Press Release
Beware of Attempts to Make a “British Islam” and a “British Eid”

The secular establishment in Britain has a long track record of defaming Islam and Muslims in the vain hope that people will turn away from it. But, Alhamdulillah, Allah (swt) has guided many people in Britain to see through their plans and embrace Islam during this blessed month of Ramadan. [وَيَمْكُرُونَ وَيَمْكُرُ ٱللَّهُ وَٱللَّهُ خَيْرُ ٱلْمَكِرِينَ] “They plan and Allah plans, and Allah is the best of planners.” [TMQ Anfal: 30]

Such failure pains the hate filled secularists, so they devise new plans to prevent the dawah to Islam, as they surely know that it will continue to expose their hollow secular way of life.

They particularly want to weaken the Islamic bond that Muslims in Britain share with the global ummah. They want to take our minds away from our brethren, so that our concern for their affairs is weakened and even replaced by thinking about the issues of our locality only. It grieves them greatly when Muslims talk of the ummah and refuse to subscribe to a local, regional or nationalistic unity.

Part of this plan is to deceive Muslims into adopting a commercialised British Islam, with a British Eid known by a British moon sighting; far removed from the one Eid celebrated globally by all Muslims according to a single moon sighting anywhere in the world. This year the British government website has published a document emphasising which British towns the new moon can be seen from on Thursday 20th April. Although the smaller text in the document mentions a number of places where the new moon will be visible, the emphasis on British towns has left some Muslims confused. Statements have even circulated online that Friday cannot be Eid.

We therefore take this opportunity to remind the Muslims in Britain that there is only one moon and there is only one Muslim ummah. A single Shari‘i sighting is sufficient for the whole world, wherever that sighting happens to be.

The Messenger of Allah (saw) said:

«صُومُوا لِرُؤْيَتِهِ وَأَفْطِرُوا لِرُؤْيَتِهِ، فَإِنْ غُبِّيَ عَلَيْكُمْ فَأَكْمِلُوا عِدَّةَ شَعْبَانَ ثَلَاثِينَ» “Fast at its sighting and break the fast at its sighting and if it is clouded over then complete the period of 30 days for Sha’ban.” (Bukhari)

If a Shari‘i sighting of the moon occurs anywhere in the world this Thursday, then all Muslims globally are obliged to breakfast and celebrate Eid on Friday. If it is not seen anywhere in the world, then we must all fast on Friday, then celebrate Eid on Saturday morning.

We call upon Muslims to remain committed to the Shariah of Allah (swt), to remain unified with the global Ummah of Muhammad (saw) and to celebrate Eid with the Muslims worldwide.

It is a duty to remind Muslims that they are part of a global ummah and warn them against attempts to replace this global unity with a localised one, whatever the benefits and excuses given. It is also a duty to expose the plans of the colonialists who divided the ummah into more than 50 secular states, each with an agent ruler employed to keep the ummah divided and away from realising our full potential as a unified ummah of nearly two billion Muslims.

More details can be read here http://www.hizb.org.uk/islamic-culture/pragmatic-moon-sighting/
And here http://www.hizb.org.uk/islamic-culture/sighting-of-the-moon/

Yahya Nisbet
Media Representative of Hizb ut Tahrir in Britain