Leeds and Cambridge University project will teach Muslim moonsighting practice

A research project by the University of Leeds and University of Cambridge is being used to teach Moonsighting to 38 Muslim community leaders across the country.

Moonsighting has been used for hundreds of years as a method of determining the Islamic calendar for marking significant events like Ramadan and Eid.

Imad Ahmed, the Academy’s project coordinator told the BBC the course aims to “bring the moon back home and into our own eyesight”.

It includes the use of the University of Leeds’ rooftop observatory and their state-of-the-art 35cm telescopes, located at the top of the Sir William Henry Bragg building.

The Islamic calendar is based on lunar cycles, with the start of each month marked by the sighting of the first crescent moon.

via Unplash

The practice requires specific astronomical conditions and visibility, which is why most mosques in the UK rely on the sightings from other countries, such as Saudi Arabia or Morocco.

“When Muslims first came to the UK, they faced a problem that many people face in British astronomy – the cloudy weather,” said Ahmed.

“They settled on a solution to follow the moon of a different country”.

The reliance on other countries has led to disagreements, or so called “moon-wars”, between mosques in the UK depending on which country’s moon they follow, as different countries see the crescent moon on different days.

This means that it is irregular for communities to observe events such as Ramadan or Eid at the same time.

Ahmed added: “Growing up, something I and all Muslims in the UK is every single Ramadan or Eid, we didn’t seem to know when we should be celebrating, and this has caused a lot of hurt in the community.

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“What we’re trying to do is train people astronomy, not just because it’s a contemporary problem, but because all Muslims have a really strong history in astronomy.

“Moonsighting is a national sport and we all need to work together. I want to go from moon fighting to moonsighting and moon uniting”.

The course, which began in January and will run for nine months, has been created alongside the moonsighting organisation, the New Crescent Society, of whom Ahmed is the director.

via Unsplash

Dr Emma Alexander, an astronomer at the University of Leeds and project co-lead said: “One of my favourite aspects of working in astronomy is being able to share it with others, especially when I can help ignite sparks of curiosity about our universe and shake off stereotypes of who astronomers are.

“The course has opened up much more of an interest in the interlink between astronomy and culture in general – how people within different communities, different faiths interact with the night sky”.

The 38 participants in the project include imams, school teachers, artists and business owners of varying ages.

Aliyah Khan, who works as a science teacher and forest therapy practitioner said she applied for the course in the hope of “educating the next generation” of Muslims in the UK.

Khan explained: “Where I grew up, we have two major mosques and neither of them agree on the same date for Ramadan or Eid. In school, I was the only one doing Eid on a different day to my friends. It’s quite isolating and splits the community”.

“We can see the moon from Britain, we don’t need to have someone in another country looking at it for us. It’s a way of bridging scientific knowledge and Islamic practice,” she added.

Featured image via Unsplash