Community | April 06, 2009 | 19 comments

Mecca mosques 'wrongly aligned'

source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7984556.stm

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Worshipers in Mecca are anxious about the validity of their prayers after some 200 mosques were found to be facing the wrong direction, according to reports from Saudi Arabia. Mosques all have a niche that is supposed to point to the direction of the Kaaba, Islam's most sacred site -- the cube-like building in Mecca's Grand Mosque. But apparently in some of the city's older mosques, it is not.
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19 comments // Mecca mosques 'wrongly aligned'

  • el_chivo
    • 0
      el_chivo  

    • Is like giving meat to a vegetarian without noticing. Sure, nothing’s going to happened for a little piece of meat, and sounds silly, but is their lifestyle and is relevant to them.

    • 3 years ago
  • freecrack
    • 0
      freecrack  

    • its so important to them that isntead of embracing modern technology and yousing gps nav systems to insure things face the way they should in honor of god instead they use technology only to kill anyone who isnt them. i love it

    • 3 years ago
  • darkhorsejim
  • Agorful
    • 0
      Agorful  

    • I don't care and I can't see why any non-Muslim would care either.

      The story seems to be an attempt to draw out criticism against Islam. I'm not naive enough to think this is some human interest story.

      I make it a point never to laugh at another persons beliefs. Who am I to mock and ridicule or otherwise interfere with what very well be part of my God's plan.

      Hey, all I want to do is be available to help a brother out if they need me. Otherwise, you go right on worshiping the Sun, Moon, Trees, or Red Fox for all I care. I got my own thing to worry about getting right.

    • 3 years ago
  • CalgarC
    • 0
      CalgarC  

    • the whole idea behind religion is the worshiping a higher being. a few mosques were aiming the wrong way, its not the end of the world.

    • 3 years ago
  • rsultan
    • 0
      rsultan  

    • The direction faced in prayer is important as it is a unification of every Muslim on earth praying 5 times a day in one direction towards One God. However, this action is a manifestation of the belief in One God and to unknowingly not pray in correct direction (if this is the case) has no bearing on a Muslim's sincerity or prayer towards God. God explains in the verse below from the second chapter of the Quran verse 177 in regards to piety and prayer,

      "It is not righteousness that ye turn your faces Towards the East or West; but it is righteousness- to believe in God and the Last Day, and the Angels, and the Book, and the Messengers; to spend of your substance, out of love for Him, for your kin, for orphans, for the needy, for the wayfarer, for those who ask, and for the ransom of slaves; to be steadfast in prayer, and practice regular charity; to fulfill the contracts which ye have made; and to be firm and patient, in pain (or suffering) and adversity, and throughout all periods of panic. Such are the people of truth, the God-fearing."

    • 3 years ago
  • Mohib
  • Highr0ller
    • 0
      Highr0ller [removed]  

    • I think it makes no difference, but it is important to them. I once gave a Muslim a ham sandwich by mistake and he said it was great....what was in it.."oh, pink chicken" I replied once I realized I'd mistakenly offered him the sandwich which he so enjoyed. I believed he'd be distraught if he knew what he'd just eaten and felt it better all around not to let him know.

      I have lived among Muslims....share a rather enormous house as a guest of the family in Riyadh. You know people are just people.

      The suicide bombers are brainwashed, just like American soldiers are brainwashed in Iraq.
      Religion is good, but people make it bad at times.
      Grow up....Muslims are the same as the rest of us.

    • 3 years ago
  • Joe_Leo
  • nursediesel
  • Highr0ller
    • 0
      Highr0ller [removed]  

    • Praying in the direction of Mecca is very important to Muslims. In all the hotels in Saudi they had a sticker on the furniture with an arrow showing the Mecca directions.
      Bin Laden Brothers constructed many of the mosqes, and they did the Mecca Mosques. They were/are not only educated themselves but they hired American engineers.

      Do you really believe that they did not know which direction Mecca was? Sheikh Salem, the former head of the family business (until he died in an ultra-light aircraft n Texas) piloted the Lear Jet and the Mitsuibishi, and the BAC111 himself.........he was instrument rated and flew over the Mosques himself...........he's spot an error if there was one.

      Sorry..................I think this story is media hype.

    • 3 years ago
  • mik661
  • freecrack
    • 0
      freecrack  

    • cmon this has to be oficially silly? like getting dressed up to go to church like god cares?if so why dop they pray in thier pajamas before bead?

    • 3 years ago
  • bombastinator
    • 0
      bombastinator  
    • freecrack:

      It's a ritual. Rituals can have deep personal importance. Going to church is itself is a ritual. Praying is a ritual. I am not one to denigrate the systems by which a person connects themselves with their god. From the outside basically all religious rituals look at least somewhat silly, but from the inside most of them are deeply beautiful.

    • 3 years ago
  • TheMasterPlan13
  • matlaroche
  • tome_erau
    • 0
      tome_erau  
    • matlaroche:

      FACT:
      It's believed that the kaaba may be an asteroid, but scientist aren't exactly allowed to take a sample of the most holy item in the Islamic religion so it hasn't been confirmed.

    • 3 years ago
  • Highr0ller
  • bombastinator
    • 0
      bombastinator  
    • matlaroche:

      My understanding is that the importance of the thing is not really whether or not it is an asteroid, or the particulars of it's attribution. but that it is a direct finite tactile connection with Muhammad and the Koran to history of pristine provenance. The thing, that very rock, was written about in the Koran, and there it is sitting there. They're not praying to the rock. It's a marker.

    • 3 years ago
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