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It’s
Neither Ramadan nor the Crescent, It’s Us!
By
Shaker Sayyed
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Every
Ramadan, Muslim minorities all over the world start the month of
Ramadan and end it with a sour taste, the taste of differing over
when to start and when to finish. You may find in the same local
town or city, a mosque that may fast with an Arab country, another
one that may fast with a national organization, a third one that may
commission its own moon sighting committee and perhaps a fourth one
that had already calculated the beginning and the end of the month
and had already determined when to fast and when to celebrate the
‘Eid.
Between the four mosques, the same local community is literally
divided on the beginning of the month and when to celebrate the
‘Eid. Sometimes in the same household, we may find every member of
the family joining a different mosque. Many of the Muslim community
members in the West are truly puzzled with this situation. Some say,
“Why don’t this mosque?” while the others say, “Why don’t
we join the other mosque?” Some others ask a life-long question,
“Isn’t Ramadan a season for unity? Isn’t the Crescent a symbol
of our unity?” The reality is its is neither Ramadan nor is it the
crescent. The problem is us. Muslims definitely can unite when it
comes to Ramadan by doing one of two things: either they force their
local mosque leadership to agree before Ramadan with other local
mosques on one of the four valid methods for decision-making. If
they fail to do that, then the other option is to get a leadership
that would do it.
Ramadan, therefore, comes only as a mirror that reflects if we were
united before Ramadan. It shouldn’t be misconstrued for a unity
maker or breaker because it is not. And a mirror it is, what you see
is what you get.
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