As Salaam Alaikum. A few mosques in Central New Jersey formed a new alliance this year, and they started Ramadan on Saturday June 28, 2014 using Yemen's moon-sighting. I wish they had followed the Fiqh Council of North America because I believe it constitutes a local sighting (being an American organization) while using the global sighting criteria.
Everywhere, the structure of unity should start from smaller units (local organizations) to the bigger units (global organizations). It is good that neighboring mosques are forming a union. But these should follow the order of a state organization (I don't know if they exist in any state in the US), which should follow a national organization (Fiqh Council or ISNA being the perfect example). In Islam, this is demonstrated by the weekly Jumuah (local eid when the smaller masajid close for salaat in the jamai masjid), the annual eidul fitr (a state level or national level gathering in a big open ground) or the once in a lifetime Hajj (a global gathering),
Also, the orders should flow from top to bottom. The global organization should issue an order to be followed by everyone in the world. In the absence of that, the national organization should issue an order to be followed by the people of that nation. In the absence of that, a state organization should issue an order to be followed by all residents of the state. Anyone who disobeys this is actually a rebel.
And I see a total rebellion and anarchy among Muslims regarding the moon-sighting. This anarchy and rebellion is displayed by each organization forming its own moon-sighting committee. I believe the moon-sighting job belongs to a higher organization ( a state level or a national level organization) rather than a local neighborhood masjid. May be this is what was taught to us by Hazrath Abdullah Ibn Abbas (RA) in the Kurayb hadith.
So in the example below, I wished they had followed Fiqh Council instead of going crazy over who saw the moon in the world and eventually following the doubtful Yemen.
