With the clash of religious radicals of all kinds apparently accelerating, this article by Mohammed Abbou of Algeria’s Le Quotidien d’Oran offers a ray of light from the Muslim world. With his account of the day human beings landed on the moon, Abbou illustrates how the backward views of the ignorant faithful continue to blind people to the truth of the world they live in.
For Algeria’s Le Quotidien d’Oran, Mohammed Abbou writes in part:
That day, as he did each time he came home, he stopped to greet the trader and surprised him in the midst of a discussion with three clients. He recognized among them the local Taleb [student of the faith], who with eyes bulging gesticulated and drooled as if he were defending himself against an assault by the devil. Upon his arrival, the merchant’s face lit up with a big smile and he addressing his fellows. He suggested that they listen to the opinion of the young scholar who had just entered the university, on the subject at hand.
Apparently, the question was about the moon landing, or to use a more academic phrase, the landing on lunar soil of a manned spacecraft. Only the merchant supported the reality of the event, confronted with three naysayers led by the Taleb, who was imbued with the certitude of his convictions that such a feat could not be in the human order of things. Only by the will of God could celestial creatures inhabit the heavens and move about there.
Men, according to him, having stood on the earth’s highest summit, in their immense naivety, now believe they have reached the moon. This is how the religious man tries to put the actions of humanity in competition with the divine power. He does so in order to rally the naive and gullible faithful, who believe with all sincerity that they are defending their attacked faith. The maneuver succeeded and the debate moved from its proper sphere to one no longer among men, but among “blasphemers” and the courageous defenders of the faith. Under these conditions, the battle was lost long before it began.
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