World should adopt Mecca time: Muslim scholars

Muslim scientists and scholars have called for the world to replace Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) with Mecca time, press reports said Thursday.

Prominent scholar, Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawy, said modern science had provided evidence that Mecca was the true center of the Earth, the BBC reported.

One scientist argued that unlike other longitudes, Mecca's was in perfect alignment to the magnetic north, it added.

The scientist further went on to argue that GMT was imposed on the rest of the world by force during the times of the British Empire and said it was about time that changed.

The scholars were speaking at a conference held in Qatar titled 'Mecca, the Centre of the Earth, Theory and Practice'.

During the conference, the scholars reviewed what was labeled a Mecca watch -- which rotates anti-clockwise to determine the direction of Mecca from any point on Earth -- invented by a French Muslim, the BBC said.

Mecca is the direction Muslims face when they perform their daily prayers.