Shafaq News/ Iraq and Kurdistan will start the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan on Thursday along with fellow Arab states, Endowments announced on Tuesday.

State religious panels in Saudi Arabia and Qatar said the moon’s crescent was not sighted, and so Wednesday would be the complement of Shaaban; the month preceding Ramadan.

Muslims scan the sky at night in search of the new moon to proclaim the start of Ramadan, the holiest month for the world’s more than one billion Muslims, during which observant believers fast from dawn to dusk.

The timing of Ramadan can vary in different Muslim countries depending on the sighting of the new moon, which marks the start of the month in Islam’s lunar calendar.