Indonesia: Muslims turn to Mecca after praying to Somalia

Indonesia: Muslims turn to Mecca after praying to Somalia
Riazat Butt, religious affairs correspondent
The GuardianJuly 20, 2010

Indonesian Muslims have been praying in the wrong direction for months, facing Somalia when they should have been facing Saudi Arabia, the country's highest religious authority said yesterday. A cleric from the Indonesian Ulema Council admitted the body made a mistake last March when calculating where Muslims should turn to when praying. He said new instructions had been issued and that people only had to shift their position for the correct alignment. Mutoha Arkanuddin, an Islamic scholar, claimed that more than half of the country's mosques pointed the wrong way.

© Copyright 2010. The Guardian. All rights reserved.