This project seeks to deepen connections between Muslims in Wisconsin and Michigan and the natural world by expanding their ability to recognize and identify culturally important plants. The project team plans to do this through offering training workshops on how to identify plants mentioned in the Qur’an and Hadith, empowering community members to identify these plants in their community, and sharing their contributions on a digital map of plants found in Wisconsin and Michigan gardens and natural areas. By increasing knowledge and awareness of plants, this project will deepen emotional and spiritual connections to the local plant community, inspiring care and protection for the local environment.
The Wisconsin Green Muslims community is spread out across the state, and centers in the state’s largest cities, Madison and Milwaukee. The community is currently growing to include Muslims in Michigan as well. Community members share a Muslim identity and an interest in the environment. It is a grassroots environmental justice group formed in 2005, intends to educate the Muslim community and the general public about the Islamic environmental justice teachings, to apply these teachings in daily life and to contribute to collaborations and coalitions working toward a just, healthy, peaceful and sustainable future. Currently, Wisconsin Green Muslims and Michigan Green Muslims are focused on creating a community space to teach about plants in the Islamic tradition and enjoy the natural world. Working with Thriving Earth Exchange provides an exciting opportunity to expand people’s awareness in this project and to open opportunities for them to participate directly.
The community would like to expand local awareness about plants that are mentioned in the Qur’an and Hadith, especially those that can be grown in Wisconsin and Michigan. In order to achieve this goal, the project team plans to engage Muslim community members from across these states in virtual or in-person workshops that teach about these plants, how to grow them, and how they can be identified. Then, these community members will be able to go out and identify these plants in their own communities and submit pictures and data about where the plants are already living. These submissions will then be displayed on a digital storymap to enable the project team to better understand which culturally-relevant plants can be found where we live and to share this information with other members of our community. This storymap will be shared online, including on the Wisconsin Green Muslims, Allen Centennial Garden, Michigan Green Muslims, and Thriving Earth Exchange websites. By increasing the community’s awareness of how to find and grow cultural plants through both workshops and access to the map, this project will deepen the connections between their faith and the natural world, inspiring them to be caretakers of plants and our shared environment. We will also build a community connected to plants that will care for, use, and support this future Islamic Garden space at Allen Centennial Garden.
September 2024-January 2025: Project Scoping
January-March 2025: Recruit and onboard scientists/experts. Create data collection protocol and infrastructure
March-April 2025: Develop workshops to teach people how to identify our key plants and collect data
April-May 2025: Launch workshops in-person and online
May- November 2025: Collect data from community members
November-January 2025: Create storymap/website to share map (2 months)
January-March 2026: Launch public-facing storymap/website and promote
Huda Alkaff is an ecologist, environmental educator, and the founder and director of Wisconsin Green Muslims, a grassroots environmental justice group formed in 2005 connecting faith, environmental justice, sustainability, and healing through education and service. Huda’s higher education degrees are in Conservation Ecology, Sustainable Development, and Science/Environmental Education from the University of Georgia. For over two decades, Huda initiated Muslim and interfaith programs on energy democracy and water equity. Huda works at the Center for Community Stewardship, was a Program Manager at Milwaukee Environmental Consortium and is the Coordinator of Wisconsin Faith Communities for Equitable Solar Initiative that connects with over 10,000 people from 19 different faith traditions, spiritualities and various backgrounds. She recently co-chaired the US Climate Action Network 100% Equitable Renewable Energy Action Team. Huda has received numerous awards for her work including the 2015 White House Champions of Change for Faith Climate Justice Leaders by President Obama. Since 2024, Huda facilitates the Michigan Green Muslims environmental justice group.
Reba Luiken is the director of Allen Centennial Garden where she works as an architect of encounters, creating educational experiences that help deepen connections among people and plants. She holds a Ph.D. in History of Science, Technology, and Medicine as well as bachelor’s degrees in Religious Studies and Plant Biology from the University of Minnesota. Her expertise includes public history, public communication of science, digital humanities, nature journaling, and history of science and religion. She has worked in museums and public gardens including Longwood Gardens, the Minnesota Historical Society, and the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum for over ten years.
Yixin Sun, known to many as Sunny, is a PhD candidate in economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Her research focuses on understanding the impacts of air pollution and people’s perceptions surrounding these impacts. Sunny employs a diverse toolkit of field experiments, surveys, and econometric methods in her work. Committed to fostering inclusive and comprehensive research, Sunny actively collaborates with a wide range of stakeholders, including local NGOs, policymakers, and fellow researchers from diverse backgrounds. This collaborative approach has broadened her perspective on the definition of research expertise. When she’s not looking at air pollution data, Sunny enjoys swimming, watching comedy, and embroidering.
We are looking for a Muslim scientist or scientist with deep expertise on the Qur’an and Hadith/exposure to Islamic culture to develop a method to gather data (including images) about culturally important plants that are currently growing in Wisconsin and Michigan. An important component of this work will be creating and executing workshops to help people accurately identify plants mentioned in the Qur’an and Hadith and sharing information about how to grow them. In addition to setting up a system to collect data online, we are also looking for someone to help share the data with the broader public through an online storymap (or similar type of platform). We are very open to having students engage on the project and are also open to a scientist that engages with us from a remote location inside or outside of Wisconsin and Michigan.
Thriving Earth Exchange pide a todos los socios científicos que trabajen con la comunidad para ayudar a definir un proyecto con impacto local concreto al que puedan contribuir como voluntarios y colaboradores pro-bono. Este trabajo también puede posicionar a los científicos y las comunidades para buscar financiación adicional, juntos, para la siguiente fase.
¿Le interesa trabajar como científico voluntario? ¡Inscríbete ya!
Wisconsin Green Muslims is a grassroots environmental justice group formed in 2005, intends to educate the Muslim community and the general public about the Islamic environmental justice teachings, to apply these teachings in daily life and to contribute to collaborations and coalitions working toward a just, healthy, peaceful and sustainable future. Currently, Wisconsin Green Muslims is focused on creating an Islamic Garden as a community space to teach about and enjoy the natural world. They will serve as a key community catalyst, helping us connect with community members and community groups interested in our project.
Allen Centennial Garden is a 2.5 acre public garden on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The Garden is open daily to the public for free. Its mission is to create garden experiences that deepen relationships among people and plants. Currently, Allen Centennial Garden is collaborating with Wisconsin Green Muslims to design and build an Islamic garden within our space. We also bring connections to UW-Madison students, a rich understanding of how to grow and display plants, and experience communicating with the public about plants as assets to this project.
Michigan Green Muslims is a grassroots environmental justice group formed in 2024, intends to educate the Muslim community and the general public about the Islamic environmental justice teachings, to apply these teachings in daily life and to contribute to collaborations and coalitions working toward a just, healthy, peaceful and sustainable future.
Creation Justice Ministries
Partnering with faith communities to address sustainability and environmental health concerns.
