What was the reaction throughout the Islamic world to the first moon landing in 1969?

by WileECyrus
lolzfeminism

I have absolutely no authority, but I know Turkish, so I searched the archives of Cumhuriyet, one of the older, most widely circulated Turkish newspapers. You can go to this link and specify the date you want to see in the top right corner. The search results are in Turkish and behind a paywall, but you can see the enthusiastic pictures and headlines.

Frontpage headlines from the 10 days around the landing, translated (not literal) to English by me:

07/15 - Armstrong's footprints will remain on the moon for 500,000 years
07/16 - The Journey begins today
07/17 - Onwards to the Moon
07/18 - Halfway there
07/19 - Apollo 11 at the edge of the Moon
07/20 - Landing Today
07/21 - ... And They Made It!
07/22 - They Went, They Saw, Now They Return
07/23 - Microbes from the Moon Could Spread over Earth in 30 seconds
07/24 - Citizens of the Moon Are Returning Today
07/25 - For the First Time, Citizens of the Moon step on Earth

And so on. There was a lot of enthusiasm and excitement. The launch, landing and return clearly dominated the media the entire time. All the famous photos were printed on the front pages. At least in Turkey, there doesn't seem to be any reactionary Islamic rhetoric published in the mainstream, just plain old marvel and curiosity, as one would expect.

This was very interesting for me, thanks for making me do this.

[deleted]

As a Muslim I'd like to know, why would the reaction of the Islamic countries differ from everyone else's? Serious question

TroXMa

I just wanted to point out that Muslims do not worship to moon, nor do they consider it sacred. They do however follow the lunar cycle in their calendar, similarly to some asian nations like China. As the phases of the moon are important for telling when important dates are coming in the Islamic calendar, the Ottoman Empire took it upon themselves to put the crescent on their flag. Following suit, many Islamic countries that came about afterwards also implemented the moon in their flags.

I know this doesn't answer the question, but I felt that this was information that anyone who sees this question should know.

karachikhatmal

Here is a picture from 1970 of the first men to land on the moon visiting Pakistan. As you can see, they are being mobbed like celebrities.

[Imgur](http://i.imgur.com/YpW8Yv8.jpg?1)

Source

Should also point out that you are almost guaranteed to find some cleric, or many, who passed some injunction against the moon landings, as there is no one church in Islam and so there is a greater chance to speak up on your own logic. Many Muslim-majority countries of the time were also involved in Cold War politics, and so those in a country against a US-allied government might attack American achievements to undermine their own leadership.

Similarly, many adverse (and thus likely to be reported) reactions to technology are those who are unsettled by the onset of modernity and how it makes them irrelevant. Modern Muslim sects are far more embracing of technology even when they preach reverting to a time without any, while clerics from traditional/older sects are more wary of modernity and try to oppose it.

PS: I can tell that OP didn't mean it to sound the way it did, but its strange that a question like this makes sense. Firstly, it is very unhelpful to use the phrase Islamic World since it is a favourite for those looking to create an imagined community which doesn't exist in a truly financial or political sense. Secondly, I can't think of many reasons why Muslims would have a reaction different from the people in other developing countries at the time.

Edit: Added source of image.