Islam and Environmental Consciousness: A New Scale Development

This research proposed a new construct, Islamic environmental consciousness (IEC), and developed a measurement scale to support this construct. Churchill's (J Mark Res 16(1): 64-73, 1979) paradigm, adapted by Negra and Mzoughi (Internet Res 22(4): 426-442, 2012), was utilized. A total of 32 items were generated based on the verses of the Qur'an from nine interviews with teachers in an Islamic seminary. This set of items was reduced to 19 after dropping redundant or non-representative items. In a pilot study, factor analysis of the 19-item scale yielded a two-factor structure scale of seven items with a reliability ranging from 0.7 to 0.8. The Islamic environmental consciousness scale (IECS) was statistically confirmed and validated in a subsequent investigation. The proposed measurement scale warrants further exploratory study. Future research should assess the IECS's validity across different Muslim countries, locales, and various Islamic schools of thought and practice. IEC is proposed as a new construct that focuses primarily on the Qur'an and seeks to achieve acceptance by both Sunni and Shia denominations. In this study, both cognitive attitudes and behavioral aspects were considered in the design of the IECS.