Many have criticized the new regulation and urged the RCSOs to reject the offer, arguing that they should shun an industry that has been blamed for large-scale environmental destruction and human rights violations. They suggest that the RCSOs must focus on their core responsibility as the guardians of religious and moral values.

Others, including the largest Islamic organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), however, support the regulation, regarding it as a good opportunity for the RCSOs to manage the country’s natural resources in a sustainable way.

The emergence of Islamic environmentalism in Indonesia reveals a new narrative of Muslim involvement in addressing environmental issues. Muslims not only emphasize religious moral calls to protect nature from further degradation, but also to manage it sustainably.

A unique aspect of Indonesian Islamic environmentalism, however, is the integration of neoliberal ideas into everyday environmental practice. Many Muslims often emphasize that although God gave the earth to humans to protect, they can utilize and benefit from it wisely.

The incorporation of neoliberalism in Islamic environmentalism offers a new way of understanding the unexpected blending between neoliberal logic and Islamic eco-spirituality, which can further enlighten our understanding of Muslims’ involvement in managing natural resources in Indonesia using creative but problematic approaches.

The term Islamic environmentalism can be found in the works of many scholars, where they inspire, question and define the term as encompassing “ethics, worldview, living tradition and a committed viewpoint about the environment.”