Muslim sci-fi writers are as rare as surfboarding Eskimos or Jamaican bobsleigh teams.

But as those guys from the West Indies proved in the 1988 Winter Olympics, anything is possible.

And here in Luton, there is a novelist releasing his second futuristic drama and doing his best to brush away his own cultural stereotypes. "I don't know any Muslims writing sci-fi," said Abdul Ahad, of Selbourne Road.

"A lot of Asian writers are not Muslims.

"And they write things about the 'typical' life of Asians – arranged marriages and things like that.

"But the whole of the arts and literature for Muslims is a grey area."

The 37-year-old former business analyst and Luton university graduate packed in work and spent eight months to complete First Ark To Alpha Centauri 2: The True Price Of Immortality.

It's the second book in his ongoing series set in the distant future and it has made the married man something of an oddity on the town's cultural landscape – especially among his own British Bangladeshi community.

"Really hard people say you shouldn't write anything, full stop, and there are more liberal people who say if you have a talent you should utilise it," he said.

"Some of the stuff I'm doing would probably be frowned upon by some of the traditionalists.

"But we're living in a modern age – a lot of youngsters growing up in this modern age have to compromise.

"It's all about handling it in a way that's sensitive, moderate and not going to the extreme."

In his first novel, last year's First Ark To Alpha Centauri, Abdul conjured up a complete world within a ship bound for a distant planet in the Alpha Centauri star system.

Planet Earth was suffering an irreversible decline that had prompted the planet's leaders to send a specially designed nine miles long spacecraft on a 50,000-year journey to find a new home.

The second part in the series is set a few years later and the former Beech Hill High School pupil said he had given his imagination an even looser rein than before.

But, Abdul said, as a Muslim there are limits to what he will allow himself to write – themes such as sex and violence were tricky.

And for many of his friends and family simply the idea of him sitting down to write high-tech sagas set in space and the distant future is alien to his Islamic heritage.

"They won't tell it to your face but obviously they are thinking that this is something that Muslims don't do and I feel a little isolated in some ways," he said.

"But they appreciate the merits of it and see that you can be a role model to their kids. That's the positive side, but the negative is that you're stepping across the boundaries of what's acceptable.

"Hopefully it will be more acceptable for future generations but when you're the first it's quite tough."

But, for a man who has made a life of studying science and even published his own original theories in specialist magazines, sci-fi is not at odds with his faith.

"The Koran is probably the most scientific script that I've read," Abdul said.

"It tells you that life actually begins in the ocean and with guidance of the supreme being life evolved.

"In my own mind, and certainly the scholars', you can justify science fiction.

"Some of the things like stars, galaxies, the realm of the cosmos and how far we can go don't contradict the Koran."
And, Abdul added, the Muslim holy book even had specific parts describing the Big Bang.

"1,400 or 1,500 years ago Muslims were staring at the stars and moon," he said.

"A lot of Arab scholars were into astronomy.

"And algebra, trigonometry and the Arabic numeral system come from Islam.

"Most of the bright stars in the sky have Arabic names so the Arab people of antiquity were very, very open-minded and took the discoveries and knowledge from people like the Greeks and enhanced it.

"They were so much more broadminded than now."