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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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