Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Q&A Why do We Follow Saudi for Moon Sighting

			Why is it that we always tend to
follow Saudi Arabia for the moon
		

			sighting, even though we know
there is some controversy
		

			regarding this their source of
information that you will have to
		

			for that, you'll have to actually
ask the people that follow Saudi
		

			Arabia for that, ask them their
reasons. Personally, that's not my
		

			opinion, though. For the sake of
unity, I will do eight with
		

			everybody else, because I was an
imam in the masjid that followed
		

			Saudi, so then I would do that
just for the sake of unity. But
		

			why they do it, that's something
that you have to ask the people
		

			who, personally the reason is that
initially, many, many years ago,
		

			they used to follow Morocco. But
at that time, communication was
		

			complicated. And they wouldn't
receive information quick enough.
		

			Then slowly, slowly, more and more
people started going for Amara,
		

			during the month of Ramadan and
for Hajj, and communication became
		

			easier, three years, three hours
before is where they were, you
		

			know, their sunset is. So people
started saying, Oh, we're doing
		

			Ramadan, here, we're doing
Ramadan, you know, it's eat
		

			tomorrow, it's the moon has been
seen here. So they've, they
		

			started following that. And now
it's very difficult for most
		

			people to change, there is a
increasing movement to move away
		

			from Saudi Arabia. But at the end
of the day, it's going to take a
		

			while what you have to realize,
just from a social perspective, is
		

			that when people have been
following something for a very,
		

			very long time, it's very
difficult to make that change. And
		

			mostly, you can never make a
change, especially when you're not
		

			living in an Islamic Heroku
Islamic rule where they could
		

			implement whatever they want. It's
a case where everybody has the
		

			right to do what they want. So
they exercise that, right. So if
		

			they've been all following the
same thing for many, many years,
		

			and now for them to be told that
you're totally wrong, it puts into
		

			question all the previous years,
it's very difficult for a lot of
		

			people to handle. And then some of
the people unfortunately, that are
		

			pushing and encouraging the idea
that we need to move away from
		

			Saudi Arabia, they're sometimes
they go very extreme in the way
		

			they do this. So it puts the other
people off and it just makes them
		

			more defensive and makes them dig
their heels further into the
		

			ground. So I do have seen though,
I have seen though, that it's just
		

			slowly slowly it is moving towards
you know, looking for the first
		

			credible Moon sighting wherever it
be from the world. And it's going
		

			to take a while though. It's going
to take a while for that to come
		

			in. If it ever if it does,
inshallah.