The head of the Organisation of Islamic Conference on Saturday deplored the way Islamic countries mark Eid-ul-Fitr, the festival ending the holy month of Ramazan, on different days.
Saying that it illustrated the disunity of Muslims, OIC secretary general Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said in a statement: "The disparity of dates for celebrating Eid-ul-Fitr in Islamic countries... is deplorable, when science, and especially astronomy, has reached high levels of development and precision."
According to Ihsanoglu, celebration of religious festivals on the same day is supposed to "unify the sentiments and positions of Muslims", while it now reflected their disunity and disparity of positions.
He called on Islamic religious and official institutions to co-operate with the OIC to harmonise the astronomical calculations which determine the time of the new moon, used to mark the start of the lunar month following Ramazan.
This year, some Muslim countries marked Eid-ul-Fitr last Monday, while others celebrated on Tuesday. In some countries such as Lebanon and Iraq, Sunni and Shia Muslims celebrated on different days.