Confusion reigns over Ramadan start in France

Confusion reigned among French Muslims as religious leaders clashed over whether to start the Ramadan fasting month on Tuesday or Wednesday. The state-backed umbrella group, CFCM, was forced to make an embarrassing about-turn after the country's leading mosque contradicted its ruling.

Reuters/Philippe Wojazer

For the first time ever the Muslim umbrella group, CFCM, set up when Nicolas Sarkozy was president, decided when Ramadan would begin in France in advance.

In May it declared that the faithful should start fasting on 9 July and on Monday it confirmed the date, even though Saudi Arabia and several other Arab countries had decided that Wednesday would be the day.

Traditionally, clerics declare Ramadan has started after seeing the new moon, either in the country where they live or in the Muslim holy places of Mecca and Medina.

The influential Paris Grand Mosque stuck to that procedure this year, declaring that there had been no sight of the new moon “either in France nor in the Muslim countries” on Monday night and that fasting must start on Wednesday.

The Paris mosque says that it had been inundated by calls from imams across France confused by the conflicting rulings.

“They made a mistake in their calculations,” the mosque’s theological committee chief, Djelloul Seddiki, told the AFP news agency.

The dispute  put CFCM chairman Dalil Boubakeur in an embarrassing situation. He is also rector of the Paris grand mosque.

“In theory the calculation wasn’t wrong,” he told AFP. “But we hadn’t taken the community aspect into account. The community has decided to follow the Muslim countries.”

On Tuesday afternoon Boubakeur told Le Monde newspaper that the CFCM reversed its decision, accepting the will of the majority meant that fasting should start on Wednesday.