The Islamic Calendar in the UK: Between Contestation and Consensus

This research will explore how British Muslims, from migrants through to successive generations, have conceptualisd, contested and constructed the Islamic calender, and what this reveals about a distinct British Muslim experience. The Islamic lunar calendar is a central part of Muslim ritual life, demarcating the dates of religious festivals. Yet as it stands, there is no concensus on how the calendar should be constructed in the UK. Instead, diverse Muslim communities across the British Isles conduct their own version of the Islamic calendar, using a range of scientific, theological and cultural conceptual approaches to determine the beginning of each month. Muslims regard the proper construction of the calender as a theological, even moral, issue as it relates to ritual practice. From my preliminary research in my role at the Royal Observatory, I know of at least thirteen different position operational in the UK. Some of these positions are unique to the British Isles. For example, the Deobandi demonination in Pakistan conduct their calendar based on local lunar observations. Yet, their UK diaspora satellite groups abandoned this position in 1986, and have now innovated at least two new position for the UK. Another faultline is Saudi Arabia's influence on the UK calendar. With the injection of Saudi-based funding from the 1980s onward, an increasing number of UK Muslim institutions discarded their own calendar, and instead chose to follow Saudi Arabia's calendar. What makes this this all the more remarkable is that, year on year, astronomers have decred Saudi Arabia's calendar as fraudalent, claiming that Saudi regulary 'fake' their lunar crescent observations. With such a multiplicity of approaches, British Muslims have, almost annually, disagreed on which date to celebrate religious holidays, such as Ramadan or Eid. This has led to fiery debates across generations, with incidents including Imams being sacked and physical fights in mosques, and requent cases of family members disagreeing on the calendar, and refusing to celebrate religious festivals together on the same date. Most recently a group has emerged seeking calendar consensus. Led entirely by non-clergy members, they have collaborated with the Royal Observatory Greenwich to form a 'national moonsighting community', collecting lunar datea to aid discussion about the calendar. With over 300 mosque congregations represented in the inaugural meeting in 2019, they may well achieve their aim in the next few years. Despite its significance to British Muslim life, nothing has been written about the Islamic Calendar in the UK. I proprose an historical and anthropological study for two reasons: firstly, I can study a distinct lived, British Muslim experience, shedding light on shifting ethnic, cultural and civic ties forged by Muslims across generations; emerging power dynamics between UK mosques and tensions with their congregations; the intersection between transnational ulama networks and successive commonwealth migration cohorts; British Muslim attitudes to science across generations; the impact of social media and technology and soft power strategies employed by foreign governments; secondly this research will be of practical use to Muslims.