Saudis hope giant clock will set 'Mecca Time'

[onager]

So the clock will always be set to the 7th century...?

MECCA, Saudi Arabia (AFP) – Muslims around the world could be setting their watches to a new time soon when the world's largest clock begins ticking atop a soaring skyscraper in Islam's holiest city of Mecca...

The tower's height will reach 601 metres (1,983 feet), SPA said. On its website, Premiere Composite, which is responsible for cladding the top section -- including a shimmering spire topped by a golden crescent moon -- puts the planned height at 590 metres (1,947 feet).

That would make it the world's second tallest building -- ahead of Taiwan's 509 metre (1,670 feet) Taipei 101, but well behind the Burj Khalifa, the 828 metre (2,717 feet) skyscraper inaugurated in Dubai in January...

The clock reflects a goal by some Muslims to replace the 126-year-old Universal Time standard -- originally called Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) -- with Mecca mean time.

At a conference in Doha in 2008, Muslim clerics and scholars presented "scientific" arguments that Mecca time is the true global meridian. They said that Mecca is the centre of the world and that the Greenwich standard was imposed by the west in 1884.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100810/wl_mideast_afp/saudireligionmeccaconstructiontime_20100810131606

Yeah, good luck with that. A few years ago when I was in Egypt, the Supreme Islamic Council in Saudi Arabia couldn't decide on which day the feast of Eid al-Fitr started. They finally moved it back one day from the original date, throwing travel plans all over the Muslim world into total chaos.

[mr blur]

1. Blimey, I read that as "giant cock"!

Now that would be awesome!

[realisticphish]

2. because there is a true global meridian

rather than a totally arbitrary one?

It's really, honestly sad to see a religious movement that was once a pinnacle of math and science descend like this