Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

UAE Clerics' Fatwa Forbids Muslims From Traveling To Mars

Posted by timothy on from the limited-jurisdiction dept.

PolygamousRanchKid writes "The Khaleej Times of Dubai reports that a fatwa committee has forbidden Muslims from taking a one-way trip to the Red Planet. At the moment, there is no technology available that would allow for a return trip from Mars, so it is truly a one-way ticket for the colonists, who may also become reality TV stars in the process. The committee of the General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowment in the United Arab Emirates that issued the fatwa against such a journey doesn't have anything against space exploration, Elon Musk's Mars visions, or anything like that. Rather, the religious leaders argue that making the trip would be tantamount to committing suicide, which all religions tend to frown upon."

22 of 363 comments (clear)

  1. Well for once I agree with religious crazies by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You don't want to go to Mars? Please by all means, keep your bullshit on Earth and let us evolved human beings make a fresh new life on a fresh new planet without you!

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
    1. Re:Well for once I agree with religious crazies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Well, they do have a point. Anyone going to Mars on current technology would be committing suicide. No, you won't survive on Mars. No, it won't be the fun adventure that you thought it would be.

      If we had the ability to safely travel to and from Mars, just as you can travel to another country and back, they wouldn't be forbidding the journey.

    2. Re: Well for once I agree with religious crazies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If you move to another country and never return, did you kill yourself? Why can't we live on Mars?

    3. Re: Well for once I agree with religious crazies by AuMatar · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Lack of food, oxygen, and liquid water. Maybe it will be possible someday, but not now. This fatwa was discussing doing it now, possibly as part of the one way mission to mars that was discussed, which was a complete suicide mission.

      --
      I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
    4. Re: Well for once I agree with religious crazies by JustOK · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Life is a suicide mission

      --
      rewriting history since 2109
    5. Re: Well for once I agree with religious crazies by CastrTroy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think the current plans for sending people to mars have no such plans though. They want to send people with no plans of sending any supplies and no plans of sending the necessary life support systems in the first place. Sending a resupply mission would be a major project, and lead times of 6 months to 2 years depending on orbits can make things difficult. With colonization they may had a high chance of death, but they were travelling places with plenty of fresh air, water, and food. Most of the deaths were due to either disease or disagreements with the locals. Many died of malnutrition. But they still had the intentions of living, those who are planning the current Mars trip have no such intentions.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    6. Re:Well for once I agree with religious crazies by Khalid · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Please stop this fatwa unsanity !

      The muslim word is full of stupid jerks who use religion and the beliefs of other people to serve their own agenda, while pretending speaking in the name of Islam. This is not different from a stupid christian priest who give his opinion about a a society matter, they only represent themeslves.

    7. Re:Well for once I agree with religious crazies by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The muslim word is full of stupid jerks who use religion and the beliefs of other people to serve their own agenda

      All theist communities are like that. Actually, that's what theism is about in the first place! The sooner we get rid of this crap, the better for everyone.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  2. Let it begin! by MPAB · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Cue witty jokes about blowing oneself up not counting as suicide.

    But they should also forbid being born, as everyone that does will die eventually.

  3. Using their own logic... by Taelron · · Score: 2, Insightful

    then staying on Earth, living out your life and dying is also tantamount to suicide too. So you are damned if you do and damned if you dont...

  4. @Al Kai Da - RTFF - Read the fucking .. by burni2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    .. Fatwa

    Stop blasting yourself into pieces, it's forbidden,
    and no your chance to survive is below the mars mission.

  5. Re:Well, they could by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    from the religion that brought you Istishhad suicide bombers, "you can't go to mars and advance science exploration and the boundaries of human knowledge that would be suicide(without a exploding vest in a crowd of innocent civilians)"

  6. Re:"suicide, which all religions frown upon" by artor3 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You realize Muslim people aren't a hivemind, right? The people blowing themselves up aren't the ones issuing this fatwa. I presume you're an atheist... are you a "fucking hypocrite" for opposing mass murder, given the actions of Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot?

  7. Re:How is this a suicide? by erikkemperman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There's plenty of hazardous expeditions that Muslims have gone on without having a Fatwa issued against it - scaling Mount Everest, visiting the South/North pole, etc.

    And the ISS, if I remember correctly. There were some issues in determining the direction in which to pray, but those were resolved. Wonder how that would work for Martian Muslims, though.

    --
    Gosh, thanks. That must be why the other ships call me Meatfucker -- GCU Grey Area (Eccentric)
  8. Re:Well, they could by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Suicide bombing is not approved by mainstream Islam. Just like mainstream Christianity doesn't approve of anti-abortion terrorism.

  9. But... but... by Maritz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What if there's a school on Mars that has a girl in it? It's not going to blow itself up now, is it?!?! More short-sightedness from the 'clerics'.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  10. This from a religion by msobkow · · Score: 1, Insightful

    This from a religion famous for suicide bombers.

    What a shame the radicals and terrorists don't actually READ the Koran.

    --
    I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
    1. Re:This from a religion by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The problem is they did read the Koran. It says non believers should be killed. Quite explicitly. Since it is supposed to be god's literal word many scholars have concluded that jihad is pleasing to him. Therefore death as a result of fighting in his name is fine, to be encouraged even.

      Suicide bombing is more contentious, but only in the senses that some people argue against the legitimacy of the war and some argue that it isn't the best way to fight.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  11. Re:"suicide, which all religions frown upon" by abies · · Score: 4, Insightful

    But the fact that 99.9% of Muslims oppose terrorism doesn't seem to be swaying the terrorists.

    Quotation needed. I think that you are considerably underestimating amount of 'angry Muslims' in the world.
    If you would say 99.9% of Muslims aren't _actively_ involved in terrorism - sure. But oppose?

    Because, again, religions aren't hive minds. Members don't really have much influence over each other, and they have even less influence over people who have already proven themselves willing to kill.

    Now, this is pure BS. Religions are closest thing people have to hive minds (I count cults of dictators, like in NK, as a religion, even if it is not using world 'god'). Religons influence minds of people in extreme ways. Think about Scientists or other strange cults/sects - this is example of religion completely brainwashing the person. Bigger religions are trying to be slightly more subtle, but still, religion is probably best mind manipulation tool ever invented by mankind.

  12. Re:Hold the lines by rubycodez · · Score: 3, Insightful

    you're confused, most Muslims and most Christians have no problem with evolution.

  13. did the same clerics have an opinion on bombings? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    did these same clerics forbid suicide bombings?

  14. Really.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Since when do Muslims care about suicide? They do it all the time when they're blowing themselves up.