and all that for the price of a new compas

Dessy Sagita.
If You’re Praying Toward the West, You’re Doing it Wrong

The country’s highest Islamic authority is refusing to take the blame for issuing an incorrect edict in March, which stipulated that worshipers had to face westward in order to be praying toward Mecca.

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) announced on Wednesday that Mecca was actually to the northwest of Indonesia, and not to the west as it said earlier.

“Just because we revised our edict doesn’t make the previous ruling completely wrong,” MUI councilor Umar Shihab told the Jakarta Globe.

“We’re just fine-tuning it to make it more precise.

“It’s not a big problem, as not all Indonesian mosques are incorrectly oriented,” he added.

“Many have pointed toward the wrong direction for years.”

Mecca is located on the 21st parallel north, while the northernmost point of Indonesia is on the 5th parallel, Umar said.

He called on local worshipers not to be too concerned about the change, saying their previous prayers would “still be valid”. He also made assurances that mosques would not have to be renovated to reflect the change.

Intentionally praying in the wrong direction is considered a sin in Islam, while unintentional mistakes are not.

“There’s no need to change the building structure,” he said, adding the MUI would officially inform mosque managers through an edict.

“Just make a minor adjustment by rotating the prayer mats slightly,” he said.

Said Aqil Siradj, the chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama, the country’s biggest Islamic organization, said the MUI’s edict in March was a regrettably poor decision by the body.

“They shouldn’t have rushed to such an important decision,” he said. “Anything concerning public law should be made after a long contemplation.

“It’s good that the MUI realized their mistake and took steps to rectify it, but let this be a lesson to them not to churn out edicts in such haste.”

Said added that top NU scholars would meet in the near future to discuss the issue.

In January, Islamic scholar Mutoha Arkanuddin claimed that anything between 50 and 80 percent of the country’s mosques and graves were not properly oriented toward Mecca, drawing the ire of conservative clerics.