Mecca mosques 'wrongly aligned'
By BBC NEWS
Added: Sun, 05 Apr 2009 23:00:00 UTC
Reposted from
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7984556.stm
All mosques have a niche showing the direction of the most sacred Islamic site, the Kaaba, an ancient cube-like building in Mecca's Grand Mosque.
But people looking down from recently built high-rises in Mecca found the niches in many older mosques were not pointing directly towards the Kaaba.
Some worshippers are said to be anxious about the validity of their prayers.
There have been suggestions that laser beams could be used to make an exact measurement.
Tawfik al-Sudairy, Islamic affairs ministry deputy secretary, downplayed the problem in remarks quoted by the pan-Arab newspaper al-Hayat.
"There are no major errors but corrections have been made for some old mosques, thanks to modern techniques," he said.
"In any case, it does not affect the prayers."
Tweet
RELATED CONTENT
A few Catholics still insist Galileo...
Manya A. Brachear - Chicago Tribune 122 Comments
A few conservative Roman Catholics are pointing to a dozen Bible verses and the church's original teachings as proof that Earth is the center of the universe
Rick Perry, Texas governor, speaks at...
- - YouTube - SomeLittleShoe 173 Comments
Loving Christians respond to atheists
William Hamby - examiner.com 113 Comments
Prince Charles branded a 'snake oil...
Ian Sample - guardian.co.uk 50 Comments
UPDATE: FALSE STORY Jerusalem rabbis...
BBC - BBC News website 154 Comments
A Jewish rabbinical court condemned to death by stoning a stray dog it feared was the reincarnation of a lawyer who insulted its judges, reports say.
MORE BY BBC NEWS
Church of England ordained known...
BBC News - BBC News website 30 Comments
Letters from 1966 between the then Archbishop of Canterbury and a bishop show the Church agreed that a convicted paedophile should be ordained
Pakistan minorities minister shot dead...
BBC News - BBC news website 89 Comments
Mr Bhatti, the cabinet's only Christian minister, had received death threats for urging reform to blasphemy laws.
Catholic church gives blessing to...
BBC News - BBC News website 98 Comments
In his World Communications Address on 24 January, [the pope] said it was not a sin to use social networking sites
MPs query £1.85m overseas aid spent on...
BBC News - BBC News website 43 Comments
Vatican sets up watchdog to combat...
BBC News - BBC News website 28 Comments
The Vatican's centuries-old secrecy over the way it handles its money will no longer be an excuse to avoid its obligations under international and Italian criminal law to combat money-laundering operations by third parties, says the BBC's David Willey in Rome.
Pope Benedict condones condom use in...
BBC News - BBC News website 95 Comments
The Pope gives the example of the use of condoms by prostitutes as "a first step towards moralisation", even though condoms are "not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection".




















Comments
Comment RSS Feed
Please sign in or register to comment
View Comments Page