From the back of the crowd, perhaps 400 strong, I can barely make out the figure of the young woman who is speaking. She is dressed in colourful Islamic Dupatta and speaks across a sea of Extinction Rebellion (XR) banners. Protestors are interspersed with onlookers from around Oxford Circus, some of whom stop their shopping to listen or take leaflets.
Her name is Sara Zaltash, but she isn’t repeating the latest figures from the IPCC or listing the failures of the UK government to tackle climate change. She is preaching, we might say, to the unconverted. She is teaching us, in her own words and gestures, the meaning of Allah and of the Adhan, the call to prayer, in the context of the climate crisis:
“Allahu ‘akbar…There is nothing greater than oneness…there is no God, no H&M, no Piccadilly, none of that, is greater than oneness…Hayya ‘ala I-falah. Come to sanctuary. Come to success. ‘Cause that’s how important it is to stay safe...Hayya ‘ala s-salah. Which means come celebrate. Come worship. Come pray.”
