It would be especially foolish for him to deliberately misquote Zubrin when the issue should be available to thousands of people. If Zubrin did indeed say what Keith reports, he stepped in it big time IMO. I've never belonged to the Mars Society simply because I got the impression early on that it was a "cult of personality" centered on Zubrin. He's a smart man but no one has a monopoly on good ideas. My impression was that it was his way or the highway. I chose the later.

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From Nasa Watch:

9 October 2001: How Mars Society President Robert Zubrin views Modern Day Islam

The following is an excerpt from Mars Society President Robert Zubrin's editorial "Victory in Space" which appears in page 17 of the 8 October 2001 issue of Space News.

"With the [Islamic] fundamentalist takeover, the most glorious civilization humanity had ever known was turned into a dung heap of misery, mental slavery, degradation and ignorance. A quarter of the world has turned into a graveyard of the mind, which for the past 700 years has not produced a single significant scientific advance."

Editor's note: Had Zubrin not touched on the topic of Islam and cast wide aspersions against more than a billion of its adherents, he'd have written an editorial with some interesting and provocative ideas. Alas, he has weaved personal bigotry and blatant anti-islamic venom into this rant. President Bush, Prime Minister Blair, and innumerable political and religious leaders around the world have taken great pains to say that the West is not at war with Islam or Muslims - but rather with a small group of individuals. In contrast, Zubrin contends that a fundamentalist "takeover" of Islam has occured and that we (the West) must "defeat fundamentalism."

Zubrin is on the board of the National Space Society and is president of the Mars Society. Both organizations should immediately disavow Zubrin's comments and do so publicly. Not to do so is to condone harmful bigotry. Hate mongering, such as that written by Zubrin, is not what this world (or any other) needs right now.