Eco-Jihad?

Issue 57 Front Cover

The big green issue. The emel green issue. The ‘your planet needs you’ issue. We came out with a number of names to label one of our most prized issues of emel. In the end only Eco-Jihad seemed to hit the mark.

Issue 57 caused a huge buzz that spread throughout the World Wide Web, as well as through daily conversations. We even caught the interest of Prince Charles -

I went around the office to ask a few members of the team how they contributed to bringing the Eco-Jihad issue to fruition, and what lessons they have learned along the way…

Remona Aly

The Eco-Jihad issue, like every other issue, was full of surprises and challenges. After copious amounts of tea and chocolate on constant drip (my fuel – super unleaded of course – to get through another day), we managed to meet our ‘green’ print deadline. The front cover alone went through many team brainstorming sessions. The phrase Eco-Jihad evolved out of the brilliant Eco-Warriors feature by Somaiya Khan. As Muslims we need to reclaim the word ‘jihad’ as a positive force for the betterment of our inner selves and the outer world – society and the environment.

The highlight for the Eco-Jihad issue for me was speaking to Chris Jordan, the photographic artist who creates his work from rubbish. He was inspiring. He said that each one of us as individuals has to believe that we can make a difference, that’s the only way we can see change and we must always remain hopeful. After that I was determined to round up all the pdf print-outs and all my empty Innocent smoothie bottles together, ready for recycling. I’m on a mission, and it’s very green.

Remona Aly, Deputy Editor

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Somaiya Khan

For emel’s Eco Jihad issue I put together a feature article on Muslim Eco Warriors, where I interviewed different people from around the world on the work they did for the environment. Inspiring is a word we use a LOT at emel, but I realised all these ordinary people really were making a difference! Learning what motivated people to make a change was really interesting. Lebanese climate campaigner Wael Hmaidan was inspired by seeing environmental activists on TV, and at a young age made the decision to fight for a cause. Thinking of her children’s future, single mother Yuyun Ismawati of Indonesia used her engineering background to forge change that will help the lives of hundreds of thousands throughout the Indonesian archipelago. Every single Muslim I interviewed for the feature was paving the way forward, and I really think we can look to them as role models. I remember coming home from work and raving about the fantastic people I was writing about. I wanted my young siblings to take note.

Getting all these people together before deadline was fun, since they were all in different time zones and the photos that came in weren’t uniform. I may have given our design team a bit of a headache! However, hopefully the feature works well because I aimed for a mix of people from different backgrounds doing varying things for the environment. Sustainable farming, eco-mosque construction, water conservation, making Hajj greener – I could go on and on. There’s so much good we can all do, to affect change in a positive way.
I also put together a whole bunch of eco-tips, which took a lot of research and was quite difficult to lay out. However, I learned a lot, and I’ve personally changed a lifetime of bad habits. Plastic bottles are a big no-no, and I always look for FSC and MSC logos now.

Somaiya Khan-Piachaud, Features Editor

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Steven Lawson

Anyone who is not familiar with the actual meaning of the word Jihad will no doubt be dumbstruck by this issue’s cover. But that’s all part of the playful usage of words. The ultimate goal was to highlight the struggle of combating global warming.

This being a conceptual cover, it posed many challenges for the design team. I’ve lost count on the numerous covers I had mocked up, I remember experimenting with such outlandish ideas as Lord Kitchener “Your Country Needs You!” right down to Yeti-style carbon footprints. As much fun as it was to design these covers they were still lacking a certain je ne sais quoi!

rejected ideas for the front cover

In the end, Eco-Jihad came to the table. This was to be a perfect union of words and images. The final result as you can see is a very bold typographic cover which delivers on many levels. Challenging the notion of jihad and at the same time delivering the message on global warming.

Still, the question remained… Will our readers think we’ve lost the plot? I pictured us coming to the office after publication surrounded by numerous protesters, hearing that we are under constant surveillance from the secret services. Ahhh! What’s life without a bit of anarchy?!

Steven Lawson, Art Director