But they won’t be getting them anytime soon, as “Muslims ‘warned in Fatwa not to live on Mars.'” decries a London Telegraph headline that’s catnip to the Drudge Report:
Muslims have been warned in a Fatwa not to go and live on Mars because it would pose “a real risk to life”, according to a Dubai news organisation.
The General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowment (GAIAE) in the United Arab Emirates said that anyone making such a “hazardous trip” is likely to die for “no righteous reason”.
They would therefore be liable to a “punishment similar to that of suicide in the Hereafter”, the Khaleej Times reported.
The Fatwa was apparently issued in response to the proposal from the Dutch company Mars One last year to send four people on a one-way journey to the red planet in 2022.
“Such a one-way journey poses a real risk to life, and that can never be justified in Islam,” the committee said. “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.”
According to the space-themed Universe Today, Iran is working on — or at least has fantasies of — building a manned spacecraft program. I guess for now, Mars is off the table.
But if Iran can’t get to Mars, how will it capture the high ground and beat back the Nazi Space Aliens that have been running America since 1945?
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