this research relies on the Narrative Policy Framework. The framework uses a combination of surveys and semi-structured interviews with a non-random sample of religious leaders. The survey questions and the interviews are used to test how high environmentally-oriented definitions of morality rank in comparison with other causes that have dominated the agenda of the religious right over the past fifty years.