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South Nigeria Fasts Friday, North Awaits Moon Sighting
http://www.islamonline.org/English/News/2004-10/13/article06.shtml

LAGOS, October 13 (IslamOnline.net) – Muslims in south Nigeria will start the holy fasting month of Ramadan Friday, October 15, according to astrological calculations while their fellow Muslims in the north insist to start fasting only after the sighting of the new moon.

The League of the Yorubaland's Scholars and Imams, the highest Islamic authority in south Nigeria, announced that Friday will mark the beginning of Ramadan.

In a statement following the meeting of its members, the league said they all agreed to follow the astrological calculations which concluded that the first day of fasting will fall Friday.

The body appealed to all Muslims in the region to start observing the dust-to-dawn fasting on that day.

Moon Sighting

However, the Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) said it will, as always, only accept the sighting of the new moon.

“The Fatwa Committee will convene later Wednesday, October 13, on the sighting of Ramadan crescent,” NSCIA Secretary General Dr. Abdul Lateef Adegbite told IslamOnline.net.

He said the council published a list with the names and phone numbers of 47 Muslim leaders who can be reached by any person who sights the crescent.

“In case the new moon was seen, the committee would immediately announce that Thursday, October 14, is the first day of Ramadan and Tarawih prayers will be performed later Wednesday.

“If not then Thursday will be the last day of Sha`ban and we will start fasting as of Friday,” Adegbite said.

He added that the NSCIA always depends on the sighting of the crescent in determining the beginning and end of the holy fasting month, admitting that not all Nigerian scholars are on board.

Adegbite said Muslim leaders and NSCIA members “particularly in the northern parts of the country do not favor astrological calculations or welcome calls to depend on them.”

Contention

He admitted, however, that the inability to agree on the start of Ramadan remains a point of contention in Nigeria.

Adegbite said the NSCIA has been “exerting painstaking efforts for a compromise between the different viewpoints through brain-storming sessions.”

He added that such differences are a cause of embarrassment in a country such as Nigeria where “Islam and Muslims are facing enemies.”

Muslims make up around 50 percent of Nigeria’s more than 137 million population, according to the CIA World Factbook.

Forty percent of Nigerians believe in Christianity. The state does not recognize atheism, who make up the remaining 10 percent of the population.

Observers blame the inability to agree on the start of Ramadan on the absence of the state’s support for the religious authority, the ministry of Islamic affairs.

Nigerian authorities usually depend on the NSCIA’s decisions and statements in making decisions about Muslim-related days off.

A source at the Council of Muftis of Russia told IOL that Russian Muslims will start the fasting Friday.

According to astrological calculations, Ramadan will also start Friday in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait.