Millions of Indonesian Muslims start fasting

Aug 11, 2010, 5:22 GMT

Jakarta - Muslims across Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, began fasting Wednesday as all the country's Islamic organizations this year agreed on the starting date of the holy month of Ramadan.

Suryadharma Ali, minister of religious affairs, said late Tuesday that the majority of monitoring teams deployed across the country had confirmed they observed the new moon, which marks the start of the month in the Islamic lunar calendar, the state-run Antara news agency reported.

A meeting of ministry officials, ulemas - Muslim scholars - and leaders of Islamic organizations, as well as diplomats from other Muslim nations, determined the start of Ramadan, which differs among Muslim communities.

'After considering the reports of the ulemas' insightful opinions, we have agreed that the first day of Ramadan 1431th hijriah (Islamic year) falls on Wednesday,' Ali said.

Indonesia's two largest Islamic organizations, the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, also agreed on the date, despite different calculation methods. One method relies on sightings of the new moon and the other on astronomical calculations, which leads to Indonesians often beginning Ramadan on different dates.