Muslim Cleric Sparks Social Media Uproar Claiming The Sun Revolves Around The Earth

A Muslim cleric from Saudi Arabia has sparked uproar on social media after a video of his claiming the sun revolves around the Earth went viral.

The cleric was caught on the video, which was uploaded to YouTube, making some outlandish claims based on the Koran, which fly directly in the face of everything science has discovered over the last century.

When Sheikh Bandar al-Khaibari was asked by a student during a lecture whether the Earth is stationary or moving, al-Khaibari replied, “stationary and does not move.”

Having made the questionable comments, the Muslim cleric then needed to justify his theory so he went ahead and attempted to do just that, beginning with a question, “First of all, where are we now? we go to Sharjah airport to travel to China by plane, clear? Focus with me, this is Earth,” he said, holding a sealed water cup.

Al-Khaibari then went on to argue that if the plane stopped in mid-air, “China would be coming towards it” in case the Earth rotates on one direction. He went on to argue that if the Earth rotated on the opposite direction, the plane would never reach China, because “China is also rotating.”

Interesting logic, and logic which drew a bunch of comments from online commentators, especially on Twitter, regarding the theory, with the hashtag, #cleric_rejects_rotation_of_Earth.

One tongue-in-cheek Tweeter commented, “What a coincidence that this would occur on Galileo’s birthday!” A reference to the Italian born astronomer, Galileo Galilei who was born on Feb. 15, 1564.

Back then, Galileo was accused of heresy twice by the church for his beliefs, including his support for the Copernican theory that the earth and planets revolved around the sun.

While the Muslim cleric received a lot of ridicule for his theory, he also received some support from others on social media who share his opinion on the Sun revolving around the Earth.