The faithful gathered in an imposing modernist building, thousands of men in skullcaps and women in veils sitting shoulder to shoulder. “Our fatal shortcomings as human beings have been that we treat the earth as just an object,” Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar said. Like fasting during Ramadan, it is every Muslim’s Fard al-Ayn, or obligation, to be a guardian of the earth. Like giving alms, his congregants should give waqf, a kind of religious donation, to renewable energy. Dismayed by the trash sullying the river that the mosque sits on, he ordered a cleanup.

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Persons: Nasaruddin Umar, Nasaruddin Organizations: World Bank Locations: skullcaps, Istiqlal, Jakarta, Indonesia