Social and Religious Influences on Environmentally Ethical Behavior of Muslim Community in Malaysia

Abstract

In Malaysia, one of the proven consequences of the human impact on the environment is the increasing waste generation over the years. This situation highlights the urgent need for a solution, obtained by exploring the factors related to environmentally ethical behavior (EEB), namely pre-cycling, reusing and recycling. As the Muslim community represents the largest population in Malaysia, it is important to explore how Muslims manage waste in their daily lives. In this study, we investigated the influence of social and religious factors on the EEB of the Muslim community in Malaysia. A cross- sectional study was conducted in which a set of questionnaires was distributed to 3822 Muslims in Malaysia. Stratified random sampling was applied to the populations of 16 states in Malaysia. The data were analyzed using Pearson correlation for the significance, direction and strength of the relationship between social and religious factors and EEB among the Muslim community in Malaysia. The results illustrated that there was a statistically significant correlation between social factors and EEB, as well as between religious factors and EEB. Social factors had a stronger correlation in explaining the key factor for Muslims in performing EEB. The findings shed light on a number of ethical issues in environmental practices among Muslims.