News Outlets Quick to Joke About Indonesia Mecca Mistake

Jakarta Globe, July 20, 2010 

International news agencies and newspapers around the world have pounced on an embarrassing mistake by the Indonesian Ulema Council, which was forced to admit last week that it had botched calculations about the direction of Mecca.

In an article titled, “Indonesia’s Muslims miss Mecca (by about 1,500 miles),” Toby Green of the Independent writes that, “for more than 200 million Muslims in Indonesia, Mecca just moved.”

“Instead of facing Islam’s most holy city, a clerical error of astronomical proportions has seen the faithful directing their prayers towards Kenya and southern Somalia.”

Green cites the Jakarta Globe's "If You’re Praying Toward the West, You’re Doing it Wrong” published last week, in which the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) proclaimed that Mecca was actually to the northwest of Indonesia, and not to the west as had earlier stated.

Wire service The Associated Press wrote in an article titled “Indonesian Muslims facing Africa during prayers” that “people in the world’s most populous Muslim nation have been facing Africa — not Mecca — while praying.”

The British tabloid, The Sun, however, simply pointed out, with a comparatively mild headline, that “Muslims pray in the wrong direction.” CNN ran a similar story.

“Indonesian Muslims turn prayers back to Mecca after 1,000-mile mistake” wrote the Guardian in an article with a subhead that read, “Allah always listens, promise clerics, after cosmography corrects human error that told worshipers to face Somalia.”

“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 today,” the Guardian article began.

Australian newspaper The Herald-Sun titled its article, “Mistake sees Indonesia’s faithful sending prayers to Africa.”

“Muslims in Indonesia picked up their prayer mats and pointed them to Mecca yesterday after the shock discovery that the nation’s Islamic faithful were praying towards Africa by mistake.”