New Crescent Society

Outsourcing the Moon Abroad  Today in the UK, there is no UK based Islamic Calendar, nor is there any consensus on how we should conduct our calendar locally. Instead, we have various groups who 'outsource' their moonsighting decisions to different countries. Some groups, for example, follow Morocco, others follow Saudi, and so on. Different countries see the moon on different days, and have different ways of calculating their calendar. It is inevitable that each of these respective groups who follow different countries here in the UK will, as a result, start Islamic months on different days. The New Crescent Society hopes to work together with Muslims and institutions to remedy this problem, and eventually convene our own united calendar here in the UK.  We believe that if we are able to set up the infrastructure to sight the moon here in the UK (moonsighting locations with trained sighters, a reporting mechanism), we could have our own calen...

A New Year's Resolution Alhamdulillah we have been blessed to begin another new year in the Islamic Calendar, and have commenced 1441 AH. Another year has passed, and yet the problem of the Islamic Calendar  in the UK remains with us. Even for the month of Muharram this year, some people will commemorate Ashura on Monday 9 September, and local sighters will do so on Tuesday 10 September. This issue continues to cause much pain and division within the Muslim community, particularly around  Eid, where we can find areas, streets and even single families not agreeing on which day to celebrate Eid. This problem will continue to occur until we have a community based conversation about the way forward.  In our view, there is a solution: to revive the traditional sunnah practices of moonsighting here in the UK, and not outsource our Islamic Calendar to foreign countries. As long as we continue to rely on word from abroad, we will not achieve unity in the UK. Here is ...