AbdalQadir said:
This is not nitpicking. One needs to see his stance on the moon-sighting issue and it is a fiqhi issue. If he holds a certain position to be valid, and he is following that position, then he is in no way "compromising" on the fundamental act itself, but rather he follows a different ruling on how to do that act.
The issue is not as grey as you imagine and there's hardly any scope for benefit of doubt. It's common knowledge that Saudi moon is 'usually' (not always) born long
before any astronomical possibility of such conjunction. In any case, Islamic month never starts with moon birth (
mahaaq), but with moon-sighting (
hilal). No school of fiqh (to my knowledge) commences month with
mahaaq, and even if a body of scholar agree to do so nobody in his right mind would allow the month to commence even
before mahaaq. Interestingly it's the jews who practice commencing month with
mahaaq.
How can there be a moonsighting declaration when there's no possibility of sighting (or even birth)? It may not be "core" or "fundamental", but it is "basic". The Imam in question is a hanafi imam.
You can't even argue that there's an excuse of
rukhsa (extreme extenuating circumstance), since such Imams are not looking to save their (or anyone elses) lives but only their jobs!