“Carried aloft in NASA’s space shuttle, [he] could certainly have commented on the Shaikh’s thesis if he had not been preoccupied with the urgent task of determining the direction of [Mecca] for his prayers.”

Lol, I bet he could, but my goodness I hadn't even considered the problems of locating the qiblah while in outer space. I would have thought that generally praying in the direction of Earth would be enough. (Hmmm, has this issue been referenced in sci-fi novels at all? If your holy land is on another planet across the galaxy and you need to be praying in its direction does that cause logistical problems?)