‘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

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.