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"Moon sighting by the French Council for Muslim Faith (CFCM) shouldn’t be influenced by home country affiliations," said
Mansour.
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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
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Bakan said the Turkish and Arab embassies in France usually try to influence the minority's decision on Ramadan's start.
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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.
