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Olde Tyme Religion
200 Mecca mosques 'face wrong direction'
2009-04-05
Muslim worshippers at about 200 old mosques in Mecca have been praying in the wrong direction for decades because the mosques were not built correctly, a Saudi newspaper said on Sunday.

The mosques were not built precisely based on the qibla, the official alignment with the holy Kaaba shrine at the centre of Mecca's Al-Haram mosque, according to the report in Arab News. The discrepancy was only realised after looking at the old mosques, some built more than 50 years ago, from atop the new skyscrapers being constructed in Islam's holiest city in western Saudi Arabia, the report said.

According to the pan-Arab Al-Hayat newspaper, Islamic affairs ministry deputy secretary, Tawfik al-Sudairy, downplayed the problem. 'There are no major errors, but corrections have been made for some old mosques, thanks to modern techniques. In any case, it does not affect the prayers,' the newspaper quoted MR Sudairy as saying in its Saturday edition.

Mecca residents and experts have suggested that the errant mosques install inside a correct indicator of the qibla, or orient their prayer rugs more exactly in the direction of the Kaaba, Arab News said. Another suggestion is that laser beams be installed in the tall minarets of the Al-Haram mosque built around the Kaaba to help mosques and worshippers establish the correct qibla direction.
Posted by:ryuge

#29  "Europe wasn't built in one day either"

Geez, EC - how much time do you want to give them?

In the many centuries Europe has been evolving, the majority of the moslem countries have been devolving.

And they continue apace, but with the use of Western technology. :-(

I don't particularly care if they destroy themselves, but I do care if they damage or destroy us in the process.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2009-04-05 22:16  

#28  Another suggestion is that laser beams be installed in the tall minarets of the Al-Haram mosque built around the Kaaba to help mosques and worshippers establish the correct qibla direction. I go for lasers. Ones that put out about 3.5 gigawatts
Posted by: Cheaderhead   2009-04-05 21:41  

#27  Or just time.
Europe wasn't built in one day either
Posted by: European Conservative   2009-04-05 21:19  

#26  Or a Reformation.
Posted by: Pappy   2009-04-05 21:17  

#25  The Islamic World can too.

But it hasn't. Perhaps it needs a Thirty Years War.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2009-04-05 20:30  

#24  I said THE FANATICS are not in charge here, please read my post again.

Fanatism can rise with any religion or ideology. If the hard core Global Warming fanatics get their way you'll understand what I mean.

Saudi Arabia and others are the nutcases of Islamic fanatism. You will find churches in Morocco and Tunisia. And bars, for that matter.

This has nothing to do with "moral equivalence". Christianity did have its nasty moments, but it moved on.

The Islamic World can too. It's rather pointless to think that more than a billion people can't achieve anything.

Btw in Jaffa which I have visited Jews and Muslims do get along pretty well.
Posted by: European Conservative   2009-04-05 20:18  

#23  Difference is they have neither power nor economic wealth (oil etc.), so they can't mess up our lives.

Christians and Jews don't have power or economic wealth? Ever heard of a place called the United States of America? Puhleaze EC, enuff of your PC ME (moral equivalence). To generalize, religious folks here do not murder when their feelings are hurt. Instead, they run candidates for office.

To compare modern day Christianity and Judaism to modern Islam -- for the most part a cancerous, parasitic, predatory death cult -- is spectacularly obtuse. If modern day Islam is so very modern, where are the peace marchers? Where are the chapels in Saudia Arabia? Where are the Jews who once lived throughout Arabia? Where are the Islamic "Franciscans"?



Posted by: Gabby   2009-04-05 20:09  

#22  Well, that's ONE.

I'm not one to say all Muslims are bad, but I'm all for the simplicity of generalizing. Keeps me from not having to say "This isn't all Muslims, of course" every. fucking. time. I say something about a Muslim.

That, and - as a collective - Muslims are far more batshit crazy than other major religions. Though I'm not convinced that's the religions fault.
Posted by: Mike N.   2009-04-05 18:37  

#21  Well the Moroccan King DOES try hard and is pushing his country into the 21st century.
Posted by: European Conservative   2009-04-05 18:15  

#20  But doing little to stop them and willing to accept the consequences if they win.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2009-04-05 18:07  

#19  As I said the difference is that the fanatics are supported by powerful people. And sure if you only look to Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran, you might want to despair.

But try Casablanca, Tunis or Istanbul, and things look somewhat different. You will find a lot of people there who are just as afraid of those fanatics as the West.
Posted by: European Conservative   2009-04-05 17:42  

#18  Sure is a lot of fanatic Islam. Just about everywhere there's Mohammedans. Haven't read much about all those fanatic Christians and Jews lately. Must be the pro-Christian MSM sitting on the good stories. Like where they fly airplanes into buildings. Or blow themselves up. Or put bombs on retarded kids and blow them up.

Sorry, this religion, if you want to be generous, has a lot of fanatics. Enough that the other members of the religion do virtually nothing to control their fanatics. Makes me wonder how unwelcome these fanatics are to the rest.

But then I'm just generalizing, not practicing moral equivalence.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2009-04-05 17:25  

#17  Nor do they cut off heads or shoot and stab people in the chest in the middle of the street.
Posted by: ed   2009-04-05 16:38  

#16  Do not generalize.
It's not Islam, it's fanatic Islam.

The caliphs of Cordoba liked the good life and encourage tolerance. The arts and science florished.

Even in tougher time Muslim scientists in the Middle Ages did accomplishes admirable things, e.g. medecine, often while struggling against religious fanatism (pretty much like Christians in those times).

The issue is tolerance and openness. Christian fanatics are the same pain in the ass, and you'll even find a few Jewish fanatics with quaint ideas about women and modern technology.

Difference is they have neither power nor economic wealth (oil etc.), so they can't mess up our lives.
Posted by: European Conservative   2009-04-05 16:32  

#15  Muslims have a problem with logic and laws of nature. In the west we believe that God set up certain laws of nature to help himself and us in understanding the universe. The muslims think that allah is all-powerful and isn't bound by even his own laws. So, the laws of nature are arbitrary and allah may decide to abandon them at any moment, why bother studying them. And, as Arthur C. Clarke said, any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic. So, the muslim universe is random and arbitrary.
Posted by: Formerly Dan   2009-04-05 15:00  

#14  along with Algebra and other teachings that weren't in the Koran

If texts contradict the Koran, they are blasphemy and should be burned. If texts agree with the Koran, then they are redundant and should be burned.
Posted by: SteveS   2009-04-05 14:28  

#13  Cordoba, Sevilla, Toledo and Sicily where great centers of learning in the Middle Ages, but they fared best when religion chose not to interfere.

They always had times when the fanatics held sway and destroyed things.

But when have the Saudis NOT been fanatics?
Posted by: European Conservative   2009-04-05 13:32  

#12  When the "Back to the 7th Century" movement took power in the Middle East around 1100 AD, they must have thrown out all the astronomy and surveying equipment, along with Algebra and other teachings that weren't in the Koran. The western Muslims kept these things in North Africa and Iberia for centuries; in fact, one of the Renaissance popes got part of his education at a Muslim university in Iberia (Granada?) because the university had preserved all sorts of useful ancient texts.

(BTW, anybody waxing poetic about the courtesy accorded Christians and Jews in Moorish Spain needs to know that, as in other places in the Islamic world, the considerations accorded the other "people of the book" were more honored in the breach than the observance).
Posted by: mom   2009-04-05 13:24  

#11  So they couldn't find Mecca in... Mecca?
Posted by: European Conservative   2009-04-05 12:47  

#10  Yosemite, I think it's the great circular logic route facing NE.
Posted by: Muggsy Glink   2009-04-05 12:28  

#9  Danielle,
maps, compasses (magnetic and drawing)and engineering are un-islamic it would appear.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839   2009-04-05 12:07  

#8  What a bunch of maroons.
Posted by: WolfDog   2009-04-05 12:04  

#7  Lasers are unIslamic. Mo didn't have them.
Posted by: Danielle   2009-04-05 12:01  

#6  ... with frickin' lasers in their mosques.
Posted by: Fred   2009-04-05 11:48  

#5  they've been praying in the wrong direction ever since muman started this bullshit religion...
Posted by: Broadhead6   2009-04-05 11:34  

#4  I live in the midwest and work with a guy from India who's muslim. He told me they face northeast to pray. I cannot figure that out. Last time I looked at a map SA was west and a little south of here.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam   2009-04-05 09:30  

#3  Heh heh. Barbarians.
Posted by: Hellfish   2009-04-05 09:29  

#2  Maybe they shoulda just hired a feng shui expert in the first place....they're pretty good at aligning things.

Of course, if they couldn't get the right angles figured out in Mecca, that may mean all of the other mosques in the world are fubar, too, right? Heh, heh, heh!
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie   2009-04-05 08:18  

#1  A Juice plot, no doubt.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2009-04-05 07:25  

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