“Another reasons cited is, to avoid praying to some other ‘creation’. Since there exists a ‘rock from heaven’ at mecca.”

Your friends are not entirely wrong, but that “rock” you speak of is The Black Stone, which is imbedded in a corner of the Kaaba. The Kaaba is the structure in Mecca that Muslims are facing when they pray 5 times a day. It’s also used to count the number of times you’ve walked around the Kaaba when you perform the Hajj, or holy pilgrimage.
Back to the comment on uniformity. Muslims do not have a “personal relationship” with Allah, as many Christians (and even some Jews) may claim to have. The entire experience is linked to the knowledge that you are part of a greater whole, a little cog in a mighty machine. The uniformity is allegedly intended to place emphasis on the equality of men before Allah, but more than anything, it serves to emphasize group subordination and submission. Islam is submission.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabbath_mode

Read the details. It takes a while to get your brain around the multiple layers of religious idiocy that these devices accommodate.

Didn’t Hemant post about that some time ago? Something about North American Muslims changing direction because they were using a flat map which meant they were facing South when they should have been facing North.

There’s no need to knock down mosques, just shift your direction slightly during prayer

An Islamic leader has admitted that facing Mecca while you pray doesn’t make a damn bit of difference

Its good to see some cracks finally appearing in old ideas of absolutes with regards to these faiths.

How much longer before they also realize there is no need for women to be opressed and hidden away.Or realize turning themselves into human bombs really makes little good sense either.

Maybe they should just set up a series of local repeater stations, since a tiny angular difference could throw you way off at this range.