In an article titled "There's Suicide and There's Suicide" in the London-based daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Iraqi columnist and writer Khalid Kishtainy compared the scientists of a Western space project who plan to embark on a one-way trip to Mars[1] with suicide bombers in the Middle East. He said that the former plan to sacrifice their lives for science and for humanity, while the latter throw away their lives for the sake of ignorance while killing dozens of others.
The following are excerpts from his column.[2]
Khalid Kishtainy (image: Aawsat.com)
"While most of the backward countries are preoccupied with nonsense, atrocities and ISIS, in the West 100 scientists with the highest academic degrees are being trained with the purpose of selecting five of them, men and women, for an impressive space journey. [On this journey] they will travel among the stars, meteors and comets of the heavens, and after six months they will arrive at Mars and land on it. They will be equipped with the most advanced scientific instruments in order to perform a variety of experiments on the Martian soil, rocks and environment, the results of which will be dispatched to their fellow scientists on earth along with their comments, observations and discoveries. One day we will hear of this and be greatly impressed...
"One of the scientists' aims is to discover whether there are any creatures or any trace of life on Mars: plants, animals or insects. Their spacecraft will use up all its fuel in carrying them to this remote destination, so they will not be able to return to Earth. They will die there and thus establish the first human cemetery on Mars.
"Things will be different if they find air and water on Mars, sow [and grow] food for their sustenance, and marry and found a new society and later a Martian civilization. I hope it will be a safer and more civilized society than our own, because, after all, none of the five belong to ISIS or to one of the other extremist organizations.
SUPPORT OUR WORK
"This choice group of prominent scientists will take off on a suicide [mission], knowing they will never return to Earth. They will travel through space, and their spaceship will continue wandering the infinite depths of space, joining the boulders and stars that circle the suns of the infinite universe.
"These scientists perform this mission in the service of knowledge and science, just like the [explorers] of the 19th century who traveled to the South Pole and died there seeking knowledge and discoveries, and like the doctors who risked their lives by injecting themselves with the most dangerous drugs in order to save mankind from disease.
"Yes, we too have suicide-seekers. You will find them everywhere: in Somalia, Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Libya, strapping explosive belts to their bellies and then detonating them, sacrificing their lives and their youth. And for what? For ignorance and illiteracy. Along with them die dozens of innocent people who don't even know them and have nothing to do with their thoughts, dreams and delusions.
"Both [the scientists and the terrorists] commit suicide! But how vast the difference between the two and between what they do! The people of the West have landed on the moon but do not suffice with this, and now they will land on Mars. Whereas the extremists are busy accusing all those who disagree with them of heresy."
Endnotes:
