SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 20: The Fiqh Council of North America has announced that Eidul Azha will be celebrated in North America on Dec 31. An announcement from the council said that based on its criteria to use astronomical calculations for determining the dates of Islamic Lunar Calendar consistently throughout the year, the Fiqh Council has decided that Eidul Azha in America will be on Dec 31.

The council, explaining its decision further, said that for the month of Zilhaj the astronomical new moon would occur on Dec 20 at 2pm GMT. On Dec 21, the new crescent will be sightable in Australia, South East Asia, Middle East, Africa, and Americas. Thus the first day of Zilhaj will be Dec 22.

In August 2006, the council backed by the Islamic Society of North America announced a five-year Hijra calendar in a bid to ‘unite the global Muslim ummah’ and to get designated Eid holidays from the US government. The five-year pre-determined Islamic calendar is based solely on astronomical calculations.

However, the council’s attempt to introduce a universal Islamic or Hijra calendar failed as most of the Islamic centres and mosques in America and Canada ignored its dates for the beginning and end of the month of Ramazan this year.

Most of Muslims in America followed the traditional moon-sighting committees’ decisions and not the Fiqh Council forecast.