Manama: Pinning the start of Ramadan this year will again be a point of debate in the Muslim world as 1.2 billion Muslims will most likely begin observing Ramadan on three different days, a professor in Bahrain said.
"Muslims in at least one country will start fasting on September 12 while the others will begin either on September 13 or 14," Dr Waheeb Al Nasser yesterday said in a statement to the press.
"I believe that Libya will be the first country to announce the start of Ramadan on September 12," said the physics professor at the University of Bahrain.
Social divisions
The start of Ramadan, the ninth month of the lunar-based Islamic calendar, has been a source of heated debate among Muslims upset over how countries are claiming sightings on different dates and starting the month on different days.
The clash is mainly between conservatives who insist on seeing the moon with the naked eye, in line with a literal interpretation of Islamic principles.
This is in contrast to those who call for the use of astronomical calculations to predict the start of the month.
For the naked-eye sightings, varying geographical and weather conditions mean that people in different locations cannot see the appearance of the moon, making Muslims around the world fast on different days.
However, the strict interpretation of the visibility stipulation is increasingly becoming a source of national and social divisions, defeating the call for unity preached by Islam during the sacred month.
"It is regrettable that some countries still reject any role for astronomers in determining the first and last days of Ramadan.
"I sincerely wish that the committee of the scholars who decide on the first day of Ramadan and the start of Eid would use science and astronomy," Al Nasser said.
Religious scholars should reconsider their views about technology and astronomy by following the example of Saudi Arabia which has recently built 11 astronomy observatories and launched a satellite, he said.
