Green(ing) Muslim Programme
Cambridge Central Mosque
Nature connection, environmental consciousness and Islamic spirituality, taught inside the UK's first eco-mosque.
The Green(ing) Muslim Programme is run by the Green Hub at Cambridge Central Mosque, the timber-vaulted mosque on Mill Road that opened in 2019 as the first eco-mosque in the United Kingdom. It was designed and is led by Dr Davide Pettinato of the Centre of Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge, and it is both a course and a research project: a mosque-centred, faith-literate programme of environmental education that the mosque intends to become a model for other mosques in the UK and abroad.
Each cohort works through four seminars on Islam and the environment, two hands-on workshops (water conservation and sustainable gardening) and three field trips: a nature site, the River Cam and an eco-farm. Participants take part in the research alongside, and finish with a certificate of completion. Cohorts run separately for women and for men, and the first opened in spring 2025.
- Coordinated by the Green Hub at Cambridge Central Mosque; designed and led by Dr Davide Pettinato, Research and Outreach Associate at the University of Cambridge's Centre of Islamic Studies. source
- Per cohort: four seminars on Islam and the environment, two workshops (water conservation, sustainable gardening), three field trips, participation in research, and a certificate of completion. source
- A research project as well as a course, funded through the ACCESS Flex Fund (announced September 2024) under the title "British Muslims and pro-environmental values", with the mosque's Director of Operations, Mohammed Fezaan Azam, as the mosque-side lead. source
- Its stated aim: to enable Cambridge Central Mosque to develop a holistic programme of faith-literate environmental education that can become a model for other mosques in the UK and abroad. source
- The mosque itself: laminated-spruce timber "trees" in an octagonal lattice vault, rooftop photovoltaics, heat pumps, and rain and grey water harvested for the garden and the building. source
- Friday sermons in the series have included "The Signs of God in Nature" (Imam Sejad Mekić), "The Prophet's Compassion for Animals" (Imam Nurullah Benli) and "Cultivating Taqwa Through Nature Connection" (Imam Zakarya Gangat). source
“Rooted in the Qur'anic call to recognise and respect the signs of God in creation, the Green(ing) Muslim Programme brings together knowledge, spirituality, and sustainability to help cultivate a greener, more conscious ummah.”
“Islamic civilization has been based on the rejection of waste as an underestimation of God's blessing, and so in the construction of the new mosque here in Cambridge, we were very much at the forefront of the local environmental movement.”
Dr Davide Pettinato, who designed and leads this programme, is one of the instructors on Canopy's GreenDeen imam training, and Abdal Hakim Murad, who chairs the mosque, is another. The programme's premise, that a mosque can be the place where faith literacy and environmental practice meet, is the premise GreenDeen carries into imam training and mosque certification.
See GreenDeen- Dr Davide PettinatoDesigns and leads the programme; Centre of Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge
- Cambridge Central Mosque: environment
- The research project (ACCESS)
- Launch film (YouTube)
- A Tapestry of Signs (YouTube)
Photographs: Cambridge Central Mosque and the ACCESS project page; film cards from the mosque's YouTube channel; Mill Road view by cmglee, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.