A fine demonstration of the ignorance of religious “rites” that otherwise modern people are forced to adhere to because of their beliefs. How do superstitious* muslims deal with the obvious discrepanies between the demands of their “faith” and the reality of space travel? This should be fun to watch pan out.

Conference on how to practise Islam in space

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – How do Muslim astronauts pray in space? Malaysia’s National Space Agency is holding a conference to consider such questions as the country prepares to send its first citizen into orbit.

A nationwide competition in the majority-Muslim country has narrowed the field to four astronaut candidates, three of whom are Muslims.

Two will eventually be trained and sent into space by Russia, and Malaysia’s space agency — or Angkasa — said it had been scratching its head over how Muslim rituals could be carried out properly.

Performing ablutions for Muslim prayers with water rationing in space and preparing food according to Islamic standards will be among issues discussed, said Angkasa’s director-general, Mazlan Othman.

“So far, Angkasa has not discussed these matters with Russia because the candidates have not been decided and the needs of Malaysian astronauts have not been determined,” Mazlan was quoted as saying by the state Bernama news agency.

“We have to make preparations to discuss with Russia when the time comes,” she added.

Amusingly enough, these fruitcakes assume Russia is going to bend over backwards to provide for the illogical demands of their religion. I hope the Russians have the intestinal fortitude to just tell them “no”. On the other hand, if these issues aren’t resolved, perhaps the result with be “no muslims in space”… that can’t be a bad idea.

The comments over at http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=20184_Islam_in_Orbit LGF are simply hilarious.

* By the way, I don’t reserve the term “superstitious” for muslims – it also covers christians, budhists, scientologists (actually, they’re better described as simple whackos), and anyone else that seeks to validate their existence based on fiction.