How do Muslims conceive of the idea of aliens on other planets? Seriously, if you broached the idea of there being other life forms on distant galaxies, would that be included in their religion whatsoever? Or would the idea of it it somehow skew the notion of a heaven, hell and present existence on Earth? I suppose this question applies to other forms of religion as well, Catholicism, Baptism, and so on.
Well. except that I am currently in a snit with my Islamic co-workers, I would certainly put this on the things to ask about list.
That being said, nobody here has ever heard of a Klingon ™ or The Federation ™. Science Fiction is an unknown genre here.
The few times I have broached the subject my office-mates expressed certainty that Little Green Men are all Musliums.
My admittedly limited contact with the culture assures me that “speculative fiction” is not a big genre with people in it… too Western.
Isn’t there a Muslim sultan (might be the Sultan of Brunei) who is a major trekkie and even played an extra in an episode of TNG?
Please excuse this question if it seems flippant, but it seems an interesting practical question. And besides, it must have come up already, since, I believe, we’ve already had at least one Muslim in space.
Where do you put the mihrab when you’re off the Earth?
Hmmm… AFAIK, the Qura’n says nothing about the existance/non-existance of little green men. All we’re taught about the universe is that its Allah’s creation waiting to be discovered.
Wouldn’t you class the 1001 Nights as fantasy, if not speculative fiction? It seems that if you can conceive of djinns, you should be able to conceive of life on other worlds.
You don’t need to invoke the Thousand Nights and a Night – djinns are mentioned in the Koran, IIRC. That makes them an element of faith, not speculation.
This is a really simple question. Islam would morph into the Zensunni and Buddislamic religions. 
Seriously though, my theory is that there will be a diaspora of humanity that will head to the stars in about 200 years in “generation ships”. Little micrcosms of human society safely insulated from outsider influence. The traditional religions will all have their chance to evolve into thousands, even millions of distinct religions, some fundamentalist, some not. Islam will just morph into many, many faiths. On Earth, the current religious institutions will last, regardless of whther aliens are discovered. I daresay that there will be missionaries yet again.
That didn’t really work. Anyway, that was Voyager.
One of my best friends is Mormon and the most hard core Trek fan I know but I generally avoid deep theological discussions for the sake of our friendship so planet Kolob doesn’t come up in conversation often. Would be interesting to have some CoJCoLDS Dopers chime in on this.
I’m assuming the Jews in Space bit from Mel Brooks History of the World: Part I is not a valid cite
Forgive me, but what immediately popped into mind when I saw the thread title was:
[Muppet Announcer voice ON]
“Muslims…In…SPACE!!!”
[Muppet Announcer voice OFF]
I have a book of LDS Science Fiction, entitled, appropriately, LDSF. (More than one of us suggested that he change the title to “Zion’s Fiction”), so there is Mormon SF out there. Besides the work of Orson Scott Card and Glen Larson.
Waaaaaiiittt, what’s this a’ doin in MPSIMS?
I think it’s because the thread was opened here.
Well fancy that, then. A wonder what the world’s come to.
I got your Mormon sci-fi Doper right here. There are a bunch of LDS sci-fi writers, Orson Scott Card being the most famous. BYU has a sci-fi literary conference every so often. And there is a scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants (the exact reference escapes me) which states in paraphrase that the worlds (note the plural) were created by God, and the inhabitants are His children.
Dunno, I’ll ask next time I’m with Muslim friends/colleagues. My WAG would be that they will all have wildly varying views, just as non-Muslims do.
A pertinent point to bear in mind is that Islam as a religion/culture has traditionally laid huge emphasis on science, learning and education.
Thanks for such varied reponses! Actually I was also thinking of the possible ACTUAL kind-- spose there is life out there fungus or otherwise, would this kilter religions in general?