One can verify city's first day of Ramadan, check on the time of the sunset and the time of the birth of the New Moon at the USA Naval Observatory. If the new moon is born before the sunset one will fast next morning for the first day of fasting. The issue of starting the month of Ramadan and other Islamic lunar months has been debated by scholars throughout history. The hadith that is frequently quoted is: "Do not fast until you see the crescent-moon, and do not break the fast until you have seen the crescent moon, but if conditions are overcast for you then enumerate for it." [Bukhari] The statement, "then enumerate for it" can be taken as evidence for the permissibility of calculation. Allah never commanded that the moon be sighted with the naked eyes to know the beginning of the new month. The Holy Qur'an is very clear that any method of calculation is acceptable. Now, with all the knowledge we have, we cannot sit still knowing that the month has already started and wait for a scholar to go and look for the crescent moon that may or may not be visible because of many factors, the most common of them is the weather condition.

Today, Muslims have expertise and access to technology to understand the calculations of when and where the sighting occurs. Recorded data shows how the science of moon sighting is compared with the actual observations. Islam is a strong proponent of using reason. Today the fact is that astronomy can accurately establish the time of birth of the new moon, and the time interval when it is impossible to see the crescent-moon due to its not yet being present.

Thus, there is no harm in using this astronomical basis to reject a claimed sighting which cannot possibly be correct.

Just think about people in the Caribbean, they have a 6-month long rainy season and moon sighting is not possible because of clouds. If they count 30 days for 3 or 4 months in a row, the moon is then sighted on the 28th or 27th day. This is a clear indication that the Sharia did not intend the sighting as the only requirement but simply as a facility, that was the sole method available to the Muslims of that era.

It seems this year in Bangladesh, the sighting of the new moon is a fabrication of the Islamic scholars or politicians.

Yet again controversy has arisen in Bangladesh over the sighting of the Ramadan moon with fierce debate in JS and discord and division amongst the simple innocent people. This should not be so because there is an official moon sighting committee in Bangladesh and there are various websites which give the visibility of the new moon which is very accurate for all tropical countries close to the equator. One such website is maintained by the British government HM Nautical Almanac Office: http://websurf.nao.rl.ac.uk .

The decision of the moon sighting committee to start the month of Ramadan from the sunset of Sunday 24 September is absolutely sound because the website confirms that in Dacca ( still spelt like this for this website) it is impossible to sight the new moon before this date even with optical aids.

So this problem has been caused by some mosques which obviously have affiliation or funding from Middle Eastern countries and they want to follow the lead of their patrons in this matter. In UK we are much aware of this problem. Many mosques and Islamic societies here are affiliated to and are funded by Islamic governments or organisations from outside the UK, and each group has its own ideas as to when a religious festivity should begin. Saudi Arabia has stopped citing any reasons for its proclamations of religious events for many years now and no one really knows what is the basis for the proclamations. Because, obviously, it cannot be the sighting of the new moon as they started Ramadan from sunset of Friday 22 September 2006, which would be impossible. Many of us in UK believe that Saudi Arabia uses the conjunction timing of the moon with the sun for this purpose, but if so, then how, is never made public. Recently the Fiqh Council of North America has accepted the conjunction time in GMT instead of actual sighting of the moon for festivities to start there and the decisions are rationally explained.

The Regent Park Central London Mosque and many large and small mosques in UK receive Saudi funding and if they did not obey the Saudi proclamations the funding would be cut off.

So these mosques here embellish the bald proclamations of festivities by adding “the moon has been sighted in Saudi Arabia, so Ramadan or Eid will start from… etc”, which is a falsehood by them ( not Saudi Arabia), to encourage the public to attend.

Every mosque or other Islamic society and institution in Bangladesh must follow the official moon- sighting committee's decision there unquestionably and not follow directions from other countries. There should also not be any private parallel moon-sighting group.

Shafi Ahmed, London, UK

It is indeed a matter of great bafflement that we keep on facing trouble like sighting the moon before the month of holy Ramadan starts! This year it was no exception. We have got two departments to sight the moon and decide the exact day to start the fast: The meteorology department- the scientific authority, and the clerics the religious authority. A general agreement between these two departments determines the beginning, but this time as the scientific department failed to spot the moon on the assumed day there has been a glut of accusations from the clerics.

At this point, one wonders why should we face trouble in determining the date for a solemn occasion and why should there be any controversy on this issue?

Rafiqul Islam Rime, Agrabad, Chittagong