Set Idd date in advance
TODAY we celebrate Idd el-Fitr and the end of Ramadhan. We wish all Muslims a wonderful celebration to the end of their month of fasting.
TODAY we celebrate Idd el-Fitr and the end of Ramadhan. We wish all Muslims a wonderful celebration to the end of their month of fasting.
It is absolutely proper that Idd el-Fitr should be a public holiday, especially in a country like Uganda where over 10 per cent of the population is Muslim.
However Idd el-Fitr needs to be on a fixed date. The end of Ramadhan is declared when the new moon is sighted, normally by clerics or persons of substance in Saudi Arabia. However viewing conditions vary so that the day of the sighting cannot be predicted with absolute certainty.
Therefore on Tuesday night, we found ourselves in the position where no-one knew whether Wednesday would be a public holiday or not. It was only around 10pm when the Director of Sharia advised that Wednesday would not be a holiday since no word had come from Saudi Arabia of the sighting of the new moon.
This uncertainty is inappropriate in modern economies. Businesses do not know whether to give workers a day off, or to organise overtime. Workers don’t know whether they are supposed to go to work or not. And in the end people end up working at half speed and coming to work late on a day that is not a public holiday.
Government needs to fix the day of the official public holiday in advance although the Islamic leaders will still determine which day is actually
Idd el-Fitr.
Some Islamic countries with advanced economies already do this and even our neighbour Kenya, which has a bigger Muslim population than Uganda, organised a long time ago for the Idd holiday to come this Friday.
The Uganda government, in consultation with the Muslim Supreme Council,
should now decide an appropriate date for the official public holiday for Idd el-Fitr in 2006 as companies are now preparing their calendars for next year.
It is absolutely proper that Idd el-Fitr should be a public holiday, especially in a country like Uganda where over 10 per cent of the population is Muslim.
However Idd el-Fitr needs to be on a fixed date. The end of Ramadhan is declared when the new moon is sighted, normally by clerics or persons of substance in Saudi Arabia. However viewing conditions vary so that the day of the sighting cannot be predicted with absolute certainty.
Therefore on Tuesday night, we found ourselves in the position where no-one knew whether Wednesday would be a public holiday or not. It was only around 10pm when the Director of Sharia advised that Wednesday would not be a holiday since no word had come from Saudi Arabia of the sighting of the new moon.
This uncertainty is inappropriate in modern economies. Businesses do not know whether to give workers a day off, or to organise overtime. Workers don’t know whether they are supposed to go to work or not. And in the end people end up working at half speed and coming to work late on a day that is not a public holiday.
Government needs to fix the day of the official public holiday in advance although the Islamic leaders will still determine which day is actually
Idd el-Fitr.
Some Islamic countries with advanced economies already do this and even our neighbour Kenya, which has a bigger Muslim population than Uganda, organised a long time ago for the Idd holiday to come this Friday.
The Uganda government, in consultation with the Muslim Supreme Council,
should now decide an appropriate date for the official public holiday for Idd el-Fitr in 2006 as companies are now preparing their calendars for next year.