New Delhi: A viral post claiming Indian-origin Astronaut Sunita Williams converting to Islam after returning from space has been doing the internet rounds.
Did she really change her religion? Well a post shared by an FB user apparently claims so and have been shared for over 5,700 users and viewed for more than 105,000 times.
The post shared on July 27 written in Bengali, read: “This is why Sunita Williams accepted Islam right after returning from space.”
The claim has been found to be an absolute false statement by the India Today TV Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA).
The same claim surfaced up back in 2010 and then Ms. Williams upon asking whether the rumors of her converting to Islam after seeing the lights of Mecca and Medina from space true?”
She replied: “I don’t know where that started. It’s not like I mind and I don’t have favoritism for any religion. But my dad is Hindu and I grew up trying to understand, what Krishna, Ram and Sita means. My mother is Christian, so then, what does Jesus mean? Me personally – not something to do with NASA – I do think there is a God and it’s somebody looking out for us and trying to guide us to live a very happy, productive life. There is further meaning. That’s just my thought.”
In her interview to India TV the astronaut repeated the same thing. She added, “There are many things to do in space. I didn’t always find time to read the Gita or Upanishads. But I used to read them at night sometimes.”