Manama: Muslims are planning to land a scientific lab called Mohammad I on the moon by 2013, a scientist said.
"The station will be called Mohammad after the Prophet [PBUH] and it is our scientific response for the negative stereotyping against the prophet [PBUH]," Radhouane Fakir, a Canadian scientist of Moroccan descent, was reported as saying on Saturday.
"We will launch Mohammad II in 2015 in order to boost the scientific work of Mohammad I. We wanted a scientific reaction to all the offences against the Prophet [PBUH] so that we are closer to his values than to those of the people who offended him. The scientific labs will serve to remind the world of the importance of Prophet Mohammad [PBUH]," the Qatari daily Al Arab quoted him as saying.
Fakir said that the first lab would cost around $100 million and the second lab to reach the moon, in 2015, would cost around $1 billion. It would be funded by the Islamic world.
Fakir said he made his announcement at the Fanar Islamic Centre because of the tolerance between religions and cultures that it promoted.
