Some lose thoughts about Qibla (direction of prayer)
by CroMagnon
About the qibla or direction of prayer in Islam:
At each location on earth there are 2 directions that face to the Ka'ba in Mecca: one represents the shortest distance and the other - the 180° opposite direction - represents the longest distance as measured along the surface of the earth-globe. Why should a muslim chose the direction that represents the shortest distance?
What if a muslim is situated exactly on the other side of the earth (compared to the Ka'ba)? He/she is in that case exactly half of the earths circumference away from the Ka'ba, measured in the two opposite directions. He/she then can chose to face the Kaba in 2 opposite directions with exactly the same result. What should one do?
The obliged one-way direction and not-mentioned opposite possibility seems to suggests an islamic flat-earth concept:
In Holland and Surinam there are some very funny/stubborn muslims that take the islamic advice not to think too much on islamic matters very seriously. I'm talking about the Javanese muslims that came to work in Surinam (a former dutch colony) from the 1890's onward. They were used to face the West when they were praying in Java (Indonesia). But they retained that habit when they went to live in Surinam (South America). The ones that migrated further to Holland (Western Europe) still maintain their habit of facing the West when praying (West of Holland lies the evil Great Britain and further 'down the road' one ends up in the even more evil USA)
Also funny: in Marocco are still some South-East orientated mosques from the old days when muslim scholars wrongly 'calculated' that Mecca was situated South-East of Morocco, while it lies in the East
I thought those old muslim scholars were the best-of-the-best, state-of-the-art geographers???
Mmmhhh... I guess I must have misunderstood that then ....
(West of Holland lies the evil Great Britain and further 'down the road' one ends up in the even more evil USA) 
