Residents of Chechnya state confusion with celebration of Eid al-Fitr

The republic's clergy have failed to timely inform the public about the first day of Eid al-Fitr, said residents of Chechnya. According to their story, they believed the information of the Muftiat that the first day will be July 18, not July 17.

The end of the month of Ramadan was announced only in the evening on July 16; and it created problems for many residents of the republic, local residents assert.

"Our Muftiat has once again 'distinguished' itself. Until the last moment, nobody said about the final day of Ramadan. Initially, all agreed that the first day of Eid al-Fitr will be on July 18; and people were calm, thinking that they still have 24 hours left. But at night on July 16, after the evening namaz (prayer), suddenly they told that Ramadan was over; and the first day of Eid al-Fitr falls on July 17. All people immediately rushed to marketplaces and stores aiming to buy the missing foodstuffs; it was a huge hype," a citizen of the republic named Askhab told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"The end of the month of Ramadan is defined, same as its start, by the appearance of the 'new' moon in the sky. It happens only late at night. Initially, it was supposed that the first day of Eid al-Fitr will fall on Saturday. But in the evening it became known that the appearance of the new moon was noticed; and Islamic scholars defined July 17 as the first day of the holiday. Therefore, we had such a situation," the spokesman of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims (SAM) of Chechnya explained to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.