Under The Patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Presidential Affairs, an International Astronomy Conference was organized by the “Emirates Astronomical Society” in cooperation with the “Islamic Crescents Observation Project” and the “Center for Documentation and Research” in Abu Dhabi on 13 and 14 December 2006.

There was also discussion on the recent progress of the Islamic (Hijri calendar), and there was agreement on an approach for the development of a calendar that can be adopted in Islamic countries. The latest knowledge on prayer time calculations was also presented. Discussions were centered on trying to reach an agreement on the definition of Fajr and Isha times.

There were also discussions on the state of astronomical education in Arab and Muslim countries, with recommendations for its development, and the state of astronomical knowledge that is being disseminated by the media in Arab and Muslim countries.

The conference adopted the following recommendations:

1. Set up a committee to evaluate the conference from all aspects and make recommendations for the next conference.
2. Consider this conference as the first in a series of “Emirates Astronomical Conferences” and organize similar ones every two years.
3. Adopt an Islamic Calendar based on crescent visibility calculations and strive to make it as widely acceptable as possible.
4. Reject all testimonies of crescent observations that claim to break the well known records (Moon age, lag time, and particularly the Danjon limit), unless and until they are confirmed and accepted by the astronomical expert community.
5. Include astronomers with expertise in crescent visibility in the official committees that determine the beginning of Hejric months.
6. Continue and strengthen the studies of prayer times and publicize these studies.
7. Begin the study for the creation of a UAE national observatory for astronomical research.
8. Introduce chapters and modules on applied astronomy in the educational curricula.
9. Introduce regular newspaper and magazine columns and TV programs on Astronomy in place of Astrology, and publish Moonrise and Moonset times in the newspapers.
10. Publish the proceedings book with high scientific standards at the earliest and distribute to libraries so as to make it a prime reference on the subject for all researchers.
11. Publish a summary article about the conference in newspapers and magazines.
12. Post the main recommendations and results of this first conference on the ICOP’s website and on partner websites.

Considering the continuing – and to some extent worsening – problem of the determination of crescent/hijri months (particularly for Ramadan and Eid), this conference was a very timely and important one. Judging from the quality of the papers that were presented, and the significant progress that was made by the participants, one can indeed see that this was the first positive step towards maintaining unity in the worldwide Muslim community, with all participants committed to resolving astronomical issues that are currently causing a split within the Muslim Ummah.

Brother Jaffer Dharamsi said, “All the participants agreed with me that the first Emirate Conference was superbly organized. There were good discussions, some heated ones, but in the academic spirit of learning from each other. I benefited tremendously from those present, especially Dr. Bernard Yallop with whom I was able to spend many hours of discussions”.