British Muslims to be taught to moonsight the start of Ramadan

Crescent. Photo: Daniel Garrido/Getty Images

In the United Kingdom, the start of the first academic course on moon sighting has been announced, during which 30 Muslims will be trained for free to determine the appearance of the crescent moon – the date marking the beginning and end of Ramadan, Eid al-Adha, and other Islamic holidays. This was reported by Hyphen Online.

According to the publication, the nine-month program, created by the University of Cambridge and the University of Leeds in collaboration with the Muslim astronomical club New Crescent Society, will serve as the foundation for forming a "unified Islamic lunar calendar" specifically designed for British Muslims.

The project is funded by government grants and is positioned as a step towards enabling Muslim communities in the United Kingdom to "make their own decisions" regarding religious dates, without relying on announcements from other countries.

The initiative emerged against the backdrop of annual disputes between mosques about when exactly Ramadan begins – the so-called "moon wars". Now, British scientific and administrative structures are effectively becoming involved in the standardization of Islamic religious practices within the country.

According to the initiators, the course is intended to prepare "community leaders" who will be able to conduct training in mosques and Muslim organizations throughout the United Kingdom in the future. The program includes moon observations, online classes, and practice using telescopes.

Thus, under the guise of a scientific project, the trend towards the institutionalization of the Islamic calendar at the state level is strengthening in British society, which many observers are already calling another step towards further Islamization of the country.

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