I found this BBC News article on how this is handled at a mosque in an Arctic community in Norway.
At Alnor Senter, the effort goes back to the mosque’s founding in 2006 by another Tromsø-born convert, Sandra (Maryam) Moe. Moe and other leaders of the mosque contacted Islamic scholars in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Kuwait, posing the question of the midnight sun and its bearing on the timing of daily prayer. The scholars issued a fatwa (a legal opinion) offering three choices: coordinate prayer times with the nearest country where the Sun rises and sets regularly throughout the year; allow individual mosque members to coordinate with their countries of origin; or sync the Tromsø schedule to sunrise and sunset in the holy city of Mecca, the birthplace of the prophet Muhammad.
Tematagi is the closest landmass to the antipode of Mecca. This means that the correct direction of Muslim prayer (qibla) varies widely between Tematagi and its neighboring islands. The exact antipode of Tematagi, however, is a point roughly 4 kilometers northwest of the Jeddah Eastern Forest, a recreation area east of the Saudi-Arabian harbour city of Jeddah (about 55 kilometers from Mecca itself).
There’s a reason that’s the canned response. If they contradict the muskrat-haired Mussolini’s stance, the Republicans on the committee and in the rest of the Senate will not confirm them for the positionn. If they do contradict them and, by some miracle, still get confirmed, the magatflatearther base will vote them out.
It’s pure self-interest. And enlightened doesn’t even come near it.
Was that in a Congressional hearing of some sort? I’ve never heard any politician give a simple, straightforward, factual answer to any question in testimony before Congress.
If you’re perfectly at the antipode of Mecca* any direction will do, sort of like when you’re at the north pole every direction is south.
More likely, eventually, is what will a Muslim on the moon do? They’ve already worked out what to do in orbit but another solid, more or less stationary surface will require some thought. My proposal: The spot where the first Muslim set foot (boot) on the planet.
*Unlikely. I just checked and it’s in the South Atlantic about 50 miles off the shore of Brazil.
Every one I’ve heard has been a congressional hearing, generally questioning nominees to the bench or a post. I don’t recall which one this was specifically, but they all take roughly the same form.
This was the only one that added this wrinkle, to make absolutely obvious what was going on.
This feels like one of those “Worry about it in 50 years” kind of problems. Even if you honestly believed this was likely to happen, is there really nothing more important to do first? Even in 50 years, actually conquering Greenland would be a relatively trivial exercise for the US, and hey, if “radical mullahs” actually have taken over Denmark, I suspect the Greenlanders of that time might actually welcome a US annexation.
Nah, the Moon is easy, as the Earth maintains an almost-fixed position in the sky, no matter where on the Moon you are. You’d generally always face towards the Earth. You could quibble a bit on where Mecca is during daily rotation of the Earth, so maybe you’d have to wiggle a lit bit each time you pray, but I suspect the error would be smaller than just sitting down at a funny angle every now and then.
Should the need to urinate arise, you could always walk (or swim) a few feet away, face back toward the antipode, and let go with the flow.
There are certain types of navy ships that floodable well deck. Smaller boats, like landing craft and hovercraft, can come in to that well deck for loading, maintenance, or whatever. I’ve heard of ships that would stop exactly on the equator, the date line, or both. They would hold position and flood the well deck, then let crew members swim from one side to the other for the honor of being able to say “I swam across the equator”, or whatever. Should someone want to push the boundaries of Islamic rules at the antipode of Mecca, it seems doable.
Apparently, those navy swims across the well deck weren’t all that pleasant. The water would be dirty and oily from the work that was usually done there.
Well yeah. but the real reason to mention “Radical Mullahs” is to stoke fear in MAGAnauts that those same radical mullahs are everywhere, even here. “Mullah” is a snarlword that means panic the rubes. And it works.
And once they’re panicked, whatever Dear leader proposes will sound just great to them. Transfer the entire US treasury to trump’s pocket? Sure!! Gotta save us from those radical mullahs.
The book Artemis, by Andy Weir, actually addresses this question. A Muslim who lives on the Moon, a welder by trade, builds (and plans to sell more to other Muslims) a tilted wall with footholds and hooks for a prayer rug so that someone leaning against the wall is bowing in the direction of Earth (and hence Mecca). Being on the Moon makes this easy, since the Earth is always at the same spot in the Earth’s sky (though a habitat at a different location on the Moon would need a wall at a different angle).
As for Hegseth’s proposal for a high-testosterone military, has anyone pointed out that there’s a very large demographic, who’s not nearly as underrepresented in the military as they used to be, who are all naturally low in testosterone?