A thought exercise......
Aug. 9th, 2006 10:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
patgundLooking at the panel listings for Conjecture, and saw "Islam in Speculative Fiction - From Dune to the Terrorists of Irustan, how have SF/F depictions of Islam changed through the years?"
This got me to thinking seriously about Islam in SF and the future.
Okay, you have a colony ship that's going to take 500+ years to get to a new star system, and it's a one-way trip. Let's argue it's a sleeper ship rather than a generation ship.
The colonalists are all Muslim.
They get to the planet. Now what??
What direction do they face?
How can they cope with the fact that they - or their decendants, can't make the Hajj to Mecca that all Muslims must make during their lives?
How do you know when times for prayer are?
When do you know when Ramadan begins when the moon you need to see to begin it is 500+ years away??
What about the Eld's??
What native animals are unclean??
They would have to seriously consider what it meant to be a Muslim even before they set out *ON* this journey.
This got me to thinking seriously about Islam in SF and the future.
Okay, you have a colony ship that's going to take 500+ years to get to a new star system, and it's a one-way trip. Let's argue it's a sleeper ship rather than a generation ship.
The colonalists are all Muslim.
They get to the planet. Now what??
What direction do they face?
How can they cope with the fact that they - or their decendants, can't make the Hajj to Mecca that all Muslims must make during their lives?
How do you know when times for prayer are?
When do you know when Ramadan begins when the moon you need to see to begin it is 500+ years away??
What about the Eld's??
What native animals are unclean??
They would have to seriously consider what it meant to be a Muslim even before they set out *ON* this journey.
