(MENAFN- AzerNews) The late Wednesday night announcement by Pakistan of the start
of the fasting month has put the chief cleric of
Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir in an awkward position, as he
had earlier said the region's Islamic scholars did not see the
Ramadan crescent and that the first day of fasting will begin on
Friday.
Announcements for the commencement of Ramadan were made in the
valley's mosques around 10 p.m. local time (1630GMT), only moments
after Pakistan's religious council made a similar declaration after
sighting the Ramadan crescent.
There was nothing unusual in the declaration of Ramadan
beginning in Kashmir following the Pakistani announcement. But what
ensued was unusual.
Mufti Nasir, the chief cleric or Mufti of Jammu and Kashmir, had
already announced that the crescent has not been sighted anywhere
in either of the“region's two provinces, Kashmir and Jammu.”
Hence, Friday would be the first day of Ramadan.
During the past 30 years, it was like a running joke in Kashmir
that the Kashmir Mufti's Ramadan moon sighting is actually a repeat
of the Pakistani sightings.
Several years ago, one of Kashmir's legendary political
cartoonists Bashir Ahmad Bashir's creations featured a radio
(captioned Radio Pakistan) in the open mouth of the Mufti (Nasir's
father Mufti Bashir-ud-din) announcing the sighting of the
crescent.
Social media memes saying the Mufti“will now see the crescent”
after a Pakistani announcement, were common during Ramadan.
But last night, the Mufti had already made the announcement.
Mosque announcements, followed by people offering Taraweeh (special
night Ramadan prayers), turned the entire situation awkward.
“The banana republic of Pakistan,” one social media user joked
about the late announcement, questioning the sighting of the
crescent around 10 p.m. He stated that he would go with Mufti
Nasir's decision and not keep the fast. Others smelled political
pressure, as observing Ramadan and Eid with Pakistan rather than
India has political connotations in the conflicted and disputed
region claimed by both countries.
Nasir stood his ground. He told the media last night that he
stood by this decision as there was no credible report of the
sighting.
On Thursday, he told Anadolu Agency,“From 7 to 10 p.m., I was
in touch with nearly 400 people from different corners of the
state. A lawyer from Poonch (in Jammu) told me about someone
sighting the hilal (Ramadan crescent), but he called back to say it
was a fabrication.” He said if bad weather in Kashmir could have
obstructed the sighting, the weather in Jammu was clear.
He dismissed insinuations of political pressure or parroting the
Pakistani line. Rather, he said, several top religious leaders have
endorsed his views. India's religious leaders also announced Friday
as the first day of fasting.
Nasir said the Mufti's office had always relied on its own
efforts when it comes to crescent sightings, and that any
similarity with past Pakistani announcements were just
coincidental. Since the Indian government abrogated the region's
political autonomy in 2019, allegations of state repression and
gagging of dissenting voices are rampant.
However, Nasir said even after 2019, he announced the
sightings before the Pakistani clerics.
“This means they followed us. Last year, I announced the
sighting an hour before they did,” he said.
Concerning the religious validity of the fast observed by
Kashmiris on Thursday, he said it would be a day of“nafil roza,”
or an optional fast, rather than the obligatory one dictated by
scripture.
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