So one of the things I found kinda laughable about “Star Trek: The Next Generation” was the idea that in the 24th century *all* of humanity would be atheist (along with non-capitalist, and devoted solely to ‘improving” themselves, etc.). This was part of Gene Roddenberry’s vision of the future; utopian and wholly unrealistic. But… it’s canonical. So it is written, so it shall be.
When Roddenberry got shoved out of the role of Head Honcho Of Star Trek, religion started becoming a bigger part of Trek. Witness Worf’s spirituality in later seasons of TNG and Bajoran religion being of prime importance in “Deep Space Nine,” and even the wholly rational Vulcans started picking up gods and such. But even so, *human* religiosity seemed essentially nonexistent. The writers and producers knew it was silly that mankind would suddenly give up seventy thousand years of spiritualism in favor of rationality; that won’t happen until mankind undergoes mass genetic re-engineering to get rid of the apparently genetically encoded need to believe in *something.* Still… humanity’s lack of religion is canonical.
But then this:
‘Star Trek’ fan at Comic-Con adds a hijab to her Starfleet costume
The article was from July 2019 and is only about a single fan cosplaying as a gender-swapped Muslim version of Geordi La Forge. You know, it’s actually a pretty clever getup… but still, it’s just one fans non-canonical costume. Not the sort of thing to get worked up over, and in fact something that someone can nod at and say “whatever float’s yer boat.” If there’s ever a place where cultural appropriation should be celebrated, it’s cosplay. But then:
The official Star Trek YouTube channel takes time out to accept uncritically the idea that not only does Islam exist in the future, but Geordi La Forge is a Muslim. Note that comments are turned off for reasons that are as likely to include pointing out the anti-canonical nature of that as any naughty words.
So… if the corporate geniuses who took a giant dump on canon with “Star Trek: Discovery” and “Picard” (due to CBS All Access having been free for a month, I finally got around to watching all of STD and STP and… ugh) see fit to try to establish that long accepted popular characters who, IIRC, never once mentioned anything remotely like a religious preference are now to be declared to be members of such-and-such religious group… is there going to be a rush to establish the religions of everyone else? Is Picard a Catholic? Is Riker an Asatruar? Is Crusher a Wiccan? Sisko a Buddhist, Janeway Jewish, Paris a Raelian? Or are the suits behind modern WokeTrek going to basically just suggest that humanity shed all religions *but* Islam? Hell, are they going to suggest that Islam finally won and converted all of humanity and, against all historical evidence, continued forward technologically and culturally?
And this is as good a point as any to rail against one of the most popular misconceptions about Trek, both TOS and TNG: the idea that it shows the wonders of a “multicultural” future. It does not. Look at the bridge of Kirk’s Enterprise: you see a gloriously white straight male captain, a Russian, a Scot, an alien, an African, a Japanese, occasionally an Indian lady and a rotating Benneton ad of different ethnicities of humanity. Trek was spectacularly multi ETHNIC. What is wasn’t was multi CULTURAL. Everyone spoke the same language (even if there were accents), everyone had the same values, worked in the same hierarchical command structure, had the same goals. Everyone on the Enterprise and around the Federation had the same acceptance of STEM over woo and, as previously mentioned, all of humanity had the same lack of religion. Trek suggested that humanity would come together to form essentially a single culture with areas of slight differences, not a hodgepodge of non-integrating, non-assimilating unique cultures (in essence, the US versus the UN). In TNG, it has been canonically established the Geordi was indeed born in Somalia, but like Uhura, you’d never know that he wasn’t from heartland, USA, based on his attitudes and actions, his apparent ideology and culture. Monoculture FTW.
Back to the cosplayer: in Starfleet, there is a dress code for starship crew. Worf apparently got some special dispensation to wear his Klingon sash, but then, he was the first and only Klingon in Starfleet. Ensign Ro was told to remove her religious earring, but was eventually allowed to wear it; but then, she, too, was an alien. I do not recall any humans wearing anything but more or less stock Starfleet uniforms. If there were Muslim Starfleet officers, they certainly didn’t show it… anymore than the Sikh officers wore turbans and knives or the Catholics wore rosaries or the Orthodox Jewish officers wore their dreads and yarmulkes. And what of the human worshipers of Cthulhu and Slaanesh?