The United
Arab Emirates is preparing to be the first Islamic nation to launch a mission
to Mars.
Last year,
religious leaders in the UAE issued a fatwa forbidding Muslims from landing on
Mars. However, the robotic spaceship will not actually touch down on the
Martian surface. It will blast off aboard a Japanese rocket and then go into
orbit around the planet.
“We are
delighted to launch the UAE’s Mars explorer by the Japanese launch vehicle
H-IIA from Tanegashima Space Center in Japan in 2020,” said Yuichi Yamaura,
vice president of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
“We are
confident that we will accomplish our responsibility, together with Mitsubishi
Heavy Industries.”
The UAE
first created its space agency in 2014 with the express aim of becoming the
first Arab nation to launch a Mars mission.
In the same
year, the nation’s General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowment issued a
fatwa forbidding Muslims from journeying to the red planet because they would
effectively be committing suicide.
“Such a
one-way journey poses a real risk to life, and that can never be justified in
Islam,” the religious organisation wrote.
“There is a
possibility that an individual who travels to planet Mars may not be able to
remain alive there, and is more vulnerable to death.”
The
religious edict was issued in response to an announcement from Mars One, which
wants to send astronauts on a one-way trip to Mars.
“The Muslim
world has a rich tradition of exploration,” Mars One said in a long post on its
website.
It then
quoted a Qur’anic verse and added: “The verse from the Qur’an above encourages
Muslims to go out and see the signs of God’s creation in the ‘heavens and the
earth’.”
“The most
influential example of this was the Moroccan Muslim traveller, Ibn Battuta, who
from 1325 to 1355 travelled 117,000 kilometres, visiting the equivalent of 44
modern countries.”
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