Muslim satellite monitors Moon (moonbat alert!)

ABC News Online (Australian Broadcasting Corp.) ^ | 4/25/05

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Muslim countries are set to launch the first Islamic satellite, which will be used for Moon sightings to help decide accurate dates for religious holidays and festivals, the world's largest Muslim body says.

The 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference says it plans to launch a 30 million Saudi Riyals (A$10.2 million) satellite within two years to take pictures of the Moon and establish lunar calendar dates.

The Islamic calendar is a twelve-month lunar calendar and the beginning of any month is marked by the first appearance of the crescent Moon, or Hilal.

Although the rise of the crescent Moon can be determined scientifically, many Muslims like to watch the horizon and sight the moon visually.

This is why Muslims can't know ahead of time the exact date for their religious holidays and festivals.

For example, Muslims who rely on a visual sighting of the Moon may begin Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, later than other Muslims if the sky is cloudy.

The OIC says religious scholars will have access to accurate pictures of the shape of the Moon instead of having to rely on naked-eye sightings which have in the past created discrepancies between Muslim countries or mistakes.

A Moon sighting committee in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, frustrated millions of worshippers when it said it got the date wrong by a day for the peak of this year's Hajj pilgrimage in January.

There are currently some six Saudi Moon-sighting committees in Saudi Arabia and it takes a lot of time, effort and discussion to arrive at a common conclusion about the moon.

"The shape of the Moon has to be seen from the ground," says Osama al-Bar, dean of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Institute for Haj Research in Saudi Arabia.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I never could figure out why many Freepers called them "moonbats" until I read this article. This is really weird.

[Nam Vet]

FReeper Lore and nicknames are based in fact!! Just wait until you have enough time served to earn an official VRWC Secret Decoder Ring. All secrets will be revealed. 8^)

Nam Vet

[26lemoncharlie]

I just got my "Decoder Ring" about a month a month ago!!

[djsunzi]

what a bunch of losers... they use all this money to ... take pretty pictures of the moon...

[billybudd]

Islamic high technology. Wonderful.

[taxesareforever]

$10 million dollars for a satellite? What are they taking pictures with, a Kodak instamatic?

[piasa]

The god of the muslim universe sets time to a nondescript moon orbiting a small planet orbiting a rather ordinary star in a small solar system in an obscure part of one galaxy among an unimaginable number of fantastic galaxies?

[Smoote]

Let me guess... they're going to buy the satellite from the French who will also launch it for them. No way the Saudis could do this by themselves.

[moonpie57]

Oh wow! A decoder ring! How long do I have to wait to get mine???

[etcetera]

"...many Muslims like to watch the horizon and sight the moon visually."

So launching a satellite to take pictures of the moon solves this problem - how?

[jimtorr]

Oh wow! A decoder ring! How long do I have to wait to get mine???

We could tell you, but then we'd have to...to....well, I can't tell you that, either, until you get the ring.

[Samurai_Jack]

it allows them to take pictures of the moon even when it's cloudy?

[Vermont Lt]

Ahhh...the Christian calendar is also based on the moon. Do a google and find out how the date for Easter is determined. Does that make us moonbats?

[MineralMan]

Interesting, but Islam is not the only religion that bases holidays on the Moon. Christianity does too, with Easter. From a web site:

"The usual statement, that Easter Day is the first Sunday after the full moon that occurs next after the vernal equinox, is not a precise statement of the actual ecclesiastical rules. The full moon involved is not the astronomical Full Moon but an ecclesiastical moon (determined from tables) that keeps, more or less, in step with the astronomical Moon.

The ecclesiastical rules are:

Easter falls on the first Sunday following the first ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or after the day of the vernal equinox;
this particular ecclesiastical full moon is the 14th day of a tabular lunation (new moon); and
the vernal equinox is fixed as March 21.
"

[Mr. Jazzy]

Look, nobody says the Christian calender (if there IS such a thing!) is perfect. But the holidays are predictable because we don't have to SEE the moon in its phases to know when to place the holidays! That "SEEING" business is so juvenile as to defy words!

As far as the holidays the Christians celebrate, this year is a perfect example of how screwed up the placing of Easter holidays! Passover just started and Easter was almost a month ago!

[MineralMan]

"As far as the holidays the Christians celebrate, this year is a perfect example of how screwed up the placing of Easter holidays! Passover just started and Easter was almost a month ago!"

---

Yes, and Passover is regulated by the moon, too. It's all screwed up because nobody actually looks at the moon any more to set those dates. They used to, but now they use a chart instead, and it's off.

The point is that both Judaism and Christianity base their most holy days on the phases of the moon. Islam goes farther than that, but all three are partially solilunar based.

There is much to criticize about Islam. However, let's do so on a real basis, not on something it has in common with Judaism and Christianity.

[SlowBoat407]

Have they ever heard of an epemeris? Dang, I thought these guys pioneered this stuff to the point where you could predict moonrise to the second from any point on earth! They have to physically observe it?

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.

[SlowBoat407]

As far as the holidays the Christians celebrate, this year is a perfect example of how screwed up the placing of Easter holidays! Passover just started and Easter was almost a month ago!

Orthodox Easter, however, is keyed to the same cycle as Passover, since it was the Passover celebration that became the Last Supper.

[-YYZ-]

This is pretty sad because the phases of the moon are perfectly predictable, and as far back as the time of Mohammed astronomers were more than capable of producing charts and calendars that would predict the phases of the moon with great precision. The ancient Mayans were also able to do this. Using a sattelite as a high-tech substitute for visual observations is pretty backwards, really.

[The Great RJ]

Perhaps some of our more technically inclined could inject some alternative "moon" pictures for the edification of the Islamic faithful.