2021-03-31-accounts - Islamic Crescents Observation For The UK (Icouk)

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Trustees' Annual Report for the period

Period start date Period end date Day Month Year Day Month Year From 01 04 2020 To 31 03 2021

Section A Reference and administration details

Charity name ISLAMIC CRESCENTS OBSERVATION FOR THE UK (ICOUK)

Other names charity is known by MOON SIGHTING UK, ICOUK

Registered charity number (if any) 1181887

Charity's principal address Beetle Bank Farm Moor Lane, Murton York Postcode YO19 5XD

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20	Trustee name	Office (if any)	Dates acted if not for whole year	Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee (ifany)
	Qamar Uddin	Chair
	Ayyub Patel
	Suliman Gani

Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)

Name Dates acted if not for whole year

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Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)

Type of adviser Name Address

Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)

Section B Structure, governance and management

Description of the charity’s trusts

Type of governing document

(eg. trust deed, constitution)

Constitution

How the charity is constituted Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) (eg. trust, association, company)

Trustee selection methods Selection by the Trustees (eg. appointed by, elected by)

Additional governance issues (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant, about:

policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees;
the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;
relationship with any related parties;
trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.

The current trustees have been provided with the Charity Commission Trustee guidance, a copy of the CIO constitution and the ongoing costs before registration but all future trustees will be given a copy of the guidance, constitution and the latest full-year financial accounts.

The trustees maintain the overall control of the CIO finances and any costs over five hundred pounds (£500) have to be agreed in advance. The cost of travel and subsistence for training is limited to one hundred pounds (£100). The CIO does not own/rent any offices for its activities, but the trustees use their home-office and equipment freely for all activities.

A London-based moon sighting volunteer group (NCS) has supported the CIO with training many of the volunteers remotely (via Zoom), especially during the COVID-19 lockdown. The trustees have helped them reach wider audiences across the British Isles (ie. UK, Ireland and the Channel Islands) as they have similar aims to the CIO (i.e. for a United Eid in UK).

As a result of an increased interest in a UK-only moon sighting criteria, there is a risk of a further split at Eid. To mitigate this risk, the CIO will facilitate an adjustment for a dual Hijri Calendar system to be adopted using the Mobile Apps until a UK-only community-consensus is reached.

Section C Objectives and activities

The Objectives of the CIO are to advance the Islamic religion by:

Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document

(a) Reviving the tradition (sunnah) of local moon sighting in the UK, (b) Promoting research of moon sighting for the public benefit, (c) Educating the public on the subject of moon sighting,

(d) Facilitating the establishment of a lunar calendar for the public benefit, (e) Developing and/or using appropriate technology to deliver the above objects.

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Summary of the main
activities undertaken for the
public benefit in relation to
these objects (include within
this section the statutory
declaration that trustees have
had regard to the guidance
issued by the Charity
Commission on public
benefit)

This is the second report since the registration of the CIO in 2019, but the
main activities have been ongoing for a few years. The main aim of the
CIO is to establish a workable_Hijri_calendar in the UK for Islamic worship
purposes (eg. start dates of Ramadan and the two Eids).
All the activities of Moon Sighting and Reporting are carried out by
volunteers (or subscribers to the ICOUK website) from throughout the UK
on the last 2-days of each lunar month, taking 1 or 2 hours on each
evening (at sunset time), depending on the distance to the locations.
The above nationwide activities across the UK are well planned and
organised by the trustees, who have specialist skills in all the related
subject matters (eg. Islamic Jurisprudence, Astronomy, Technology etc).
The trustees have continually published research articles and training
materials on the ICOUK website for the public benefit, as well as offering
online training during the COVID-19 lockdown using appropriate Remote
Learning methods (eg. Zoom and Mobile Apps).
One of the main sources of reaching the public is the ICOUK website,
which was continually updated with security patches and extensions to
be easily accessible from any device for sending moon sighting reports.
To facilitate the establishment of a Hijri Calendar based on local moon
sighting requires the evaluation of_Testimony Procedures_conducted
within a short time after the sunset (from the British Isles). As a result, the
trustees have started a_Trail Testimony_ _Panel_with a few volunteers
(including from Jersey in the Channel Islands).
The trustees have held regular meetings to facilitated the smooth running
of all moon sighting activities (training/reporting) without any hindrance.

Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)

The CIO works on a totally voluntary basis and the volunteers do not receive any expenses or refund of local transport costs. They give freely and willingly of their time and experience to share the joy of sighting the first crescent moon on the UK horizon, often in bad weather conditions. The monthly moon sighting dates are published in advance with the predicted crescent visibility data from the HMNAO website (Websurf). The data indicated that the moon sighting date on 21 July 2020 would be You may choose to include most challenging (Code B/C) and hence a “Spot the Moon Competition” further statements, where was organised with three prizes of Binoculars Kit (worth £300). relevant, about: Most of the above prize monies were raised via donations. Unfortunately, • policy on grant making; there were no claims (due to adverse weather) so the donors have • policy programme related agreed for the monies to be re-used for future competitions. investment; There have been user requests to upgrade the website and mobile apps • contribution made by to be more user-friendly but the trustees have been waiting for the volunteers. necessary third-party technologies to become available in the coming months. These upgrades will be a major expense and hence current expenses have been restricted to enable the future expense forecast. The trustees consider that the activities undertaken provide benefit to the communities they support and confirm that in exercising their powers and duties, they have complied with their duty to have due regard to the guidance on public benefit published by the Charity Commission and have complied with their duties under Section 17 of the Charities Act 2011.

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Section D Achievements and performance

The importance of Local Moon Sighting to establish a Hijri Calendar is Summary of the main unanimously agreed by most UK Muslim Scholars as a communal achievements of the charity obligation ( Fard Al-Kifaya ). However, the persistent cloudy weather in the during the year UK throughout the year during the past decades has forced the UK Muslims to borrow the Moon Sighting reports from foreign countries, such as Morocco (1970’s) and Saudi Arabia (1980’s), which are often contradictory and leads to confusion/division at Ramadan and two Eids. The UK weather has improved significantly in recent years and the trial Moon Sighting observations carried out by the trustees and some volunteers from past few years have shown that indeed the first day’s crescent moon can be sighted in the UK throughout the year provided enough volunteers are looking for the moon on the correct date, time and the direction, which charges widely every month (with the earth’s tilt).

In order to develop the confidence of moon sighting in the UK every month (which is either 29 or 30 days long) the trustees have campaigned for a 2-days moon sighting each month so if it’s not seen on the 29th lunar date, it should certainly be seen on the next day. All the sighting reports were then collected on the ICOUK.net website, freely accessible to the public at any time (24/7), thought the year (365 days/year).

It can be seen from the above website database that the CIO has carried out 24 days of sighting in the 12 lunar months (2-days/month) during the reporting period (from 1/4/2020 to 31/3/2021) and the first day’s crescent moon was reported to have been SEEN in 11 out of 12 months (91.7%), which was very impressive in the history of the UK moon sighting record.

It is a tribute to the CIO trustees who have been able to mobilise the public throughout the UK to increase the sighting locations from 100 to 130 with a corresponding increase in reports from 300 to 450 (approx.), which are readily accessible from the website database. The above data continues to demonstrate that a UK-only moon sighting based Hijri Calendar is certainly possible and could be made reliable with wider community support to overcome the UK adverse weather condition.

The above impressive results were achieved by regular training and publicity via the ICOUK website, Social Media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc), Email Newsletters/Mailing List to all subscribers, “Spot the Moon Competition” prizes and training videos/guides as well as providing Location’s data on the ICOUK website for most of the UK cities.

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Section E Financial review

No significant reserve

Brief statement of the charity’s policy on reserves Details of any funds materially N/A in deficit

Further financial review details (Optional information)

Whenever there is a need to raise funds for a particular project (eg. for You may choose to include the ICOUK website or the Hijri Calendar App), many of the volunteers additional information, where come forward willing and send donations to the CIO bank account. relevant about: • the charity’s principal Indeed, the entire “Spot the Moon Competition” prize monies (for the sources of funds (including three binoculars kits of £296 total) were raised by donations. any fundraising);

how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity;
investment policy and objectives including any ethical investment policy adopted.

Section F Other optional information

Section G Declaration

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature(s) Full name(s) Qamar Uddin (K. Miah) Position ( eg Secretary, Chair, etc ) Chair (of Trustees)

Date 19/9/2021

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Charity Name	No (if any)
ISLAMIC CRESCENTS OBSERVATION FOR THE UK(ICOUK)	1181887
Receipts andpayments accounts		CC16a
01/04/2020 Period start date To For the period from	31/03/2021 Period end date

Section A Receipts and payments

A1 Receipts	Unrestricted funds to the nearest £	Restricted funds to the nearest £	Endowment funds to the nearest £	Total funds to the nearest £	Last year to the nearest £
Donations - General	2,543		-	2,543	3,193
Donations - Web/AppDevelopment	181		-	181	-
Donations - Photo Competition		296	-	296	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
*Sub total*(Gross income for AR)	2,724	296	-	3,020	3,193

A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table).		- - - 296	- - - -	- - - 3,020
	-
	-				-
*Sub total*	-				-
*Total receipts* A3 Payments
					3,193

General Expense	660	-	-	660	-
TrainingCourse Expenses	129	-	-	129	-
Website/Apps Develop/Maintenance	694	-	-	694	-
	-		-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
**Sub total **	1,483	-	-	1,483	-

A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table)
	-
	-
**Sub total **	-				-
*Total payments* *Net of receipts/(payments)* A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end *Cash funds this year end*
					-

	1,241	296	-	1,537	3,193
		-	-	-	-
	3,193	-	-	3,193	-
	4,434	296	-	4,730	3,193

CCXX R1 accounts (SS)

19/09/2021

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

Details *Total cash funds* (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) Details Held in HSBC Bank Held in PayPal Account	Unrestricted funds to nearest £	Restricted funds to nearest £	Endowment funds to nearest £
	4,144	296	-
	290		-
	-	-	-
	4,434	296	-
			OK
			Endowment funds to nearest £
N/A	-	-	-
	-	-	-
	-	-	-
	-	-	-
	-	-	-
	-	-	-
Details	Fund to which asset belongs	Cost (optional)	Current value (optional)
N/A		-	-
		-	-
		-	-
		-	-
		-	-
Details	Fund to which asset belongs	Cost (optional)	Current value (optional)
N/A		-	-
		-	-
		-	-
		-	-
		-	-
		-	-
		-	-
		-	-
		-	-
Details	Fund to which liability relates	Amount due (optional)	When due (optional)
N/A		-
		-
		-
		-
		-
Signature	Print Name Qamar Uddin (K. Miah)
			Date of approval
	Qamar Uddin (K. Miah)		19/09/2021

CCXX R2 accounts (SS)

19/09/2021