Photos courtesy of Wisconsin Green Muslims

Huda Alkaff, founder and director of Wisconsin Green Muslims was one of 70 organizations who participated in the “Fish for the Future” campaign to protect the Great Lakes.

On Saturday, July 12th, 2025 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin – the pinnacle of a massive collective effort to protect the Great Lakes and shut down Enbridge’s Line 5 oil pipeline – over 70 organizations and thousands of creative and dedicated participants, including Michigan Green Muslims and Wisconsin Green Muslims, broke the global record for the largest display of origami folded paper fish! Each fish is a symbol of a shared commitment to protect the Great Lakes.

The campaign garnered an astonishing total of 86,262 folded paper fish, which were displayed at the Urban Ecology Center at Washington Park in Milwaukee on July 12. Origami -the Japanese art of paper folding – was sent in from every state in the U.S., D.C. and Puerto Rico, as well as Canada and Mexico, truly making this a global endeavor to promote the importance of protecting water and shutting down the Line 5 oil pipeline.

A global campaign to protect water and protest Line 5 oil pipeline, produced 86,262 origami fish displayed in Milwaukee at the Urban Ecology Center at Washington Park. 

What’s Line 5?

Enbridge’s Line 5 is a 645-mile-long pipeline that daily transports 22 million gallons of crude oil and fossil gas liquids from Superior, Wisconsin through Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, under the Straits of Mackinac, and down to refineries in Sarnia, Ontario. Originally built in 1953, this pipeline has significantly deteriorated over the course of the last several decades and poses catastrophic risks to the neighbors, valuable freshwater sources (including 400 rivers, streams, and wetlands), and tribal lands that it cuts through.

Enbridge – a multibillion-dollar Canadian oil corporation – is moving oil dangerously through northern Wisconsin every day violating the Bad River Band’s tribal sovereignty. Now, Enbridge is trying to expand Line 5 and operate it for years to come, placing the watershed, tribal rights, and the people of northern Wisconsin in immense danger. It puts the climate, the Great Lakes, and everything that depends on them, at risk of a devastating oil spill.

The Great Lakes containing 84% of North America’s surface fresh water.  Enbridge’s aging Line 5 oil pipeline poses catastrophic risks to surrounding areas, valuable freshwater sources – 400 rivers, streams, and wetlands, including tribal lands.

86,262 Origami Fish. Thousands of People. One Powerful Narrative

Fish for the Future was a nationwide art and action campaign to raise awareness about the urgent need to shut down Enbridge’s Line 5 oil pipeline and protect our precious Great Lakes. Through the simple act of folding origami paper fish, people of all ages and backgrounds came together to make a powerful statement — one that blended creativity with climate action. Each one of the origami fish made in this campaign was a call for action: to honor tribal sovereignty, protect the Great Lakes, and shut down Line 5.

It’s not a matter of if the Line 5 pipeline spills, but when. Enbridge’s track record is tainted with numerous oil spill disasters, including one of the largest inland oil spills in US history in 2010 in the Kalamazoo River in Michigan. Recently, in November 2024, another one of Enbridge’s pipelines ruptured and spilled over 70,000 gallons of oil in Jefferson County, Wisconsin – and the public didn’t learn until a month later.

Communities, Tribes, and Governments have demanded that Enbridge safely decommission their aging oil pipeline in order to keep our communities and water safe from Line 5 spill. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, in 2020, ordered Enbridge to shut down Line 5 under the public trust doctrine and revoked the Line 5 easement due to repeated violations. The Bad River Band Tribe in Wisconsin has been outspoken that they do not want Line 5 running through their reservation. A U.S. District Court ruled in Wisconsin in June 2023 and found Line 5 to be a public nuisance and in trespass on the Bad River Band reservation. The court ordered the pipeline shut down if Enbridge does not remove it by June 2026 – but Enbridge appealed that decision.

Rather than comply with the demands of the Bad River Band and Michigan, Enbridge is proposing to build a tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac to skirt the law and the Michigan Governor’s order, and build a reroute around the Bad River Reservation. But this reroute doesn’t solve the problem– the reroute would still put the Band’s watershed in jeopardy.

We all need clean, safe water. We all know why healthy water is important for our everyday life. That’s why we’re standing together to protect it. Line 5 threatens the safety of the Great Lakes and the drinking water of 40 million people. Line 5 should be safely decommissioned and we’ll continue working together to make it happen.

Join the movement to save the Great Lakes.

For 20 years (in 2025), Wisconsin Green Muslims group, formed in 2005, has worked on environmental justice issues as it relates to climate change, clean air and pure water, healthy food, energy democracy, waste reduction, and transportation equity. Now, the Michigan Green Muslims volunteer group is joining too. Both state-wide grassroots groups are connecting faith, environmental justice, sustainability, and healing through education and service in Michigan and Wisconsin.

In Islam, water is life. It is a sacred gift and trust. Water is a teacher, connector, healer, blessing, purifying and sustaining force. We love water. We thank and respect water. We are water. 

Take action by calling on decision-makers to shut down Line 5 once and for all.