Dutch dhimmis in a tizzy: some of the Muslim prisoners might be offended. An update on this story: “Islamic inmates pointed wrong way to Mecca,” from Reuters, with thanks to JE:
A DUTCH police station trying to help Muslim detainees face Mecca for their prayers painted arrows in cells pointing in the wrong direction.
The Segbroek police station in The Hague borrowed the idea of putting compass marks on ceilings from an Amsterdam hotel, the Dutch daily De Telegraaf reported on Friday.
Muslims pray five times a day, facing east in the direction of Mecca. But the arrows in Segbroek pointed west.
“This is a really gigantic, stupid blunder,” a police spokesman said to the De Telegraaf.
“The faulty compass marks have been immediately corrected. It is a mystery for us how this could have possibly happened”.
All other police cells in the Dutch capital will soon get similar compass marks, the in-house newspaper of The Hague police said.