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Saudi Arabia's Umm al-Qura calendar
Saudi Arabia uses the sighting method to determine the beginning of each month of the Hijri calendar. Since AH 1419 (1998/99) several official hilal sighting committees have been set up by the government to determine the first visual sighting of the lunar crescent at the beginning of each lunar month. Nevertheless, the religious authorities also allow the testimony of less experienced observers and thus often announce the sighting of the lunar crescent on a date when none of the official committees could see it.

The country also uses the Umm al-Qura calendar, based on astronomical calculations, but this is restricted to administrative purposes. The parameters used in the establishment of this calendar underwent significant changes over the past decade.

Before AH 1420 (before 18 April 1999), if the moon's age at sunset in Riyadh was at least 12 hours, then the day ending at that sunset was the first day of the month. This often caused the Saudis to celebrate holy days one or even two days before other predominantly Muslim countries, including the dates for the Hajj, which can only be dated using Saudi dates because it is performed in Mecca.

For AH 1420–22, if moonset occurred after sunset at Mecca, then the day beginning at that sunset was the first day of a Saudi month, essentially the same rule used by Malaysia, Indonesia, and others (except for the location from which the hilal was observed).

Since the beginning of AH 1423 (16 March 2002), the rule has been clarified a little by requiring the geocentric conjunction of the sun and moon to occur before sunset, in addition to requiring moonset to occur after sunset at Mecca. This ensures that the moon has moved past the sun by sunset, even though the sky may still be too bright immediately before moonset to actually see the crescent.

In 2007, the Islamic Society of North America, the Fiqh Council of North America and the European Council for Fatwa and Research announced that they will henceforth use a calendar based on calculations, using the same parameters as the Umm al-Qura calendar, to determine (well in advance) the beginning of all lunar months (and therefore the days associated with all religious observances). This was intended as a first step on the way to unify Muslims' calendars throughout the world, in some future time. But, despite this stated objective, they will continue to differ, on this point, from Saudi Arabia's officially stated, but hard to verify policy of relying exclusively on sighting to determine the dates of religious observances.

Thus, concerning Ramadan 1433, the Fiqh Council of North America announced that "the first day of Ramadan 1433 will be Friday, July 20, 2012 and Eid al-Fitr on Sunday, August 19, 2012". The Fiqh Council of North America explained in this context that it "recognizes astronomical calculation as an acceptable Shar’i method for determining the beginning of Lunar months including the months of Ramadan and Shawwal. FCNA uses Makkah al-Mukarrama as a conventional point and takes the position that the conjunction must take place before sunset in Makkah and moon must set after sunset in Makkah.

On the basis of this method the dates of Ramadan and Eidul Fitr for the year 1433 AH are established as follows: 1st of Ramadan will be on Friday, July 20, 2012 1st of Shawwal will be on Sunday, August 19, 2012." For their part, the Saudi authorities announced On July 19, 2012 (Thursday) that the new crescent had been observed and that the fast of Ramadan would start on Friday, July 20. This was in contradiction with astronomers' announcement in moonsighting websites that it would be impossible to observe the new moon in the Middle East region on that day. Some 60 countries and Muslim communities worldwide began the fast of Ramadan on Friday, July 20, based on the Saudi announcement. This represented a historical record in this domain.