According to Pakistan’s first Islamic calendar, Eid on June 5

Federal Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry made good on his promise to create Pakistan’s first Islamic calendar on Sunday. He presented the calendar and an online moon sighting portal on Sunday.

Through the online portal (which comprises both a website and mobile application), people will be able to see where the moon is over their territory. By launching this calendar, we are eliminating the uncertainty that always prevailed in Pakistan around Eid, he announced.

The five-year calendar has already set the dates for Eidul Fitr. According to it, this year’s Eid will be on June 5. The next four Eids are May 24, 2020, May 3, 2021, April 22, 2022 and April 10, 2023.

He said that the creation of this calendar will not reduce the role of religious clerics. He also said that knowledge is important and there is nothing wrong with using that knowledge.

He told religious clerics to use the technology available to them for important issues like moon sighting. If you’re so bent on using the naked eye to sight the moon, then glasses then become haram (forbidden) too, he said. If using 50-year-old telescopes is halal and 100-year-old glasses is okay but using new technology is haram, then it doesn’t make sense, he said. Don’t worry, it won’t end your role, he consoled religious clerics.

Chaudhry said that application was prepared with input from experts of the Meteorological Department and SUPARCO. The application will be available from Monday on the Google Play Store, he announced.

Using the application, you’ll be able to see the moon on the app and where it is, he explained. The moon’s location over eight strategic locations will be mapped on the application, said Chaudhry. They have based their moon-sighting on three main principles — 6.8% altitude, luminosity of 0.8% and 38 minute difference between sunset and the moon’s visibility.

The proposal has been sent to the Council of Islamic Ideology and will be presented before the federal cabinet on Tuesday. He also announced that August will be declared a science and technology month across Pakistan.

Chaudhry stirred up controversy with his plans for the calendar as it was seen as a challenge to the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee. Before the official announcement of Ramaza, Chaudhry took to Twitter to announce that his ministry would make an Islamic calendar with Eid, Ramazan and Muharram dates pre-decided. In response, Mufti Muneebur Rehman, the head of Pakistan’s moon sighting committee, told Chaudhry to mind his own business.

Chaudhry had said on Twitter that the country’s future cannot be left to maulvis (religious clerics).

Why are Catholic Hispanic Americans converting to Islam?

Islam is most commonly associated with the Middle East and the Arab world, but the simple truth is that 85 percent of the world's Muslims are non-Arab. Current estimates suggest that one-fourth of the world's population is Muslim (roughly 2.6 billion). When looking at the countries with the largest Muslim populations, most are from the Eastern World: Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Egypt, Nigeria,  Turkey, Algeria, Morocco, Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, China, Syria and Russia. But the prevalence of Islam doesn't just lie in the Eastern world, as new reports are suggesting that Hispanics are converting to Islam.

The Hispanic community is one that has strong roots in Catholicism, but yet BBC reports that the U.S. Census finds that Latino Muslims number between 100,000 and 200,000. BBC reporter Katy Watson spoke with Yousef, a half Colombian and half Ecuadorian. "I was very, I guess ignorant," said Yousef. "And I think what I saw enraged me -- I saw people falling from the towers. In the end, I hated Muslims. My hatred was diminished, it was extinguished really, my learning about Islam. My project I was given to learn about Islam in college. And once I did that, I made the decision to come to the faith."

In fact, in Union City in New Jersey, where more than 80 percent of the population is Hispanic, mosques and Islamic religious centers are popping up. One local mosque has a 30 percent Latino population and classes are held in Spanish to help converts learn more about the Qur'an. "We are a minority within a minority, growing very rapidly," says Nahila, a Mexican convert who works at an outreach center. "I think they're looking for that niche." Nahila goes on to explain that the hardest part of converting for a Latino is the feeling that they are leaving their family.

CNN reports that a 2011 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that 2.75 million Muslims live in the United States and in 2008, four percent of America's Muslims identified themselves as Latinos. The vast majority of the Latino Muslim community were found in major cities, such as Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago and the Bronx. As for why Latinos are converting, the reasons are across the board ranging from marrying into the faith, disatisfaction in their birth faith, exposure to the religion during prison or attending interfaith events. One common factor found; however, is that most of the converts switch faiths in adulthood.