Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy
This is a famous hard sci-fi novel about the colonization and terraforming of Mars. It has many Arab, possibly Muslim characters. Sufis are also heavily featured and are portrayed in a very positive and sympathetic light. Here is an excerpt [page 9]:
“Then he sat at the central table and relaxed, feeling like he could have been on a street in Damascus or Cairo, comfortable in the wash of Arabic and expensive cologne. He studied the men’s faces as they talked. An alien culture, no doubt about it.”
Muslims/Sufis are mentioned in Red Mars on the following pages (p. 282, 304, 310).
[Entry Thanks to Andy & Maureen E.]
Robinson’s portrayal of ‘Arab’ colonizers in the opening pages of Red Mars is a racist distortion. He writes as if there were a collective Arab that is Muslim, misogynist, secretively plotting to overthrow all of society. Contributions like this fuel the distortions that swirl in the Western ethos.