Why Islam Needs Science Fiction

Science fiction is one of the most amazing genres in literature, mostly because all the rules of normal realty are open to manipulation and examination. This is the perfect setting for exploring a post-colonial Islamic identity, because of the very nature of the deep questions Muslims can ask themselves while presenting their unique viewpoints to the rest of the world. Nearly every aspect of SF poses deep questions about the modern Muslim identity, from time-travel to catastrophes, colonization of worlds to extraterrestrial aliens; this literary genre is required to chart the course for the next centuries.

Alternate Timelines
The first trope of science fiction that comes to mind is time-travel, with exploring the past, creating alternate versions of the present, and speculating about the future. The ethics of time travel are interesting enough in western fiction, but the implications of an Islamic authored story about visiting the time of Mohamed is so contentious and interesting that it begs to be told. This is also one of the means of achieving the post-colonialist goal of reclaiming ones history from the Europeans, by using time-traveling stories to the past to touch on some of the most important parts of western history (Old Testament, Jesus, etc) in a genre that may be read worldwide.
Alternate histories are some of the oldest sources of fiction, showing how history may have turned out differently with the slightest changes. Time-travel interventionist stories can explore what might have been if the Ottoman Empire had not lost WWI, and how the world would be different if the borders of the Middle East hadn’t been rewritten. Likewise the Mongol disaster would have been prevented if Genghis Kahn was slain as a boy, or the split between Shiite and Sunni might have been prevented if Ali had survived assassination. Alien invasions and other hypothetical science fiction elements in historical contexts are also enlightening, and reveal as much about the authors as they do about the subject matter. The possibilities are endless, and definitely worth exploring.
The greatest possibilities for Islamic authored science fiction involve the future, and the myriad of possibilities that civilization has not yet begun to consider. The easiest to envision are the extrapolations of the present into the future. If one of the goals of Islamic civilization is worldwide conversion, what happens when they achieve it? Then what? Or if technological trends continue, how does Islam keep up with contentious issues such as cloning, cross-breeding humans, virtual reality, interstellar travel, telepathy, and artificial life? What insight can they provide to the western world? There are several prophesies about the future, and exploring what might actually happen is one of the greatest strengths of science fiction.

Loss of Homelands
One of the most terrible and creative exercises in fiction is projecting what happens when homelands are lost. Could Islam survive the loss of Mecca and/or other important historical locations? How would the religion and identity change with the natural (through sea level rise) or artificial (thermonuclear) destruction of their great holy places?
More common to sci-fi and history is the loss of homeland to exile, as is Star Trek: Voyager and Battlestar Galactica. It would be very interesting to see how Islamic authors would handle a Lost in Space scenario or some other method of removing access to the homeworld. Destroying the Earth is also a common trope, and it would be very interesting to see how authors would tackle this radical idea, and how to survive with the consequences. For peace activists, this is the perfect means of mirroring the destruction of the temple and Diaspora of the Israelites.
Most extreme is exile to another dimension, an idea more commonly explored in fantasy novels. But removal to an environment where absolutely nothing is recognizable would be a fascinating read to explore the principals behind this great religion, and still be analogous to the changes of modern realities.

Off-World Colonies
Space colonization is a major theme of science fiction, and the one most analogous to post-colonial thought just by its very structure. Potential Muslim authors can recreate all sorts of contentious modern post-colonial issues using just such a method, including the occupation of Palestine using veiled analogies that Westerners, Israelites, and the international community as a whole would understand. A great example of how this might be done is in Dune by Frank Herbert, where nomadic tribes on a resource rich dessert world seek to rid their world of exploitive overseers.
Off-world colonization is also the ultimate form of self-determination and independence, where landless refugees claim their own homelands without interference from earth governments. Peoples like the Kurds can leave Earth and escape persecution, as African Americans did in Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles. Any nationalist author can use this technique to envision their own future nation with minimal controversy.
Leaving Earth also presents new problems for hypothetical future Muslims. It is somewhat humorous to surmise how one can kneel and pray in a zero-gravity environment. Also, direction of prayer is defiantly an issue in space, as the direction Mecca becomes indistinguishable from Earth, which itself gets lost on the sun’s glare, which eventually becomes lost in the galactic spiral, becoming little more than a vector. Issues of time are also important, because other worlds have different length days and years, challenges few western authors have attempted to address. Another issue is that of the Hajj or the pilgrimage to Mecca: would light-years of separation make this Pillar of Islam inconsequential, make those who still manage it much higher in status, or effectively prohibit off-world colonization? To say nothing of new Meccas…

Consciousness
Sci-fi also allows the most flexibility when tampering with the concept of the mind and consciousness. Of course, the exploration of the implications of artificial intelligence is paramount in regards to a post-colonial exploration of identity. The idea of combining theocratic guidelines for life with computer programming is rarely touched upon in sci-fi literature, but would be a tantalizing subject for Muslim authors to tackle. Also the idea for mind transference from one body to another is an old one, as is the idea of digital reincarnation, but both could present interesting takes if authors tackle these issues.

Gender Modification
Muslim feminists have a great opportunity to advance their cause using science fiction. The easiest means of doing this are to play with proportions, and have stories that wipe out most of the men or women. Fictionalized gender imbalances can play havoc in science fiction worlds, just as understudied imbalances do in the real world. Other methods of playing with sex and sexuality are featured in Samuel R. Delaney’s Trouble on Triton, where not only sexual orientations are reprogrammable, but sex changes are easily performed. Such a book would have scandalous repercussions if released in the Islamic world, where they are just starting to reexamine the traditional views of gender and sexuality.
And of course the use of sapient non-humans is the best opening for feminists to lay out their case for reexamining the current gender arrangement. The most intriguing means to do this is via stories like Octavia Butler’s Lilith’s Brood, where aliens with very different notions of sexuality not only disturb the surviving humans on a post-apocalyptic world, but also force changes to the very nature of interactions between the human sexes.

Aliens
It is the subject of aliens that are the most important reason Islam needs science fiction. For with aliens the most important and disturbing aspect of post-colonialism can be addressed: hybridity. Again, Lilith’s Brood addresses this issue head on half-human/half-alien hybrids that struggle to find their place in xenophobic human societies. Half-human aliens are excellent allegories for many middle-easterners, with identities split between something old and something new.
Hybridity can also be showcased when exploring the idea of aliens converting to Islam. This idea has very serious ramifications, especially if the religion is modified in the translation. The most disturbing idea, however, is the potential mixture of Islam with alien religions, especially when it begins to pull away humans. The analogy of course is the Baha’i and other faiths which combine Islamic and other elements in a new form, which are not tolerated very well in modern Islamic society.
Domination by aliens is also a great way for potential authors to write their own experiences in forms westerners will understand. Stories like H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds are prime examples of the colonization experience, and will do a great deal to spread understanding of the Middle Eastern experiences with Europeans. One prime example may be drawn form the experience of Iraqi’s long violent history with the U.K., highlighted especially well in Young’s Postcolonialism- A Very Short Introduction. However, more passive colonization like the overlords from Arthur C. Clark’s Childhood’s End might be a much more enlightening read, as the justifications of the resistance are very analogous to the modern world and much less understood by western audiences.


In summary, modern Muslims need science fiction to not only enlighten the world with their own points of view about postcolonial realties, but also to pave the way for the ethics and modalities of the future of Islamic civilizations. Science fiction will enable Islam to change from looking back and idealizing the past to looking ahead and working towards a brighter future and hopefully enable the breaking down the conceptions of the ‘other’ that they and the west have mutually built around the other, and unite as human beings against our galactic overlords and set out to conquer the universe together.