The announcement by the leader of the Islamic republic on Saturday night that the Eid Fetr (celebrating the end of the fasting month of Ramadan) prayers would be held on Sunday after sighting the moon crescent, almost all of Iran’s grand ayatollahs ignored the leader’s opinion and announced Sunday as the thirtieth day of Ramadan.  

While the Iranian calendar is different from its Arabic counterpart, the latter calendar is used for all religious occasions.  The end of the month of Ramadan is determined after sighting the next month’s moon crescent (month of Shawwal).  

The Iranian government announced a public holiday on Sunday for Eid Fetr.  The majority of the population, however, continued their fasting through Sunday because the leader’s opinion was not confirmed by grand ayatollahs, who are the final arbiters on religious matters.

The majority of grand ayatollahs in Qom and other religious centers in Iran (grand ayatollahs Montazeri, Mousavi Ardebili, Safi Golpaigani, Bayat Zanjani, Javadi Amoli, Makarem Shirazi, Nouri Hamedani, Shirazi, Dastgheib, Ali Safi Golpaigani, Vahid Khorasani, etc.) announced that the sighting of Shawwal’s moon crescent has not taken place. Grand ayatollahs in neighboring countries such as ayatollah Sistani in Iraq and ayatollah Ishaq Fayyaz in Afghanistan joined the Iranian grand ayatollahs by announcing Sunday as the last day of Ramadan.  

Following these developments, many Internet websites and blogs criticized ayatollah Khamenei’s decision to unilaterally announce the Eid Fetr date without regard for the opinion of grand Shia ayatollahs.  

Rooz reporters note that since Saturday, text messages have been circulating in Iran with the following notes: “You saw the moon crescent but you didn’t see our votes,” “the supreme leader jumped the gun in announcing Eid Fetr like he did in announcing Ahmadinejad’s victory,” “electoral fraud reached Eid Fetr” and “the moon was indicted as an agent of velvet revolution because it was not seen according to Khamenei’s wishes.”