Moonsighting project unites science and religion

The University of Leeds has been part of a pioneering project teaching the Muslim practise of moonsighting.

Moonsighters Academy is the first course of its kind in the UK, and will help educate 38 Muslim community leaders from across the country.

Used for hundreds of years, moonsighting is a method of determining the Islamic calendar and marking significant events like Ramadan and Eid, but is not common practice in the UK.

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

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

Moonsighting 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 disputes, or so-called “moon wars”, between mosques in the UK depending on which country they follow, as different countries see the crescent moon on different days.

It often means communities do not observe events like Ramadan or Eid at the same time.

Ahmed added: “Growing up, something I and all Muslims faced 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.

“What we’re trying to do here is train people in astronomy, not just because it’s a contemporary problem, but because 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 started in December and will run for nine months, has been created alongside moonsighting organisation the New Crescent Society, of whom Ahmed is director, and the University of Cambridge.

In includes use of the University of Leeds’ rooftop observatory and their state-of-the-art 35cm telescopes.

Dr Emma Alexander, an astronomer at the university 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 our night sky.”

The 38 participants include imams, school teachers, artists and business owners of varied 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.

“Where I grew up, we have two major mosques and neither of them agree on the same date for Ramadan or Eid,” she added.

“So 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 practise.”