Statement by New Mexico Masjid

[Rached N Zantout]

This is an message from the Islamic Center of Las Cruces, New Mexico
Masjid Alhoda

Dear Brothers in Islam

Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullah wabarakatoho
We ask Allah to show us the truth and to guid us to follow it. And to show us
the fals and to guid us to avoid it.

Dear brothers, we at the Islamic Center of Las Cruces have declared the day of Tuseday march 23rd as the 1st day of the month of Shawwal based on the
sighting of the moon by nine brothers. The nine brothers testified that they
saw the crescent, we accepted their testimony and took actions accordingly. When
spoke with ISNA, two conference calls were held and ISNA reject the testimony
of the brothers with assumption that they saw venus not the moon. The ISNA
scholars recommended that we should check back with the department of
Astrononmy and verify the time of the moon set accordingly to our local time.
On the next day, one of the brothers who saw the crecent went to check with the
department of Astrononmy. The brother met with a professor in the department
who looked up a book titled "The Astronomical Almanac" and said to the brother
taht the book says the moon sets at 6:35 pm and what brothers saw was the moon.
On the next day, we asked some of the brothers who saw the moon (crescent) to
look at the moon again with the same telescope and the same lenses they used
in their sighting and to compare the sizes of what they have saw March 22nd and
what they see today. The brothers noticed that the size of the crescent was
bigger than what they saw on March 22 nd. We asked brothers to go and get a
copy of the page of "The Astronomical Almanac 93" that says the moon set on
March 22nd is 6:35pm. On the next day, two brothers went to the department of
Astronomy and spooke with another professor who told them that the professor
who told them that the moon sets at 6:30 was wrong and explainded to the
borthers that waht they saw might have been venus because it is crescent and
its set time was close to the time when brothers saw the crescent. He also
explained to the brothers that the moon set was before the sun set our local
time on March 22nd.

Based on the above information, we feel that there is a possibility that wath
the brothers had seen might have been venus. Therefore, we recommend any
brothers who took our announcement as a base for the EID, we recommend that
those brothers should fast one more day as a compensation in case if the
brothers had seen the venus instead of the moon.

May Allah reward you all and give us sincerity and make us follow the
truth. Wasalam Alaikum Warahmatullah Wabarakatoho

The Islamic Center of Las Cruces.

___________________________
amoh...@NMSU.Edu