Dear All, Assalaam alaikum and wish you all a very happy Eid Mubarak.

Following was the information put up on web

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source from MCB regarding sighting of new moon.

Author: Immers (89.241.105.---)
Date: 21-10-06 15:22

The Shawal moon will be born on 22nd October 2006 at 0614 London time. On 22nd October the crescent moon will set 18 minutes before the sunset in London and will not be visible.
Similarly on 23rd October it will set 1 minute before the sunset and will still not be visible. According to the calculations of predicted visibility by the Royal Greenwich Observatory, the Shawal moon may be visible in London on the evening of 24th October. Thus according to the Observatory, 1st Shawal in London would be 25 October 2006.

However those who started Ramadan on 24th September will complete their 30 days fasting on 23rd October and would therefore celebrate Eid on 24th October

In Saudi Arabia, according to the Kingdom's umm ul Qurra calendar, the published date of Eid is 23rd October. Ramadhan started on 23 September and in case of a 29 days Ramadan, Eid will be held there on 22nd October and in case of 30 days Ramadhan it will be held on 23rd October. However according to astronomical calculations the new moon will not be visible in Mecca even on 22nd October because it will be only 0937 hours old. Moon visibility on 21st October is impossible anywhere because the new moon will not be born yet.

Source: Zafar Iqbal, MCB

My experience:

In London most of us celebrated Eid on 23rd Monday. The local mosque where I go is suppose to be not Deobandhi/wahaabi but Ahle sunnat wal jamaat (Brent central mosque, Willesden Green). This was 29th of Ramzaan after iftaari and magrib namaz, as a humble muslim I went and asked imam whether eid moon has been sighted... he said he does not carry moon in his pocket... it will be declared on TV.. you will know if the moon is sighted in Saudi Arabia Eid will be celebrated tomorrow... I than raised issue in my conversation that how is it right for us here in LONDON to celebrate Eid based on sighting of moon in Saudi Arabia... and the response i got is it is not in his hand... most people go with Saudi Arabia and we are trying stay united.... few youngsters looked at me with disghust as if I was trying to create fitna among muslim .. one of them asked where do I come from... as if I was some sort of old fashioned village idiot ...but it was clear no one was interested in looking at new moon... when I left mosque the sky was reasonably clear to see moon... but there was no one to look for new moon.... it seems that it was a thing of past to look for new moon....a lot of muslims believe this is wrong but are helpless...some are confused and some do not care.

I am not an Islamic scholar but will our ahle sunnat ulema please throw some light on this issue. In london it seems that things are influenced by London Central Mosque which is clearly managed and funded by Wahaabis in Saudi Arabia... however what I am surprised that even so called Ahle Sunnat masjids have agreed to go with Central Mosque and celebrate Eid and Ramzaan in accordance to sighting of Moon in Saudi Arabia...is this correct???.

May Allah guide us all in accordance to true traditions of Sunna

Wassalaam

Ashfaq