A two-day conference on Islam and life in space is under way in Malaysia, in a bid to answer questions faced by would-be Muslim astronauts. Malaysia is due to send an astronaut into space with the Russians next year. The country's first spaceman is almost certain to be a Muslim, which raises a number of practical issues. For instance, Muslims wash before they pray but not only is water a precious commodity in space, but it is also impractical in weightlessness. | Kleenex Cottonelle Flushable Folded Wipes with Aloe & E, leaves your skin soft and works fine in zero-G |
Likewise, the faithful face Mecca. However, that will mean pin-pointing a moving location while in zero gravity. | How about, I don't know, facing earth? Mecca's down there. |
And Muslim prayer times are linked to those of the sunrise and sunset, but in orbit the sun appears to rise and set more than a dozen times a day. | You could use local time at the launch site, at the home of the Islamonaut or at Mecca? |
Malaysia's science ministry has called together a group of experts to thrash out these and other questions. | I just solved your problem in under a minute. Of course, I'm not an expert, nor do I get paid as one |
It is being billed as the first-ever serious discussion of the issues.
It is in keeping with the Malaysian government's mission to promote what it calls Islam Hadhari, or civilisational Islam, which encourages Muslims to embrace education, science and technology. It will doubtless be hoping that a conference of Muslim scientists and scholars debating such cutting edge issues will not go unnoticed in the rest of the Islamic world. | They're too busy discussing the proper way to kill more Jews or when the Hidden Imam will crawl out of his well |
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