French Muslims Want "Own" Moon Sighting

By Hadi Yahmid, IOL Correspondent

PARIS, October 3, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – French Muslim leaders have called for "independence" from their native countries in sighting Ramadan’s moon, saying the annual event should be purely French.

"Moon sighting by the French Council for Muslim Faith (CFCM) shouldn’t be influenced by home country affiliations," Wahid Mansour, the chairman of the Pakistani Cultural Coordination Center, told IslamOnline.net Monday, October 3.

He charged that CFCM officials fix the beginning of the holy fasting month in France to their native countries.

"Pakistanis, for instance, automatically follow the start of Ramadan in Pakistan," he said.

Ahmet Bakan, the head of the Turkish Milli Gurus, agreed.

"French Muslims should be self-independent and sight the Ramadan’s moon from France," he stressed.

He charged that Turkish embassy and Arab embassies in France usually try to influence the minority's decision on Ramadan's start.

French Turks, estimated at 400,000 people, follow the Turkish Coordination Committee, which is close to the Turkish embassy in Paris.

Over the past two years, the CFCM’s moon sighting committee was split down the middle on the start of the dawn-to-dusk fasting month, IOL’s correspondent says.

Paris Mosque, one of the key bodies forming the umbrella council, joined forces with North African organizations in a move that spotlit the mosque’s affiliations with Algeria, according to analysts.

First Sighting

But Lhaj Thami Breze, the president of the Union of French Islamic Organizations (UOIF), played down moon sighting from other countries, especially in the Arab Maghreb.

"The union follows the first moon sighting in any Muslim country whether in the Arab Maghreb, Saudi Arabia or other countries," he said.

The French Council for Imams sees eye to eye with the UOIF, urging French Muslims from all walks of life to fast and mark Muslim festivities in unison in accordance with the Fiqh Academy in Saudi Arabia.

Sheikh Ahmad Gaballah, member of the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR), said the council has left the door open for Muslims in each European country to determine for themselves the beginning of Ramadan.

"British Muslims may start fasting one day before their peers in France if they differed on moon sighting," he explained.

The Dublin-based council, the main religious authority for Muslims in the West, said in a statement Saturday, October 1, that Ramadan would start in Europe on Wednesday, October 5, according to astronomical calculations.

It said moon sighting will not be possible in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, or across Europe on Monday, September 3.

Moon sighting has always been a controversial issue among Muslim countries, and even scholars seem at odds over the issue.

While one group of scholars sees that Muslims in other regions and countries are to follow this sighting as long as these countries share one part of the night, another states that Muslims everywhere should abide by the lunar calendar of Saudi Arabia.

A third, however, disputes both views, arguing that Islam is against division and disunity, since Muslims, for instance, are not allowed to hold two congregational prayers in one mosque at the same time.

This group believes that the authority in charge of ascertaining the sighting of the moon in a given country (such as Egypt's Dar al-Iftaa [House of Fatwa]) announces the sighting of the new moon, then Muslims in the country should all abide by this.