This year matters have reached new extremes. Can we put a stop to the Saudi-isation of Eid and Ramazan?
ISLAMABAD: Even four decades after man landed on the moon, this celestial body has not failed to stir controversy in the Muslim world. In Pakistan it acquires intensity beyond comprehension. With Islamic religious festivals linked to the lunar calendar and no consensus on the criteria to be adopted in determining the start of a new month, confusion reigns supreme on the occasion of Eid and Ramazan.
This year matters have reached new extremes. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa local and zonal Ruet-i-Hilal committees decided to strike out on their own to meet on July 31 — a day before the central Ruet-i-Hilal Committee was to convene — to give a ruling on the sighting of the Ramazan moon. A proposal that Pakistan should follow Saudi Arabia so that the entire Muslim world observes Eid on the same day, has also received a nod of approval from the provincial government.
Can we put a stop to the Saudi-isation of Eid and Ramazan in Pakistan and elsewhere? Why can’t Muslims in Pakistan use modern technology to ascertain the visibility of the crescent with the naked eye or with a telescope?
Amjad Rashid
Published in The Express Tribune, August 2nd, 2011.
