The end of Ramadan raises debate between scientists in Algeria

The head of the Algerian center for geophysical and astrophysical researches, Nassim Seghouani, asserted that the night of the fall into line of the moon with the sun will be on September 29th, which means that moon will disappear 12 minutes before the sun in Algiers and 3 minutes before in Tamanrasset (far south of Algeria). Consequently it scientifically impossible to see the moon after sunset at this day; which implies that the end of Ramadan will be on September 30th and the first day of the “Aid” will be the next day.

• According to him all the observatories around the world reached the same conclusion adding that he’s about to send a thorough assessment on the issue to the Algerian religious affairs ministry, which remains the sole eligible institution to state on the matter.
• For his part, the head of the Astronomy Association (Chaari), the professor Djamel Mihoub pulls in the same direction saying that the first day of the “Aid” will be on Wednesday October, 1st adding that all the observatories around the globe corroborated this theory, including Paris observatory.
• But, the disputed professor Lot Bounaterro declared that the first day of the “AID” will be on Tuesday October 30th on the basis that people in Saudi Arabia can easily see the moon, which is according to him a referential data for all the Muslim countries.