Malaysia (a country that has declared attending Friday prayer sessions mandatory) is getting ready to send a Muslim astronaut into space as part of an International Space Station mission in 2007. This poses quite the religious quandary.
Muslims are required to pray five times daily, turning toward Mecca during prayer. But as Zainal Abidin Abdul Rashid of Malaysia National University pointed out ..., the space station circles the Earth 16 times in 24 hours, with a sunrise and sunset occurring about every 90 minutes. "Does this mean we have to perform 80 prayers a day?" he said. ... On the issue of "qiblat" or the direction of Mecca, suggestions range from installing a special rotating seat so that the Muslim astronaut could turn easily toward Mecca, to using a calculator that can determine qiblat direction and the prayer schedule. Then there is also the question of how to perform ablution, a ritual cleansing of the body, with water-rationing in space. Also, how does one do the prayer ritual of kneeling and prostrating under zero gravity?
I hate to rain on anyone's rainbow-colored parade, but WTF? As a citizen who helps fund this nonsense, may I just suggest that we send someone up whose religious duties, if any, don't interfere with his scientific ones?
Terrorists in space now? Yeah, what a great idea. Are the problems these Muslims cause on Earth not enough? Now we’re sending them into space? What idiocy. Seems some of these decision makers need a good swift kick in the brain.
Posted by: sotiredofitall | Wednesday, April 26, 2006 at 02:17 PM
Hell, let's ship them ALL to Mars....
Assholes make me sick. They spend all day on itchy bitchy details like whether the toilets are aligned with Mecca, and then cheer when some other vicious bastard bombs a children's hospital.
Posted by: Martin Owens | Thursday, April 27, 2006 at 08:57 AM
Look, the poor fellow can pray all he wants just as long as it's done OUTSIDE the space capsule.
Allah must provide the spacesuit, though, becauses it cannot be made from any pork-product deriviatives.
And a women must never have touched it cuz that'd make it harem.
Harem scare 'em.
What I,d like to know is this: Who was the dipshit that agreed to boost this twat into orbit?
Posted by: John Palubiski | Thursday, April 27, 2006 at 01:26 PM
If you are at one of the poles--which way
do you face to do your Mecca headknock?
Posted by: remo | Monday, September 11, 2006 at 07:16 PM