Indonesian clerics: Our mistake _ you're facing the wrong direction during Islamic prayers

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/07/19/indonesian-clerics-mistake-youre-facing-wrong-direction-islamic-prayers/?test=latestnews ^

[Red in Blue PA]

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — People in the world's most populous Muslim nation have been facing Africa — not Mecca — while praying.

Indonesia's highest Islamic body acknowledged Monday it made a mistake when issuing an edict in March saying the holy city in Saudi Arabia was to the country's west. It has since asked followers to shift direction slightly northward during their daily prayers.

"After a thorough study with some cosmography and astronomy experts, we learned they've been facing southern Somalia and Kenya," said Ma'ruf Amin, a prominent cleric of the Indonesian Ulema Council, or MUI. "We've revised it now to the northwest."

[Red in Blue PA]

islam- the world's only self-parodying religion.

[pappyone]

Could just issue a compass to each prayee.

[Sacajaweau]

Sun rises in the east...sets in the west...Get it??

[RightOnline]

Their new fatwah...complete text here: “Oops.”

[Pentagon Leatherneck]

Not rocket science, boys and girls...

TC

[Dallas59]

I can see now why they need NASA.

[driftdiver]

east/west? it all comes around to worshiping a child rapist.

[missnry]

I guess they do not have the internet in Indonesia....
http://www.qiblalocator.com/

[LouD]

I guess they don’t teach you how to calculate an azimuth in the Madrassa...

[ThePatriotsFlag]

Well, if they were women, they’d stone them for this mistake. Guess, since they are men, they’ll just ignore it and face a different direction. Under their law, that only seems fair.

[Jeff F]

They should have conferred with Beverly Hills architect Paul Murdoch. He was able to get the tricky Qibla angle right in his indescribably odious "Crescent of Embrace" memorial design for Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

[SECURE AMERICA]

One would have thought that Allah might have called this to their attention before now!

[Dr. Ursus]

What a bunch of Moops!

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"Sun rises in the east...sets in the west...Get it??"

Actually, the sun rises in an easterly direction and sets in a westerly direction and is constantly changing due to our changing relationship to the sun. The only time the above statement is actually true is on two days out of the year. The Spring and Fall Equinox. During the Winter and Summer soltices they are the farthest away from setting and rising in these directions.

What these idiots need is a compass and an azimuth to Mecca. However, these are the same type of people that strap bombs onto themselves and blow them up. So I doubt they could comprehend the basics of the compass....

[reagan_fanatic]

So their asses were facing Mecca the whole time - sounds appropriate to me.

[agere_contra]

After a thorough study with some cosmography and astronomy experts, we learned they've been facing southern Somalia and Kenya

Cosmography and astronomy experts? You don't got a globe of the world?

[Sender]

They can buy cell phones which point the direction to Mecca. Darn! All those prayers spewed out upon the desert. You need minute-of-angle accuracy to hit Allah.

[Sacajaweau]

What all this shows is that the “cultists” are brainlessly obedient.

[Dumpster Baby]

I'm reminded of a line in Tom Clancy's "Red Storm Rising" describing the mindset of the Islamic terrorists in the beginning of the book - "I have read only one book in my life, the Koran. It is enough."

Well, there you go.

[C210N]

All moslims who perform directional preying are 180 degrees off. There may be a few exceptions, but even then, those folks are 360 degrees off.