Last year, a Dutch company, Mars One, announced plans to establish a permanent human colony on Mars. Plans are for the first volunteers to fly there in 2023, with others following every two years. No technology currently exists to bring the colonizers back to earth. This week the
Khaleej Times reports that a fatwa committee under the General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowment in the United Arab Emirates has ruled that promoting or participating in the one-way trips violates Islamic law:
“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.”
Whoever opts for this “hazardous trip”, the committee said, is likely to perish for no “righteous reason”, and thus will be liable to a “punishment similar to that of suicide in the Hereafter”.
Some 500 Saudis and other Arabs are among those who have already applied to take part in the mission.
