BAGHDAD, October 25 (IslamOnline.net) - With the Muslim holy month of Ramadan around the corner, the Sunnis and the Shiites in Iraq are still divided over the start of the fasting month even though it is their first without former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

Both Muslim sects in the occupied country used to contradict the "regime's crescent"; however, they are still at odds over the sighting of the first sliver of the new moon, although both of them depend on the naked-eye sighting.

"The crescent had been long used by the (deposed) Baathist regime as a political card; namely, if the regime was at good terms with the Arab countries, they would follow their lunar calendar and vice versa with Iran, which left the people of Iraq perplexed," Sheikh Abdul Galil Ibrahim al-Fahdawi, professor of Shariaa (Islamic law) at the Islamic University and member of Iraq's Scholars Body, told IsalmOnline.net Friday, October 24.

"At some point of time, the Iraqis were marking Ramadan according to three crescents: one declared by the former regime, another by Muslim countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia and a third by Shiites who depend on Iran's calculations," he added.

Fahdawi said that as far as Sunnis were concerned, they set up a committee to see the crescent late Saturday, October 25.

"The committee will announce (Saturday) the start of the holy month (which starts probably Sunday or Monday in most countries) in the region in a statement after the sighting of the crescent," Fahdawi added.

"We, in our capacity as Iraqi scholars, will depend on the naked eye to settle on the first day of Ramadan and not on telescopes," he said, citing a saying by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) who said: "Fast once you spot the crescent, and break your fasting once you spot the crescent of the month to follow."

However, Fahdawi added that the committee would also depend on the sighting of other Muslim countries, which share one part of the night with Iraq, like Egypt and Saudi Arabia "provided that they would not depend on astrological calculations."

Sheikh Ali al-Wa'ez, representative of Shiite grand authority Ayatollah Ali as-Sistani in Al-Kazimiya district, said the division over the moon sighting between the Sunnis and the Shiites was "temporary and will end as time goes by."

"This division has been created by the former regime in which the Shiites and the Sunnis have never trusted…That's why we have been depending on ourselves (in determining the first day of Ramadan)," Wa'ez told IOL.

He also said that Sheikh as-Sistani refused to lean on astrological calculations, accepting nothing but the naked-eye sighting by a number of people, who must share identical views.

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.