Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates -- The
Oscar-nominated film "Gravity" traces the harrowing tale of astronaut
Ryan Stone after a mission goes horribly wrong. She's lost in space and
struggles to try to make her way back to Earth.
"Gravity" is just a film. Imagine a similar real-life scenario: Would there be any chance of survival?
That's a concern for the
General Authority of Islamic Affairs & Endowments, or GAIAE, the
United Arab Emirates' religious watchdog, for anyone who wishes to
travel to Mars. The GAIAE has issued a fatwa, or an official Islamic
ruling, to warn Muslims against a Mars mission.
So far, the UAE has
supported space travel. Abu Dhabi's Aabar Investments teamed up with
Richard
Branson's Virgin group to create Virgin Galactic to provide
spaceflights for tourists, starting this year. But a mission to Mars, it
seems, is one step too far.
The mission is being
planned by the Dutch nonprofit foundation Mars One. In April 2013, it
announced its ambitions to establish a human settlement on the Red
Planet by 2024.
But the GAIAE likens the
journey to a suicide mission. On the authority's free 24-hour hotline,
the issue was deliberated by the center's specialized muftis, or
scholars, who issued the following statement: "It is not permissible to
travel to Mars and never to return if there is no life on Mars. The
chances of dying are higher than living."
Taking one's life willingly is against Islamic principles.
In response, Mars One
issued a statement asking the UAE's Islamic authorities to cancel the
fatwa, saying every precaution would be taken to reduce the risk to
life. "If we may be so bold: the GAIAE should not analyze the risk as
they perceive it today," the statement says. "The GAIAE should assess
the potential risk for humans as if an unmanned habitable outpost is
ready and waiting on Mars. Only when that outpost is established will
human lives be risked in Mars One's plan."
The statement includes a
verse from the Quran that "encourages Muslims to go out and see the
signs of God's creation in the 'heavens and the earth.' " It goes on to
say the first Martian settlers would walk in the footsteps of great
Muslim explorers like Ibn Battuta, the 14th century Moroccan journeyman
whose travels took him across North Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
Indeed, space travel isn't alien to Muslim culture. There have been Muslim space explorers in the past.
The first ever Muslim
space tourist was Saudi Arabia's Prince Sultan bin Salman Al-Saud, when
he joined the crew of American space shuttle Discovery in 1985. In 2006,
Anousheh Ansari became the first Iranian-born woman in space. And to
help Muslims observe religious obligations in space, the Malaysian
government has been instrumental in setting up guidelines.
In 2006, Malaysia's
national space agency Angkasa convened a conference of Islamic
scientists and scholars to address the religious obligations of Muslim
astronauts. The result was a detailed set of rules called "A Guideline
of Performing Ibadah (worship) at the International Space Station
(ISS)." It tackles a number of issues, like the number of times a Muslim
should observe daily prayers, when a day lasts just 90 minutes in
orbit.
Mars One says 1,058
candidates have been shortlisted for the mission, from pool of more than
200,000 applicants around the world. It's not clear how many Muslims
are among the candidates, but Mars One says applications came from 107
countries.
Since its inception in 2008, the GAIAE has released nearly 2 million fatwas. The fatwa on the Mars mission is now among them.
-CNN
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