At 6pm on Thursday I was told that Saudi had declared Eid on Friday. Up to then I was expecting Eid to be on Saturday, solely because the astronomical  calculations suggested the moon was not visible in most part of the Earth on Thursday night. The beginning and end of the fasting month depends on the sighting of the new moon. One of the five fundamental pillars of Islam - year after year I'm surprised that Muslims always get it wrong. In other words we can never agree on a single day to celebrate such a fundamentally important part of our religion.

Either the astronomical calculations (www.moonsighting.com) are wrong or someone is taking the Muslims for a ride. 

I'm a mathematician, but you don't have to be mathematician to know that to prove something wrong you just need one example of failure. Proving something right on the other hand is much more difficult. Astronomical calculations about moon visibility may have never been wrong yet but it doesn't mean they'll be right this time.

It's always Saudi that declares they've seen the moon before the calculations say possible. If that is so then the Saudis should be sharing this information with the astronomical societies all around the world so they can adjust their calculations.

But personally I think something more sinister is happening in the Saudi ministry of moonsighting. If the moon has truly been sighted then it should be easy to photograph the sighting using camera technology for the world to see. But we don't get that. Muslims of this country are overwhelmingly from the sub-continent, have a high reverence for the holy land and everything associated with it. A decision comes from there is taken to be gospel and not to be faulted or questioned. The Saudis are using this authority to export their version of Islam with complete disregard of one of the five fundamentals of the religion and the millions of people around the globe.

It takes me back to one of the Dispatches documentaries where the leader of the MCB was questioned about inviting a Saudi cleric to East London Mosque after the cleric was recorded inciting hatred against the West in Arabic sermons in Saudi. The truth is the people who invited the cleric, the Imam of the holy mosque in Mecca, didn't know anything about the teaching he propagates to his listeners. The Muslim populous of this country only revere this personality for one reason and one reason only - he leads the prayer in the holiest place in Islam. They, by no means share the religious interpretations of the Saudis, they don't even understand the lingo.

You might say that I'm trusting the calculations over people without reason. But I have perfectly good reason for not trusting the Saudis... I spent some time in the deserts of the Sudan, where the night sky is clear and it's a habit for the people there to seek out the new moon every month. I recall one Eid when I was there, the capital Khartoum celebrated Eid on one day (following Saudi) and we celebrated Eid the day after, after we saw the moon. So in that instance, Saudi authorities were definitely misleading the Muslim world (or at least those that are stupid enough to trust them).

These Saudis authorities are, whether intentionally or otherwise, destroying Islam and exporting this distruction to the rest of the Muslim world. All these Muslims in this country who accuse the Saudi wahhabis of exporting distorted Islam with the oil money do have a case.

All these mosques and Muslim community leaders that associate themselves with the Saudis without question should be very careful so as not to be complicit in the destruction of this religion that our beloved prophet, the mercy to the worlds, brought to us. 

May Allah forgive our mistakes and protect His religion.

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