THERE has been much hype and hoopla, especially in the West, around Indian spacecraft’s landing on the moon. It is but geopolitics that is dictating the West’s reaction. As for India, the elections are around the corner, and this was yet another expensive publicity stunt by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the expense of poverty-stricken Indian people. India surely would have been better off spending the money to address poverty within.

People who are critical of the Islamic world for not having even attempted a journey to the moon have been brainwashed into thinking that the Muslims are not good enough. There are several facts to the contrary. Saudi Prince Sultan bin Salman became the first Muslim to travel into space back in 1985. Two years later, Syrian national Muhammed Faris went into space as part of a Soviet space mission. In

2007, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, an orthopaedic surgeon, became the first Malaysian to become an astronaut and the first Muslim to observe fasting during Ramazan while in space. He performed experiments related to the characteristics and growth of liver cells during the mission.

Today, drones as a lethal weapon are changing the nature of warfare, and are a rage all over the world. Turkiye, a Muslim-majority country, has been making waves in drone manufacturing, with its Bayraktar TB2 deployed by Ukraine in the conflict with Russia, where it has become a legend with its precision air strike capabilities. Iran, another Muslim country, has launched its Mohajer-10 drone capable of striking Israel, which is giving the Jewish state a scare.

Before the European colonists ruined agriculture in Palestine, the Muslims there used to grow the best fruits and vegetables organically. Munir Daraghma, a Palestinian farmer, despite all odds has managed to grow dragon fruit, which is native to South and Central America.

The West and its allies like to paint Islamic countries as backward, while the truth is that the Muslims have given knowledge to the world. Baghdad, which has been in ruins since the US invasion in 2003, used to be a centre of science and knowledge about 1,200 years ago. In fact, Arab scientists were busy in various fields hundreds of years before the scientific revolution in Europe.

Today, the West is bragging about India’s moon-landing without having the decency to admitt its own folly of attacking Muslim lands and nations, and exploiting their resources, leaving them in ruins through war and destruction.

Angabeen Ahmad
Karachi

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2023