Mecca mosques 'wrongly aligned'.
Just thought this was an interesting fact fro todays BBC:
"Some 200 mosques in Islam's holiest city, Mecca, point the wrong way for prayers, reports from Saudi Arabia say.
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." "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7984556.stm
And another thing:
If you're on the point of the earth antipodal to Mecca then it doesn't matter what direction you pray in - they're all equivalent.
You are right. God wants prayers. He can forgive the odd degree of unalignment.
Errare humanum est. I'm sure, God doesn't care.
villagejoker, I'm sure some people find it ironic or funny, they would just read the title and ignore "There are no major errors but corrections have been made for some old mosques, thanks to modern techniques," and "In any case, it does not affect the prayers." .
number one most emailed article on the bbc news website! (At the current time)
"In any case, it does not affect the prayers."
If you thought it was right, it's not your fault, but you should fix it when you know it's wrong.