Al Markaba, which refers to “spacecraft” in Arabic, uses humor and stylized imagery to challenge biases against depicting Arabs and Muslims in the space and sci-fi genres. It critiques the lack of Arab representation in films like Dune and addresses figures like Elon Musk, who have made anti-Islamic comments, by playfully subverting their perceived ownership of space and space travel. The video aims to break this taboo by featuring a spacecraft with Arab and Muslim astronauts, grounding the story in the rich history of Arab and Islamic contributions to astronomy. It highlights how Arabs and Muslims have always had a presence in space, from Islamic astronomers to the Arabic names of stars and his-torical figures like Mariam al-Asturlabi, a 10th-century female astronomer and astrolabe maker.
