Abu Dhabi: The Islamic Crescent Observation Project (ICOP) has announced that most Islamic countries may begin the Holy Month of Ramadan on Saturday, July 21st after moon sighting.
Engineer Mohammad Showkat Awda, chairman of the project said most Islamic countries have started the month of Sha’ban on the same day in a rare phenomena. Therefore, these nations would start monitoring the Ramadan Crescent on Thursday, July 19 which is Sha’ban 29. However, the moon day would not be possible in all northern and some middle regions of the world.
He noted that the new moon of Ramadan in the rest of the Arab world will not be possible on Thursday due to the reason that the moon will set along with sun or after a few minutes which does not allow to sight the moon even with powerful astronomical telescopes, and so these regions should complete the month of Sha’aban with 30 days and the beginning of Ramadan would be on Saturday, July 21st. Therefore, it is possible to see the moon on Thursday with telescope from the far south of the continent of Africa and South America only.
