Given the flood of "major" mosques which have declared that Ramadan is tomorrow on the basis of dubious "sightings" in Saudi Arabia, I've collated a list of places where people are starting on Wednesday. In the UK, they include Slough and High Wycombe (Bucks), Leeds and Bradford (Yorks) and Peterborough. Birmingham and Manchester are divided; IslamiBlog reports that seven mosques in the area, on the basis of a prior agreement, have decided to start tomorrow, but a commenter there reports that a mosque in Altrincham is starting Wednesday; reports on Deenport suggest that other mosques are starting Wednesday.
IslamOnline reports that fasting in Turkey, Albania, Kosova and Ukraine (countries in Europe with substantial indigenous Muslim populations) is starting on Wednesday, along with Tunisia; Morocco, the Gambia and the community in South Africa are still undeclared. Mas'ud Khan has recommended people to read the information on Moon Watch before starting fasts on Tuesday.
I find this sort of arrogance depressing. Why start Ramadhan on a negative note?
just start whenever you feel like i don't think He really minds too much!
Well I am on the west coast of USA and we have started Tawarih (spelling horrible) tonight, InshaAllah. Well brothers and sisters try to make it to the Masjid for Tawarih.
Assalamu alaikum, all I can say is, "here we go again". I'd like to know what kind of "arrogance" are we talking about? Are we talking about Yusuf, or those who are delcaring Tuesday as the start of Ramadan?
For my part, based on what I've read, I feel my confortable with ISNA's decision. Especially since it seems that no one in the world would have been able to have seen the moon on October 3rd. Although it seems that Nashville, the closest substantial Muslim community to me, is starting tomorrow, from waht I can tell. Though since I have little contact with them, I'm most likely going to start fasting Wednesday. I just feel more comfortable, and at this point, the way I feel, my deen means more to me than just going with the crowd, at least on this issue anyway! If it is not possible to see the moon, and no one has seen it in America according to ISNA, then I'd feel more comfortable going with that than just having someone plunk down a "ramadan is tomorrow" statement on their site without so much as a mention of the moon, or how they drived the conclusion that Ramadan is on a given day. I mean, it would be one thing if they said "OK we're going with Saudi" or whatever country. But that does not seem to be the case. My intention is not to be negative, and I'm not entirely anti global sighting, but the global sightning should actually be possible. and as for me, I follow the Maliki madhhab which goes with local sightning anyway. But as I said I'm not trying to be negative.
Ramadan mubarak to all.
Assalaamu alaikum,
Another occasion where I'm glad to live in a Muslim country. We all start and end Ramadan together; when it's announced, work hours change for work and school, restaurants stay closed during the day, etc. And when they announce that it's Eid, we have three days of holidays... It's not my responsibility to determined when the month starts and ends.
I don't know what I'd do if I lived in the US or UK, but I would think that this controversy is more than a little distracting. But there is a lot to be said for unity, and for the community of Muslims to celebrate Ramadan and Eid together.
I agree with Ann. Here, MUIS (the branch of the government here that liaises with the Muslim community), passed out Ramadan calendars over a month ago; for us, the starting date is tomorrow (the 5th).
Besides, if we relied purely on moon sightings, with our persistently cloudy skies, we may not see the moon for another week. :)
Assalamu alaikum, it seems the recommendation that I've gotten, and which I'm fine with, is to start with my local community. The thing is, ISNA and someother groups have gottentogether to try to end this sort of thing, and jointly determine the start of Ramadan. But inevitably, it's up to the local communities to decide what to do. I just plain give up, as it seems anyone who questions anything regarding this seems to be regarded as a fitna-monger. All I can do, I guess, is go with the flow and pray that Allah accepts my deeds, I mean, I guess it's possible that ISNA could be wrong. Allahu alim in any case.
Ginny,
My understanding is that either way (international or local sighting) is permissible, based on different interpretations. So there's no need for anxiety about which one is right or wrong. Of course, it's a shame that we couldn't have some sort of uniform system, but that doesn't mean we have to knock the other side.
As-Salaamu 'alaikum,
The point is that the moon couldn't have been seen because of the eclipse, especially on Monday, when the graph showed that it couldn't have been seen on Monday anywhere except the central Pacific. So it's likely that anyone who claimed to have seen the moon either made a mistake, which people are sometimes known to do, or were lying.
So, it's not just the issue of following a remote sighting, but such an obviously unreliable one. Even ISNA didn't follow suit this time, but for reasons no-one quite knows, a number of mosques (not all, by any means) in this country did. The problem with repeating the "unity mantra" is that unity signifies correctness, and people don't want to fast on the last day of Sha'baan or hold Eed al-Fitr in Ramadan. By the way, in this country we have a moon sighting committee, which is regularly ignored by a number of "major" mosques.
Assalamu alaikum, regarding moon sighting, I have no reason to "knock the other side". To be honest, I completely give up on this argument. Fast when you think you should fast, just respect my decision to follow who I trust in when I start my fast, that's all I ask. It's sort of like the whole madhhab thing, I pretty much keep that to msyelf too, and especially the tariqa thing. So, it's come to the point that I hardly even mention madhhabs / tariqas and now it seems moon sightings, or at least how I feel about said subjects, unless I'm among people who will at elast listen respectfully, and not accuse me of doing something haram by stating my opinion.
In Turkey, we started fasting on Thursday, 13 September. It is the television that tells us which time we begin ifthar since the time changes throughout Turkey. This is what is usually more confusing than the begin date.