Indonesian govt eases Covid-19-related restrictions for first time in two years as Muslims gears up for holy month of Ramadan

A woman takes a picture of her daughter with a cart next to the Hasyim Asyari mosque on the first night of the holy month of Ramadan in Jakarta on Saturday, April 2, 2022. - AFP

JAKARTA, April 2 (AP): The Muslim holy month of Ramadan was set to begin Saturday in Indonesia and most of the Middle East, though many in the South-East Asian nation and elsewhere were not planning to start observing the month of dawn-to-dusk fasting, prayer and religious devotion until Sunday.

Indonesia’s second-largest Islamic group, Muhammadiyah, which counts more than 60 million members, said that according to its astronomical calculations Ramadan begins Saturday. But the country's religious affairs minister had announced Friday that Ramadan would start on Sunday, after Islamic astronomers in the country failed to sight the new moon.