‘Rain has to do with God’s will’: Religion and perceptions of environmental change in a Muslim community in the Souss-Massa region of Morocco

Abstract

French

In recent decades, increasing attention has been paid to environmental mobility in Morocco by policy-makers, non-governmental organisations, academics, and Islamic leaders. However, most empirical research on risk perceptions and religious views has relied on findings from Western and Christian communities, while data from Muslim communities or within communities strongly adherent to Islam are relatively rare. Nonetheless, Muslim communities are, globally, those most affected by climate change. These results are based on 38 in-depth interviews with Muslims in the Souss-Massa region of Morocco. Our analyses show how religious beliefs affect the ways in which people perceive and cope with environmental change. Nevertheless, religious beliefs do not necessarily imply that respondents automatically relate environmental change exclusively to God and that action is deemed unnecessary. Rather, we give a more nuanced image by presenting five different cultural repertoires which our respondents use when talking about climate and environmental changes.

Keywords

climate change cultural repertoires Morocco

Introduction

In recent decades, a growing body of social science research has investigated the relationship between religion and climate change. It is not hard to understand why this is the case. The way in which people frame their understanding of climate change is shaped not only by secular but also by religious beliefs about the value of nature or about human dignity and responsibility. What people believe about, for instance, human responsibilities towards nature has a profound influence on their attitudes towards climate, their behaviour, how they attribute responsibility for climate change, and, ultimately, on the type of mitigation and adaptation actions they imagine, support, or advocate (Hulme, 2009: 142–151). Yet, even though research literature has made important inroads into studying the various links between environmental change and religious convictions, practices, and institutions, there are still significant knowledge gaps. Scholars are unsure, for instance, of the extent to which religious commitments are salient drivers of action in different parts of the world, or how, precisely, religious arguments relate to categories of science and secularity (Barker and Bearce, 2013; Jenkins et al., 2018). Research hence calls for more in-depth data to help explain whether and how religion affects our understanding and responses to climate change, and for more comparative scholarship allowing analysis across religious traditions and different socio-natural environments. As most existing research is based on findings from Western and Christian communities, there is a specific need for data from beyond the Global North (Jenkins et al., 2018).

In this article, we focus on how the religious beliefs of Moroccan Muslims affect their views and responses to environmental change including migration as a potential adaptation strategy (Smit and Wandel, 2006). We believe it is important to pay sufficient attention to the role of religious beliefs of Muslim communities in the field of study of environmental change and environmental mobility (Jenkins et al., 2018; Morrison et al., 2015), because the regions that are most affected by climate change – a crucial aspect and driver of other environmental changes – are regions where most of the inhabitants adhere to Islam or consider themselves Muslims (IPCC, 2022). This article is based on 38 in-depth biographical interviews with Muslims inhabiting the Souss-Massa region of Morocco, a region that is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. It aims to gain insight into how Muslims’ religious beliefs affect, first, individuals’ narratives about environmental change and its consequences and second, their responses to environmental change at the individual and community level. To distinguish between the different threads in the narratives of our respondents, and to show how they selectively draw on religious tropes and narratives to make sense of environmental changes, we use the notion of ‘cultural repertoires’ (Swidler, 1986). We conceive of Islamic religion not as a singular, static piece of culture, but as a multifaceted and dynamic ‘repertoire’ which offers discursive resources enabling religious individuals to make sense of their everyday environment and to express their personal choices and motivations within a religious context.

We elaborate on these theoretical approaches in the first section of the article. Subsequently, we present our methods and data. Next, and prior to our conclusion, we present five different cultural repertoires which our respondents use when talking about climate and environmental changes, and analyse how these enable them to justify their own responses to these phenomena.

Theoretical framework

Including religious views in climate research

In this study, we start from the idea that religious and spiritual views matter, as they shape how people understand and perceive changes in their immediate environment (Jenkins et al., 2018; Shinde, 2011). Religion operates in the background of climate-change conversations, where underlying concepts about places, environments, and humans can generate expressions of environmental concern (Chitando, 2022). Initially, the relationship between religion and climate change was studied primarily within the sociology of religion, yet it has gradually become a topic of research across a range of social science disciplines and methodologies, including anthropology, communication, psychology, and political science (Jenkins et al., 2018). The focus of this literature has primarily been on how religiosity predicts people’s opinions about climate change (Chitando, 2022). Yet, religion plays an important role in many different aspects of climate and environmental change. Religion is involved in human meaning-making concerning climate change and hence, shapes how people respond to it. The idea of climate, for instance, ‘exists as much in the human mind and in the matrices of cultural practices as it exists as an independent and objective physical category’ (Hulme, 2009: 28). Climate adaptation research hence needs to consider how people’s religious views influence their responses to the impacts of environmental change (Kelly and Adger, 2000), their decision-making and the types of climate actions they undertake (De Longueville et al., 2020). Most crucially for the purposes of this article, religious and spiritual beliefs need to be taken into account in the study of environmental mobility to understand how people perceive environmental change (e.g. Haluza-DeLay, 2014) and how they think they should respond to changes in their natural environment (Chitando, 2022; Jenkins et al., 2018).

Overall, the failure to include religious beliefs in climate-change research and policies suggests that these are in opposition to ongoing climate discourses or are not related to risk perception. This neglects the wide variety of religious beliefs on climate change and the diverse ways in which religious views and views on nature go hand in hand (Chitando, 2022; Jenkins et al., 2018; Rigby, 2016; Van Praag and Ou-Salah, in press). In this article, we focus on the climate-change perceptions of Muslim communities in Morocco. This is important, not only because the effects of climate change are felt disproportionally more in societies with a Muslim population, but also because climate-change research focusing on Muslim communities or within communities strongly adherent to Islam is relatively rare (Van Praag and Ou-Salah, in press).

Islam’s environmental ethics

As is the case for other world religions, Islam can appeal to a wide audience, many of whom accept and respect its moral authority and leadership. As Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, or Judaism, Islam has significant institutional and economic resources, and hence, the potential to provide connectivity and to promote the achievement of collective goals. More particularly, religious authorities from a wide variety of religions have drafted statements on climate change itself. For example, the ‘Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change’ (International Islamic Climate Change Symposium, 2015) seeks to raise awareness of climate change and calls on decision-makers in the Muslim world and beyond to act, combining scientific understanding of global warming with important principles from Islam.

Research has investigated how different religious environmental ethics, including that of Islam, affect the ways in which individuals and communities perceive responsibilities towards nature and climate change (Arnez, 2014; Watson and Kochore, 2012; Zagonari, 2020). To describe a religion’s environmental ethics one can rely on religious authorities’ statements and declarations (such as the ‘Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change’), on key statements in sacred texts such as the Qur’an (Zagonari, 2020), or on scholarly religious interpretations of climate change that work from religious traditions. In the latter category, Jenkins et al. (2018) distinguish between confessional interpretations that ‘interpret climate change through a religious community’s native ethics’ (p. 92) and more constructive positions that creatively use religious ideas to describe ‘moral and political dimensions of climate change that seem obscured or missing in nonreligious discourses’ (p. 92). Within the field of Islamic environmentalism – which we understand as a theological, religious discussion – most scholars seem to work in a confessional context and primarily rely on the Qur’an and Sunnah, generating from them environmental principles to create ecological interpretations of Islam and a set of Islamic environmental ethics. While the religious debate on Islamic environmentalism is ongoing, Quadir (2013) provides a useful synthetic description of Islamic environmentalism, which combines Islamic beliefs with today’s environmental challenged and tries to combine the sacredness of nature as a Godly creation with the responsibility of Muslims as caretakers of the Earth. The main elements that scholars refer to are Tawhid and Khalifa (Abdelzaher et al., 2019; Gada, 2014). Here, Tawhid refers to the oneness of God: everything originates from this source of life and also is inextricably linked to it, including nature (Arnez, 2014; Dien, 2013). Muslim environmentalists interpret this principle as clarifying the unity of all creation to which man belongs (Koehrsen, 2021). Khalifa, in its turn, refers to the role of humans as God’s substitutes on earth. The term ‘Khalifa’ highlights the ethical and moral obligation of humans to act as caretakers of the environment, ensuring its sustainability and preservation. It is a call to be conscious of the impact of human actions on nature and to fulfil the role of responsible stewards in the ongoing balance of the Earth’s ecosystem (Koehrsen, 2021).

Religion as a ‘cultural repertoire’

While Islam is sometimes seen as a coherent and unified civilisation and identity, such a religious unity does not exist. Even though Muslims and non-Muslims, throughout modern history, have appealed to an imagined global Muslim Unity, the culture and practice of Islam are highly diverse (Aydin, 2017). This is not surprising as Muslim societies are located in every corner of the globe, have long and chequered histories and consequently vary in language, culture, and wealth. It is hence more appropriate to consider Islam as a multifaceted and dynamic ‘repertoire’ which offers discursive resources enabling religious individuals to make sense of their everyday environment and to express their personal choices within a religious frame. To analyse and show how our respondents actively and selectively draw on elements from larger religious repertoires to make sense of environmental changes and to justify their responses, we use the notion of ‘cultural repertoires’ (Small et al., 2010; Swidler, 1986). Cultural repertoires can be understood as socially constructed frames of reference in which individuals are (partly) socialised and through which they perceive the world. As people construct their views on the natural environment from culturally available narrative templates (including religious templates), this notion allows us to highlight the multiple, and sometimes conflicted, ways in which our respondents make sense of the environmental changes around them. However, the term is especially useful as it also emphasises a behavioural component: repertoires are commonly seen as ‘sets of tools’ people can actively draw on to justify their actions to themselves and others. This means that our respondents can actively use various (elements of) the Islamic religious repertoire to make sense of a particular situation or problem. Furthermore, since different individuals inhabit and are socialised in varying cultural environments, some have a wider array of repertoires of action than others and therefore more possible ways to manage different situations (Swidler, 1986). In short, the term cultural repertoires allows us to highlight the connection between the narrative templates available to our respondents and their individual agency. In this way, it can shed more light on why some respondents see migration as a potential adaptation strategy to deal with environmental changes, while others do not (Smit and Wandel, 2006). As a ‘cultural repertoires’ lens helps to foreground how religious teachings are interpreted by individuals in real-life situations, they move beyond prior approaches in the study of the relationship between religion and climate change which often place excessive emphasis on the impact of religious doctrines on human conduct, frequently overlooking the inherent contradictions within daily religious practices (Haberman, 2021). To identify the different religious repertoires that emerged from our interviews we have examined statements provided by a subset of 38 Muslims in the Souss-Massa region, all of them dependent on agriculture for their livelihood.

Data and method

Study setting

Morocco has a total population of 36,825,431, of which 50.4% are women. The rural population in Morocco numbers 13.5 million people, representing 44.6% of the country’s inhabitants and 19.92% of the female population (Trading Economics, 2020). As concerns religion, the 2021 Report on International Religious Freedom estimates 99% of the population as Sunni Muslim, and less than 0.1% of the population as Shia Muslim. Even when grouped together, Christians, Jews, and Baha’is constitute less than 1% of the population (Report on International Religious Freedom (RIRF), 2021).

As already indicated, this study focuses on the Souss-Massa region, which is a strong contributor to the Moroccan economy thanks to the income from its marine resources, tourism and agriculture sector. Of course, all these economic sectors depend on the specific climate conditions of this southern Moroccan region. While Souss-Mass has an arid climate due to the Azores Anticyclone, despite the presence of the Atlantic coast and of the high mountains (Abahous et al., 2018), agricultural systems have seen considerable variability in precipitation, drought, average temperature, and so on (Bouchaou et al., 2011). In recent decades, however, the agricultural sector has seen other changes as well, for example, in the social and economic context and in government policy. As a global player and leading nation in the North African region, Morocco has become prominent on the international economic and foreign policy stage in recent years.

Research sample

During the period of October and November 2021, qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with inhabitants of the Souss-Massa region in Morocco, particularly in Houara, Tiznit, Belfaa, Tamraght, Tagadirt, Tikouine, Taliouine, Taroudant, and Imouzer. Respondents were selected through snowball sampling, starting from connections made through associations such as Dar Si Hmad and ‘Migrations & Development’; they were selected based on region (Souss-Massa), gender (balanced), age (variation), and their dependence on agriculture for their livelihood. In total, 38 interviews were conducted, with 15 female and 23 male respondents. The age of interviewees ranged from 19 to 82 years old. The participants were all dependent on agriculture for their livelihood (either on a self-employed basis or as employees on larger farms), a sector which is increasingly threatened by environmental changes. Communities that rely heavily on agricultural activities are more vulnerable to water scarcity and suffer more from drought than other communities. The rural women in the Souss-Massa region are often uneducated and in some cases illiterate, so many initially refused to participate in the fieldwork as they did not feel entitled to be interviewed. To ensure that respondents did not feel intimidated, the first author who conducted the fieldwork briefed them clearly, yet in a simple matter, about the objectives of this research, and invested some effort and sufficient time to develop a relationship of trust. This often included asking for a tour of their fields, cooking, and eating together. A second difficulty during the fieldwork was the language barrier between the respondents and the interviewer. The interviews were conducted in Berber, Arabic, and French. However, most of the women spoke only Berber, which the researcher did not understand, so a local translator was needed.

Data collection and analysis

We used a specific method of interviewing – biographical-narrative interviews – which enabled us to study systematically the long and fragmentary nature of these migration trajectories (Findlay and Li, 1997). By enabling the participants to tell their own stories and creating a context in which they felt comfortable exploring their feelings and experiences, we were able to learn more about those aspects of their lives which crucially affected their capacity to adapt to environmental changes. During the data collection, participants were asked about their perceptions of environmental change in their surroundings and how the latter had altered over time, their knowledge of these changes, and the way they deal with them. Although no specific questions were asked about religion or spirituality, almost all participants themselves made the link between climate change and religion. This brought the topic to the surface and made it inevitable that it would be discussed. All interviews were transcribed and translated from the respective language into English. The data analysis facilitating software Nvivo was used to structure, code, and analyse the data. All names were replaced by pseudonyms to guarantee anonymity.

Results

Our analyses demonstrate how religious beliefs potentially affect individuals’ thoughts about environmental change and how they respond to it. The results show how a multifaceted Islamic religious repertoire provides our respondents with resources to make sense of their natural and social environment as well as enabling them to highlight and express their autonomy and personal choice when dealing with changes in the environment. Based on our interview data, we identify five different ways in which respondents enact the Islamic religious repertoire to give meaning to environmental changes and their responses. It is important to mention that we do not consider these different enactments of the Islamic repertoire as demarcated categories into which the various respondents fit completely. Each respondent can use different religious repertoires (or mingle them) dependent on the situation and the question they are trying to answer, even though some profiles of respondents tend towards specific repertoires. Overall, our analysis aims to underscore specific instances where the different religious repertoires have come to the forefront. Below we hence present some selected quotes which best portray the dominant patterns and consistent findings that emerged from our more comprehensive dataset. Some of these religious repertoires can be seen ‘as obstacles to addressing climate change while others are considered to be means of promoting greater awareness and action for dealing with it’ (Rubow et al., 2021: 24). In this sense, our approach serves to accentuate that the connection between religious beliefs and attitudes towards climate change is not linear or simplistic (Haberman, 2021).

Before we elaborate on the different religious repertoires enacted by our respondents, it is important to note that all the respondents interviewed were aware of the main trends in environmental change in the Souss-Massa region of Morocco. They mainly stated that there are more periods of drought, less rainfall, and more unpredictable rainfall patterns. As land in (that region of) Morocco is mainly used for farming and pastoral activities, these activities are more vulnerable to the consequences of increased precipitation and drought due to climate change. Most respondents automatically make the link between these changes and their day-to-day agricultural activities (Mohammadi and Khanian, 2023). Quotes from Abdelkarim and Daoud are illustrations of this:

It is also very rare when the produce grows perfectly well, because of the weather; the heat, for example, has really damaged pumpkins, olive trees, corn, and almost everything else, it really ruined the plants, like that September heat, it’s very rare when you get good produce anymore, so now we mainly focus on raising the animals, that’s the activity that we lean on to sustain us through those times. (Abdelkarim, 54 years old, Houara)

The climate has definitely changed here, the rain used to start already this month [October 2021], the climate has changed even for the bees, it’s sometimes surprising because you get to the orange blossom season, but there are strong winds that prevent the flowers from blossoming and disperse everything before the bees ever get a chance to feed, even after we’ve prepared everything for the season, and after we spent money on it. In normal seasons we can get well-produced honey within a month, and we can earn so much money that we can pay off all of the expenses and still have enough money for the following season, but only if it’s a good year, which we don’t get very often lately which is bad for us because we prepare for six months for that one particular season.(Daoud, 40 years old, Tikiouine)

These quotes indicate that our respondents are aware of climate change. Yet, when asked for an explanation, scientific climate-change discourses were seldom or not at all used.

God as an explanation for climate changes

Instead, almost all respondents referred to God and the harmony between humankind and nature to explain the observed environmental changes. For example, when Ahmad, a 51-year-old man from Tamait, was asked why he thinks it has been much drier and warmer in the Souss-Massa region in the last decade, he answers that it has to do with God’s will. Yet, this does not mean that he does not find it problematic nor that he does not acknowledge the changes:

Rain has to do with God’s will, however it doesn’t rain when we need it to in this area, in February and March. In this village we used to plant our land in December and January and then it was raining during it, and then the rain usually stopped at the end of March or April, and then the heat started in May. But for about 3 years now, the levels of rain have been very low so far, I’m trying to remember when we had a good year of rain, it was in ’94, ’95, ’96. Then the rain would last for a whole month in those years, and it would be raining day and night, but these last three years especially we’ve really noticed a big lack of rain.

This quote illustrates how Ahmad uses God’s will as an explanation for climate changes and weather patterns and how this helps him to accept the changes in nature. This can also be linked to the ecological interpretations of Tawhid, which refers to the oneness of God: everything originates from God and is also inseparably linked to Him, including nature. Ahmad, for instance, told us that ‘understanding about the world is only possible by awareness of God, only then you know your position in nature and in the wider creation’. Because nature stands as a sign of God Almighty’s creation, and all creatures (e.g. nature, animals, humans) are a unified class of God’s creation, knowledge of nature and one’s position in it can only be attained by reflecting on God (Gada, 2014).

Humans as stewards of the environment

A second element in the Islamic religious repertoire that our respondents often mentioned is the idea of ‘Khalifa’, the role of humans as God’s representatives on earth, with entrusted responsibility for nature, properly belonging to God. This idea of ‘stewardship’ or the responsibility of humans to care for nature is also a central element in Jewish and Christian environmental thought, probably because its basic form of responsibility is especially compatible with accountability to a Creator for use of creation (Gada, 2014). Humanity’s obligation to care for nature is well expressed by Daoud:

Our planet is created by God, that is why nothing goes to waste, people are the ones ruining the environment, but ultimately, I believe that God will not let anything bad happen to us, for faithful people like myself, we don’t bother worrying about what happens in the world because we know that it won’t affect us as long as God is with us. We just need to pay more attention to the environment as stated in the Quran.

This quote illustrates how Daoud attaches importance to the Quran, mentioning that true believers should pay attention to nature. Again, such religious views can result in greater acceptance of the reality of climate change, as true believers are protected by God (e.g. ‘it won’t affect us as long as God is with us’); in this way, they affect potential climate action as well as the framing of mobility as an adaptation strategy. Aissa also points out that humans are responsible for changes in nature and explains that this goes against the will of God:

No, I think that we as humans also play a part in these happenings, with things like pollution, because if the world was cleaner, and people were more self-conscious of their actions then God would’ve made everything alright and better, how can God give us rain if we are not grateful? (Aissa, 19 years old, Agadir)

These quotes show how negative consequences of environmental change can be seen as a form of failure of God’s representatives on earth, to whom responsibility for nature has been entrusted. From this perspective, a serious awakening is needed for those who believe in the idea of Khalifa if they wish to pass the test of guardianship (Nche, 2020).

Climate change as a collective punishment

While ‘Khalifa’ points to Muslims’ responsibility to protect the Almighty’s creation, the problem of climate change can be interpreted as indicating that humans have failed in their position as God’s representatives on earth. For example, Fadna, an 82-year-old woman, suggests that climate change is a punishment from God as people are individualistic and no longer work hard enough:

I think it’s all from God, it’s what people here deserve, they stopped working hard, and they hold grudges against each other, nowadays, it’s everyone for themselves […]. So if we’re having a harder time right now, it’s just a period of time when we need to think. That’s a kind of time to reflect and be more grateful for the periods when everything was going well and we could grow big yields and had lots of vegetables.

Ahmad, a 51-year-old man from Tamait, also referred to an imam (Muslim leader) who no longer wished to perform extra prayers asking for rain as he was convinced that there was no room for rewards when nature is so poorly cared for by mankind:

There was a period when our imam, from the mosque here down the street, used to ask for rain on Fridays in extra supplication. But since no rain came, he stopped doing it. He also knew that it was probably because we could not be rewarded for our bad behaviour, which is why he also said that we should change our behaviour before we want Allah to reward us.

These quotes show how the effects of climate change can be seen as the consequences of humanity’s collective failure to safeguard God’s creation and take care of nature.

Environmental change as an individual opportunity to develop spiritually

As Fadna’s quote already illustrates, the consequences of environmental change can be considered not only as a punishment but also as an individual opportunity to reflect. Abdellah, a 27-year-old man from Massa, also told us how countering environmental changes is an opportunity to develop spiritually:

From a religious point of view, we can say that only God knows about that, on the other hand, we can blame pollution, because it causes a lot of problems, like if we look at the Amazon forests which provide a lot of oxygen for our planet, and then there’s the hole in the ozone layer, the bottom line is that pollution causes a lot of problems. Pollution was actually reduced during Covid because outdoor human activities stopped, which means that human beings are responsible for the pollution of the earth, it’s as if I’m sitting here in class with my classmates and everyone smells nice and then someone who smells awful walks into the classroom and before you know it the class is polluted with that terrible smell, so pollution is mostly caused by human activity, like factories and burning up forests, people should try to counter that. This way you can be rewarded by God for the good actions you do for nature. I like to plant trees, I plant olive trees in the month of March, you get rewarded for it by God, and the birds also find a place to rest in, and if someone wants to pick some of its olives they can.

Abdellah’s quote illustrates how religious views play a role not only in attitudes towards nature but also in adapting to environmental changes. Islam’s theocentric view of nature does not necessarily mean that all respondents find climate action pointless because all environmental change derives solely from God (Chitando, 2022). Although respondents who explicitly see climate change as the will of God or as part of a natural cycle are generally less adaptive and more reactive (cf. next section), respondents who are adaptive to climate changes also attribute these changes they have experienced to God. The main difference between these respondents is not so much religious, but rather socio-economic: people’s responses are very much dependent on their resources and ability to deal with the consequences of climate change. Ahmad, for example, describes how they react during the hotter periods to still get enough water:

Well, we use solar energy to get water from the wells into the fields, therefore you can’t get water if there’s no sun, because our water container is in a lower spot in the ground, water wouldn’t flow out of it naturally, also during the hot temperatures, around midday especially, we can’t water the plants because it will evaporate, and the problem is in days with high temperatures you can’t water the plants until after 4 or 5 in the afternoon, ‘La Hawla wa Laa Quwwata Illa Billah’ [There is no power nor force other than that of Allah]. No sun means there’s no solar energy to pump water from the water tank and into the farms. But it is necessary to keep trying and trust in God, for that we will be rewarded. (Ahmad, 51 years old, Tamait)

Although Ahmad refers to the role and influence of God, he actively seeks solutions to deal with these changes since this is also part of religious growth. Importantly, however, Ahmad is the treasurer of an agricultural cooperative. The cooperative works with an association that finances the project. Consequently, when developing adaptation strategies, it is important to consider local organisational structures, cultures, environmental hazards, and impacts as well as people’s specific adaptive capacity and resources (Black et al., 2011; Smit and Wandel, 2006). Cherki, a 38-year-old man from Tamait, explains how, thanks to financial assistance, he can continue his activities as a beekeeper. Yet, he also continues to pray for better times:

Now to be frank, it’s really hard to find pure honey, why? Because of the lack of precipitation, may God preserve us from evil. I try to keep including requests for rain in my prayers. Drought just makes it really hard to rely on nature only to feed the bees, so you become obliged to partly and not completely use other sources of nutrition, so that you can help the bees survive until the new cycle begins. Now the other question is can you live solely on beekeeping? Frankly, I don’t think that’s possible, especially given the influx and the predominance of sugar-based alternatives to natural honey, it’s almost impossible to compete with these industries, and that’s the gist of it really.[…]

While Cherki asks God for protection, this religious approach does not prevent him considering economic and environmental realities and taking initiatives accordingly.

Religious beliefs to justify a lack of adaptation strategies

Our findings show that participants who lack support or resources to deal with environmental change do not always have the resources to make changes to their way of living. Some respondents referred to religious and spiritual ethics as primarily an argument against choosing mobility as a response to climate change. For example, Fatouma, a 38-year-old woman from Houara, told us that people are not rewarded for migrating but for praying:

It is a huge ‘baraka’ (divine, blessing power) to ask for rain and ask for help from God. There is enough sunshine, but we really need rain. The imam [Islamic leader] also calls on us to pray for rain. Many poor farmers have already moved from rural areas to the city, where half of Moroccans already live and as a result there are now many slums around the city. I am not going to leave my home to come into such a neighbourhood, God does not bless us for leaving, God blesses us for passing the test and continuing to trust in him.

Fatouma believes that people are not blessed by migrating because this has negative effects on the slums around cities, mainly because migrants often lack resources and remain in poverty even though they have changed home. She argues that those who continue to trust in God will be rewarded for it. Strikingly, Fatouma herself has no network that can assist her and her household is struggling to make ends meet. She seems to be ‘trapped’ in her situation and uses religion to make peace with these circumstances. We hence need to consider the fact that not all communities have the choice to migrate or remain in place when facing compelling and disastrous effects of climate change. This can also be illustrated by a quote from Mustapha:

If there is no rain then we know that we just did not treat nature with the proper respect, you know: rain washes away all our sins. People have become very greedy and want more and more money. Instead of just focusing on fruits that don’t need much water, people keep focusing on citrus fruit or watermelons. Then it is normal that God gives us time to think about it and require us to be less greedy. But we don’t handle it well. We keep working in the old way. We ourselves try to do our best but we don’t really have knowledge of other techniques and we don’t have the support of the family abroad like others. We are stuck ourselves, but we try to be economical with our water use and not to be greedy. (Mustapha, 58 years old, Imouzzer)

Mustapha stresses that he does not have the necessary resources or knowledge to use new techniques. However, so he argues, improved techniques are not necessary; God rather warns against wastage of water and tells us to be sparing with it. The problem is that people focus too much on profit and are greedy. The quote also demonstrates how Mustapha is trying to prepare for a time when he will no longer work his piece of land (which he shares with his brother). Under the current inheritance law, male relatives receive twice the share of a woman. He has therefore encouraged his daughters to find a job with an agricultural employer. These family law provisions on inheritance, regulated by the Mudawwana, (Morocco’s Family Code, inspired by Islamic values), are particularly unfavourable to female children and surviving female spouses and aggravate economic instability. Although Mustapha himself does not use new techniques or other adaptation strategies, he does encourage his daughters to leave their region of origin and work in the city:

I have only two daughters and their mother and I have taught them everything about agriculture from childhood. They now work together on the road to Marrakech at a farm. It is better for them to earn their own money and it is also easier for them to get a job there as young women. I myself work here with my brother with whom I have always shared our land and his son will probably continue it later. I hope so, because the younger generation of men is not so keen on the agricultural sector anymore, which is a pity because they inherit the land where a lot of time, passion and work have been invested and they neglect it.

This quote demonstrates how perspectives around adaptation strategies are formed in line with one’s possibilities (Carling and Schewel, 2020; Zickgraf, 2018). It also shows how rural women’s lack of property, due to the gender-specific land inheritance system, makes them more dependent on the decisions of male family members concerning their livelihood and activities (Ou-Salah et al., 2023). A lack of employment opportunities, political and social resources thus affects the way in which religious beliefs are applied. Religion can be used to legitimate existing social relations, but it can also be employed as an emancipatory tool that can affect mobility outcomes (Kronik and Verner, 2010).

Discussion

A full understanding of environmental change requires comprehension of its religious aspects, especially of how religion is involved in human experiences of and responses to climate change (Jenkins et al., 2018). Therefore, this study started from the perceptions of Muslim residents in the Souss-Massa region who rely on the agricultural sector for their livelihoods. We examined the extent to which religious beliefs are used to perceive, interpret, and explain environmental changes and how far this may play a role in the response to such changes. Overall, we can conclude that the ways in which our participants use religious identification to form an image about environmental changes and use religion to cope with these changes can be divided into five, partly overlapping, cultural repertoires of religion: ‘God as an explanation for climate change’, ‘humans as stewards of the environment’, ‘climate change as a collective punishment’, ‘environmental change as an individual opportunity to develop spiritually’, ‘religious beliefs to justify a lack of adaptation strategies’.

A first central question of this study was how religious beliefs can influence views on climate change, and precisely how this affects views, explanations for and interpretations of such change. All participants involved were aware of the main trends in environmental change in the Souss-Massa region of Morocco. This can be explained by the fact that all participants involved depend on the agricultural sector for their livelihood, so they could have accumulated knowledge about the natural environment and changes over the years through their day-to-day agricultural activities. Moreover, this study reveals that most participants do not approach environmental change from a purely scientific perspective. Respondents tend to use ‘God as an explanation for climate change’ and refer to the oneness of God, whereby everything originates from this source of life and is also inseparable from it, including nature (Arnez, 2014; Dien, 2013). This can be linked to the Islamic principle of Tawhid, which is interpreted as declaring the unity of all creation to which human beings belong (Koehrsen, 2021). Respondents usually refer to men’s role as God’s representatives on earth, indicating ‘man’s responsibility for guardianship’ or Khalifa of the planet and care for nature as a way of serving God. From this perspective, humans are expected to treat natural resources with care (Koehrsen, 2021). Consequently, ‘climate change can also be seen as a punishment’ for mistreating nature (Dien, 2013). Moreover, it appears that religious explanations for environmental change can be used in conjunction with scientific explanations and thus are not purely separate. Inspired by the work of Chitando (2022), more effort is needed to include all voices and religious and spiritual beliefs – to represent all geographic regions, and both small and large populations – in climate-change debates when linking religion to climate change.

The second research question was what role religious views play in individual or community responses to environmental change. Here, our sample shows differing results, depending on available resources. Particularly, the way that religion is linked to mobility decisions depends on socio-economic status, transnational migration networks and gender, structuring a willingness and capability for climate adaptation (Myers et al., 2017). More particularly, respondents with lower Social Economic Status (SES) and without a migrant network appear to refer more to religious ethics as a way of responding to environmental changes: ‘religious beliefs to justify a lack of adaptation strategies’. Due to insufficient (financial) resources and knowledge, people thus seek adaptation strategies that are within their means and feasible given the resources available to them to tackle the impacts of climate change on their livelihoods (Carling, 2002; Zickgraf, 2018). In the absence of resources, religion can provide peace of mind in situations where people lack the necessary ability to adapt to environmental changes, and can help them accept these changes. Religion, strikingly, was used as a way of accepting the situation as a test, and migration in some cases was even seen as ‘running away’ from this test. When researching the development of adaptation strategies, it is important to consider the limited resources of individual households facing environmental changes in their daily lives (McLeman and Hunter, 2010; Ou-Salah et al., 2023).

Since the expansion of the field of study of climate-induced mobility is relatively recent, more research is needed into how religious and faith-based solidarity with respect to climate-induced mobility is and could be organised. It is important that future research consider the influence of religious beliefs on perspectives on the human–nature relationship within a broader social, cultural, economic, and political context, as this affects the adaptation strategies used to address environmental change. People’s theological views on nature could also drive the implementation of different policies (Kronik and Verner, 2010). Awareness of individuals’ visions and explanations of environmental change and the religious embedding of discourses related to the environment is essential for a successful implementation of adaptation strategies in regions strongly affected by environmental change. By paying attention to these views, a clearer picture can be gained at policy level of how to make residents aware of environmental change before they can actively develop long-term individual and community adaptation strategies, by appealing to their daily realities and beliefs.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their sincere appreciation to the respondents who graciously dedicated their time and shared their valuable insights for this study. Their contributions have greatly enriched the depth and scope of our research, allowing for a more comprehensive understanding of risk perceptions and religious views.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was funded by Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO) [FWO-11H0720N]. We gratefully acknowledge their financial assistance, which enabled us to conduct this study and advance scientific understanding in our field.

ORCID iDs

Loubna Ou-Salah

Gert Verschraegen

Author biographies

Loubna OU-SALAH is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Antwerp. Her recent publications delve into the intersection of migration, environmental change, and gender roles, particularly focusing on the experiences of Moroccan immigrants in Belgium. Her work includes studies on the influence of environmental factors on migration decision-making, the feminisation of agriculture amid environmental shifts, and the impact of slow-onset environmental changes on household gender roles.

Address: University of Antwerp, Sint-Jacobstraat 2, 2000 Antwerpen, Belgium.

Email: loubna.ou-salah@uantwerpen.be

Gert VERSCHRAEGEN is Professor of Sociology at the University of Antwerp. His research interests are in the areas of cultural sociology, sociology of ethnicity, social theory, migration, and religion. Recent book publications are Divercities: Dealing with Diversity in Deprived and Mixed Neighbourhoods (2018, Policy Press, co-edited with Stijn Oosterlynck) and the Elgar Encyclopedia in Global Social Theory (co-edited with Raf Vanderstraeten, forthcoming with Edward Elgar).

Address: Department of Sociology, University of Antwerp, Sint-Jacobstraat 2B, 2000 Antwerpen, Belgium.

Email: gert.verschraegen@uantwerpen.be

Lore VAN PRAAG (MA, PhD sociology) is Assistant professor at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. She conducts research into diversity and social inequality, religion, environmental mobilities, and gender.

Address: Erasmus University Rotterdam, Burgemeester Oudlaan 50, 3062PA Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Email: vanpraag@essb.eur.nl

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