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Muslims face Mecca when they pray, and the interior of a mosque indicates the direction in which one should face. Hence there are circles of mosques around Mecca, all with the Qaaba at the centre. However, once a mosque is over ten thousand kilometres from Mecca, it is closer to the antipodes of Mecca
and forms a circle facing away from it.
Mururoa is twenty thousand kilometres from Mecca, approximately but near enough. I propose that a special mosque be built in Mururoa where the faithful all face away from the centre in order to face Mecca. This mosque could then become a second, informal place of pilgrimage for Muslims. It might also have interesting consequences for the French government and their defence policy.
In reality (wherever that is)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18404517/
Malaysian muslims in space [nineteenthly, Jun 02 2008]
Lunar mosque
http://www.spaceage...com/pdfs/Khaled.pdf
see page 5 for technical drawings. [ye_river_xiv, Dec 25 2008]
[link]
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Is there a place on the exact other-side of the world from Mecca, where it doesn't matter in which direction the faithful faces, since every direction is towards Mecca? |
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It's in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean. Mururoa seems to be the closest land, at twenty-one degrees, fifty minutes south and a hundred and thirty-eight degrees, fifty-five minutes west. Mecca is twenty-one degrees, twenty-five minutes north, thirty-nine degrees, forty-nine minutes east. Therefore, the island is twenty-five minutes off longitudinally and seventy-six minutes off latitutidinally, which assuming Earth is cylindrical, makes it around one hundred and fifty kilometres off. I suppose there could be a platform instead, but i don't think there's any land nearer. |
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Really, the mosque should be on a ship,
at the exact spot. This imprecise
Mururururoa business verges on
sacrilege. |
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//Not intended to be offensive to
Muslims// - wishful thinking - grrrrrrrr.....
sound of deep rumbling from a cave
somewhere in Tora Bora |
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Well, you could always move Murururururururururururoa, [bungston], or maybe Mecca. |
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[xenzag], some might say i don't have to go that far. I live in a city where many people are of a particular opinion regarding the likes of shoes with writing on them. |
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It could also be an opposite in other ways, such as having an open bar and pork rotisserie... mmmm... enough to tempt me to Mururururururoa. |
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Maybe there should actually be a whole religion called Malsi, based around doing the opposite and pilgrimages to Muroa. |
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Have you taken into account the concept of verticality in Islam? There is a beam of spiritual power coming from the cosmos, straight into the Kaaba. |
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This could complicate matters and take them from earthly geography into astronomical goniometry and deep geology. |
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In any case, just because your idea would keep the French busy, I can only support it. |
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I did consider that people would have to stand on their heads, but a more intriguing prospect concerning the curvature of space now occurs to me, namely that billions of light years away, there may be a point in space where they would have to face upwards, so perhaps a sphere could be placed there, to which they would have to journey once in their lifetimes. That would make their whole lives a pilgrimage. |
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Come to think of it, maybe Mecca should have a spaceport. |
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or at least have rockets of some kind travel there |
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Oh how i wish your comment wasn't hilarious, but sadly you have made me happy. Head asplode. |
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Often wondered how they would face Mecca from the Moon, or Mars, or indeed Ceres. |
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yeah, I know, it *is* just humour, though; based on incidents from my own religion's history, religion is just an excuse. |
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[simonj], there have been serious discussions regarding this issue because of Malaysian muslim astronauts aboard i think the ISS. There are also some other guidelines regarding dress and so forth. See link. |
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[FlyingToaster], yes i appreciate that. |
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so... at this mosque wouldn't they have to stand on their heads ? or is it strictly a direction of travel thing (in which case shuttle astronauts would have to face Cape Canaveral, being the first leg) |
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If they had to stand on their heads, it would follow that at a separation of ninety degrees from Mecca, they would be required to slope at an angle of forty-five degrees or so, and that doesn't happen. Therefore, it must be to do with a great circle passing through the Qaaba, in which case a Muslim several hundred kilometres in length would presumably have to arch their body considerably in order to comply. I say "in length" because the idea of a Muslim hundreds of kilometres in height is clearly absurd. |
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Mecca clearly then is a line reaching into the galaxy; perhaps all that is required is a hand-held galactic positioning system (GPS) based calculator giving the direction of the extended great circle. This may require future astronauts to be somewhat counter-intuitively facing away from Earth to pray, but would be more precise. |
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I must go to my globe and check a few things. Hopefully, outrageous thoughts to follow. |
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//Often wondered how they would face Mecca from the Moon, or Mars, or indeed Ceres.// |
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Some thought has actually gone into that already, which I had the (mis?)fortune of running into. [linky] |
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// Mururoa //
The site of the French H-bomb tests?
Seems apt enough. |
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