# The new Star Trek Series should have a Muslim character **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 26, 2016, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-star-trek-series-should-have-a-muslim-character/747242 "2016-02-26T19:45:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-star-trek-series-should-have-a-muslim-character/747242/41 "2016-02-26T23:38:42Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > I’m hoping this is a joke. No. You were asking for the show to include people/characters that would challenge a modern day person, by putting front and center those who are on the edge of society and not fully accepted by it, when there’s no particularly logical argument against them. Are you saying that you’re not ready for that? ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-star-trek-series-should-have-a-muslim-character/747242/42 "2016-02-26T23:48:26Z")
In “Generations” it was suggested that Christmas was still a thing, as when Picard entered the Nexus, he celebrated Christmas with an illusory family. It was presented to him as his most fervent wish come true. I realize that Christmas’ traditions are mostly rooted in paganism and that it has become a purely secular holiday for many people, but still, it seems to still be celebrated in the 24th century. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2016, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-star-trek-series-should-have-a-muslim-character/747242/43 "2016-02-27T00:10:22Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Is a Muslim on a modern warship, say, obligated to pray? The person in question is not between destinations but more or less at home, though home is moving. Travelling Muslim can shorten their prayers (making only one) and avoid fasting if they fear strangers or is inconvenient. [This is a more official and complete answer](https://islamqa.info/en/192168) [Some US Muslim sailors on a carrier, praying.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/US_Navy_110408-N-8288P-019_Sailors_aboard_USS_George_Washington_%28CVN_73%29_bow_in_prayer_during_a_Muslim_prayer_service_in_the_ship%27s_chapel.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2016, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-star-trek-series-should-have-a-muslim-character/747242/44 "2016-02-27T00:18:51Z")
**Dale Sams** , you are quite perceptive of the Studio Exec mentality. And \*that \*would get ratings. > [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > 1. A furry I’m pretty sure there are quite a few Lieutenant M’Ress fanboy shippers out there who have longed for that since the 70s. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2016, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-star-trek-series-should-have-a-muslim-character/747242/45 "2016-02-27T00:36:46Z")
What does Allah need with a spaceship? Besides Bashir’s possible heritage, didn’t one of Geordi’s GFs dress in a head to toe covering? Khan may have been meant to look Sikh. Chacotay has been mentioned. Also the Planet o’ Indians of Kirok and another for Wesley and the Traveller to invade. Token diversity has been done, and likely will again. . ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2016, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-star-trek-series-should-have-a-muslim-character/747242/46 "2016-02-27T01:04:19Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > …In TOS and TOS-cast movies, meanwhile, they seem to have eroded into cultural referents or traditional gestures – you may pipe out a funeral to Amazing Grace but not as a \*recessional \*per se, rather just because that’s what you play if you have a funeral and pipes – but still there is that awareness of it and it is a part of the background. IIRC in the TNG episode where Beverly’s grandmother died on the Scottish planet they used part the burial service from the Book of Common Prayer, but with the words changed to omit any overt religious references. > [@Voyager](#): > > But the only reason they’d allow non-standard uniforms would be some religious one - and that is gone. It is established that Uhura is from East Africa (her native language is Swahili) and she’d certainly have some cultural dress - but not on the bridge. TNG, DS9, & VOY all established that exceptions can be made for culture reasons too (Worf’s sash, Nog’s headwrap, Bajoran earings, etc). Hell Troi wore civilian until Jellico forced her into a uniform. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2016, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-star-trek-series-should-have-a-muslim-character/747242/47 "2016-02-27T01:23:30Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > TNG, DS9, & VOY all established that exceptions can be made for culture reasons too (Worf’s sash, Nog’s headwrap, Bajoran earings, etc). TOS established that Scotty’s dress uniform included a kilt, because of course it did. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2016, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-star-trek-series-should-have-a-muslim-character/747242/48 "2016-02-27T01:53:31Z")
As I’ve noted before, Joe Straczynski handled religion much better on “Babylon 5” than any of the “Star Trek” shows has. B5 had atheists, but also Jews, Benedictine monks, rabbis, Baptist preachers, Foundationists, and adherents of assorted alien religions. A much better approach, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2016, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-star-trek-series-should-have-a-muslim-character/747242/49 "2016-02-27T01:57:46Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > No. You were asking for the show to include people/characters that would challenge a modern day person, by putting front and center those who are on the edge of society and not fully accepted by it, when there’s no particularly logical argument against them. > > Are you saying that you’re not ready for that? The purpose of the character is not to challenge people, exactly. It’s to show a future where what makes that person different doesn’t matter anymore. Show them working side by side with others as friends and colleagues and to show people that we are all more the same than different. One of Star Trek’s purposes is to inspire people. This could be inspiring to those that see themselves in this character and those that see something new about a group of people they don’t know personally. To me, that’s what’s important. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2016, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-star-trek-series-should-have-a-muslim-character/747242/50 "2016-02-27T02:17:39Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > Star Trek changed the world of technology, everyone knows how it inspired a generation of engineers, but it also inspired a generation of minorities and it can do so again. What do you think? Sure, we can make him or her redshirts Declan ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2016, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-star-trek-series-should-have-a-muslim-character/747242/51 "2016-02-27T05:05:48Z")
I’m a little confused as to how or why the Bajoran Prophets were “just aliens”, given that they are absurdly powerful beings who exist beyond the limits or space and time, and in fact most likely manipulated the history of the entire Alpha Quadrant to accomplish one specific event. Like Q or the Organians, these are beings far beyond our physical model of existence. They’re not all especially “divine” in terms of attitude, but nobody ever said they had to be. heck, the Prophets explicitly do guide their people with visions instructing them in the right path. Heck, I for one think half of what we “know” about Q to be lies, and that he manipulated Picard from the beginning to cause future change in humanity. By the end of the series, he gave the Federation knowledge of the Borg ahead of time, but where the crew had an out in the form of asking him to save them. He let them learn about their enemy and fight back. At the same time, he set in motion a series of events which resulted in the Borg machine breaking down, redirected the Alpha Quadrant powers to consider the rest of the galaxy, and probably inspired a wide range of cultural and social changes in the Federation specifically, on top of eventually causing Picard to have a sudden insight into how Q sees reality. Q is a classic trickster deity in sci-fi format - he manipulates with both good and bad ends in mind. Granted, this is how it worked out after the first couple seasons were polished up. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2016, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-star-trek-series-should-have-a-muslim-character/747242/52 "2016-02-27T11:27:39Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > No. You were asking for the show to include people/characters that would challenge a modern day person, by putting front and center those who are on the edge of society and not fully accepted by it, when there’s no particularly logical argument against them. > > Are you saying that you’re not ready for that? I’m just saying I don’t like a couple of your examples. What doctors today work with aborted fetuses? Why not just show abortion in general? And why in the world portray lesbians as having to be butch and into sadomasochism? There’s no reason you can’t have separate people involved, so it shows that everyone has their quirks, rather than putting all deviance on one person. I’m also not quite sure how to do furriedom in a universe where anthropomorphic animals are real. It actually starts to seem exploitative in that context. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-star-trek-series-should-have-a-muslim-character/747242/53 "2016-02-28T15:10:20Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I’m just saying I don’t like a couple of your examples. I believe those posts’ point was to bring up the unwisdom of bringing in a character specifically to be the avatar of some current cause of political or cultural controversy – or of mere social derision, in the case of furries – by using absurd examples of what else could happen once the Execs think they’ve a brilliant idea in their hands. I think we are actually not all far apart on that. speaking of which… > [@](#): > > I’m also not quite sure how to do furriedom in a universe where anthropomorphic animals are real. It actually starts to seem exploitative in that context. [Like I was saying](http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/memoryalpha/images/3/31/MRess-Scott.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20061126045754&path-prefix=en). It could be, but hey, there’s [this bit from the current version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXoEfoQYxbo), which has one element thereof. ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-star-trek-series-should-have-a-muslim-character/747242/54 "2016-02-28T16:27:51Z")
I’m in agreement with those who say Bashir was the token person of arab or middle-eastern descent. Also, seems to me I remember that at some point, perhaps only referenced in passing, that there was a lesbian character, but now I can’t seem to find anything about it. and let us not forget [this](https://www.google.com/search?q=Star+Trek+V:+The+Final+Frontier+(1989)&biw=1455&bih=692&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjHpJ717prLAhVH52MKHeuLBUsQ_AUICSgE#tbm=isch&q=Star+Trek+V:+The+Final+Frontier+cat+dancer&imgrc=_) little gem from the “Final Frontier” movie ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-star-trek-series-should-have-a-muslim-character/747242/55 "2016-02-28T16:29:29Z")
The premise is the character will be an interesting character who is a Muslim, not that that is the only defining characteristic of the character. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-star-trek-series-should-have-a-muslim-character/747242/56 "2016-02-28T17:02:04Z")
> [@gytalf2000](#): > > I remember seeing a black comedian giving a performance, maybe in the 1980s or early 1990s (sadly, I have forgotten who this was) raving about how impressed he was as a kid that they actually had a black character on a sci-fi series set in the future – and an attractive female, to boot! Most sci-fi TV shows and movies of that era had no minority representation whatsoever. [Was it Franklyn Ajaye?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bLAR6Or13Y) “Spock only got to get it on once every seven years. That’s why his skin was green and his ears were pointed - that stuff backs up!” ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-star-trek-series-should-have-a-muslim-character/747242/57 "2016-02-29T01:36:38Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > The premise is the character will be an interesting character who is a Muslim, not that that is the only defining characteristic of the character. Which is good, but – – in Babylon 5, Ivanova is a very interesting main character who is incidentally Jewish. But so incidentally that one could not blame anybody for ignoring it altogether when providing a short description of the character. That may indeed be the point, if the character is done well. (And of course the Muslim character could be ethnoculturally Malay or Bosnian, just to throw more of a curveball at the American audience – maybe it would be clever in itself to have that rather than a stereotypical Middle Eastern/African background?) Your OP quote: > [@](#): > > this series should make a person of Muslim faith a main character. “a main character” – not just an interesting one. That leads to another question, what is a main character? ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-star-trek-series-should-have-a-muslim-character/747242/58 "2016-02-29T02:26:17Z")
To paraphrase The Borg… Religion…is irrelavent! ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-star-trek-series-should-have-a-muslim-character/747242/59 "2016-02-29T03:51:38Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I see no point to having a Muslim character. As far as I can tell, none of the previous characters have been members of any existing religion. (Some alien characters have been members of fictional, alien religions, though.) So why start now? The only TREK character who ever seemed to adhere to a real-world face was Uhura, and even then only once (I refer to her reaction to the faux-Romans incipient Christianity). But Sisko and Kira were both clearly Prophetists, and Worf clearly followed the Klingons’ odd, misotheistic, violence-loving faith. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-star-trek-series-should-have-a-muslim-character/747242/60 "2016-02-29T06:22:52Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > As I’ve noted before, Joe Straczynski handled religion much better on “Babylon 5” than any of the “Star Trek” shows has. > > B5 had atheists, but also Jews, Benedictine monks, rabbis, Baptist preachers, Foundationists, and adherents of assorted alien religions. A much better approach, I think. Why is that “handling it better”? What’s “better” about that approach, in any way? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-star-trek-series-should-have-a-muslim-character/747242.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-star-trek-series-should-have-a-muslim-character/747242.md?page=4)