JEDDAH, Oct 28: The head of the Organisation of Islamic Conference on Saturday deplored the way Islamic countries marked Eidul Fitr on different days. Saying that it illustrated disunity of Muslims, OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said in a statement: “The disparity of dates for celebrating Eidul Fitr in Islamic countries... is deplorable, when science, especially astronomy, has reached high levels of development and precision.”

According to Ihsanoglu, celebration of religious festivals on the same day is supposed to “unify the sentiments and positions of Muslims”, while it now reflected their disunity and disparity of positions.

He called on Islamic religious and official institutions to cooperate with the OIC to harmonise the astronomical calculations which determine the time of the new moon, used to mark the start of the lunar month of Shawwal.—AFP