Pakistan turns to science for moon sighting, infuriating mullahs

ISLAMABAD: Imran Khan’s government has drawn the ire of conservative mullahs with calls for a science-based lunar calendar to calculate the start of the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Pakistan, which faces an annual controversy over the date.

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The beginning of the ninth and holiest month in the Muslim calendar — as well as the Eid holidays and the mourning month of Muharram — is determined by the sighting of the new moon.

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In Pakistan a cleric-led “moonlighting committee” announces when the fasting should begin, but for decades it has faced disputes over the accuracy of its decision.

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“Every year on the occasion of Ramadan, Eid and Muharram a controversy starts regarding moonlighting,” Pakistan’s science and technology minister, Fawad Chaudhry, explained in a video he tweeted on May 5 in which he recounted watching the committee use “old technology” — telescopes — to make their calculations.

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“When modern means are available and we can determine a final date, the question is why we should not use this latest technology?” he argued.

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His ministry will form a new committee of scientists, meteorologists and Pakistan’s space agency to calculate the correct dates for the next five years with “100 per cent accuracy”.

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However the prime minister’s cabinet can reject the calendar, he added.

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In another tweet he warned decisions on how the country should be run “cannot be left to the maulana [clerics]”.

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“The journey ahead has to be undertaken by the youth, not mullahs, and only technology can take the nation forward.”

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Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman, head of the moonlighting committee, warned that Chaudhry should stay in his lane.

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“I have appealed to Prime Minister Imran Khan that only the concerned minister should talk about religious matters,” he said in a press conference in Karachi.

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“Every minister who does not know the sensitivity of the religion, does not understand it, they should not get the free licence to comment on religious matters.”

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He also pointed out that the committee already has members from the space agency, and also works with the meteorological department.

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Over the years the committee’s chief foe has been Maulana Shahabuddin Popalzai, an influential cleric based in Peshawar — the capital of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province — who announces the start of Ramadan and Eid a day earlier than the moonlighting committee.

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The split is considered bad for national unity and social harmony — but years of efforts to reconcile Popalzai with the central committee have been in vain.

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Chaudhry’s announcement has ignited an ongoing debate in Pakistan.

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Many social media users thanked the government for attempting to provide some clarity, but others saw the dark side.

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“This decision will further divide the nation,” complained one Twitter user, Mazhar Arshad, while another, who called himself Ezio Odyssey, warned that a “gang of ignorant has come to power”.

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