Discussions and opinion relating to the annual moon sighting controversies.
Every year it is the same. In the UK there is a split in the community and the joyous occasion that is Eid descends into argument with the announcement of Eid on two different days. This year, everyone started Ramadan together and we were confident that perhaps this year we would complete the holy month as one community and celebrate Eid in unison. Unfortunately, the customary Saudi spanner (monkey wrench) Â was cast into the machinery of Ramadan and they announced…
as-salamu ‘alaykum, This is the moonsighting report form Shaykh Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti Shaykh Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti (MCW member) from Oxford, UK: Not Seen Negative sighting. We attempted the obligatory sighting at the end of the 29th day of Ramadan (Sunday, 22 October 2006), despite the new moon is not expected to be visible locally today. It is raining and the horizon is overcast, and hence there was no possible sighting anyway. We received the report from Fez, Morocco of negative…
as-salamu ‘alaykum, More on moonsighting… Rania Habib, Staff Reporter at The Gulf News reports: Ramadan ‘was announced on wrong day’ “Abu Dhabi: Astronomers in the UAE maintain that the announcement of the beginning of Ramadan on Friday, September 22, was incorrect, and that it should have in fact been announced two days later.UAE Astronomical Society engineer Mohammad Shawkat Odeh and American University of Sharjah Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy Dr Nidhal Guessoum explain that the crescent moon was impossible…