A Saudi cleric in a recent video rejected the theory that the Earth revolves around the Sun and claimed that the opposite is true, Al Arabia News reported.
His statements sparked a wave of social media remarks across the globe.
When a student questioned him about whether the Earth was stationary or moving, Sheikh Bandar al-Khaibari responded with “stationary and does not move.”
To support his theory, Khaibari quoted some clerics and chose to present some religious statements. He then used some visuals to further strengthen his argument.
Holding up a sealed water cup, he questioned “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 pointing at the sealed cup.
He then argued that if a plane stops still in the air, “China would be coming towards it in case the Earth rotates in one direction. If the Earth rotates in the opposite direction, the plane would never reach China, because China is also rotating,” he explained.
A wave of controversial remarks flooded social media, following the clerics video, so much so that a new hashtag began trending on Twitter: #cleric_rejects_rotation_of_Earth
Several Twitter users ridiculed the cleric for this notion.
In an interesting remark, one user tweeted: “What a coincidence that this would occur on Galileo’s birthday!”
Galileo was accused by the church for many of his beliefs including his support for the Copernican theory that the Earth and other planets revolved around the sun.