Darragh Monahan: An Introduction to the Muslims of Fermanagh

If life remains, and providence allows, this will become a regular column, where readers can catch a glimpse into the perspectives of their Muslim neighbours; our aim by these articles is to foster mutual understanding, to share experiences, and to open up opportunities for discussion and engagement between ourselves and all the people of Fermanagh.

As all things have a beginning, our first piece will briefly introduce Muslims, and give a short overview of what sets them apart and the things that make them just the same as everyone else.

A Muslim is a person who practises Islam. The Arabic word ‘Islam’ means ‘to submit’, and a Muslim is ‘one who submits’.

We believe in the One God, the same God of Abraham, Isaac, Moses, and Jesus, as referred to in the Bible.

In Arabic, God is named ‘Allah’ – literally meaning ‘(the) God’. We follow the guidance and teachings set forth and codified by the Prophet Muhammad, his companions, and an ever-expanding body of scholarship and jurisprudence, now almost 1,500 years old.

The scripture we follow is the Quran, which was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by the angel Gabriel over a span of 23 years up to his death at 63 years old. We see the Quran (in its Arabic form) as being the unaltered word of God, and thus it holds a position of extreme importance for Muslims.

One can find the Quran translated into almost every language on the planet, yet translations are considered as mere interpretations of the meanings of the Quran and not the word of God.

Alongside the Quran, Islamic practice is developed using the rigorously authenticated collections of sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad, known as ‘hadith’.

As a Muslim, a person has several duties, known as the five Pillars of Islam: To testify to God’s oneness and that Muhammad is the Messenger of God; to conduct ritual prayer five times each day, according to the position of the sun – at the break of dawn, after the sun’s highest point, when the sun gets lower in the sky, at sunset, and after nightfall; to fast the month of Ramadan, one of the months in the Islamic lunar calendar; to give 2.5 per cent of one’s wealth to the needy once per year, if one has the means; to perform a Hajj pilgrimage to the city of Makkah in Saudi Arabia once in a lifetime, if capable.

In one’s daily life, there are certain prohibitions. For example, Muslims are not permitted to eat pork, or to drink alcohol, and there are certain rulings about how meat should be slaughtered and prepared for eating in order for it to be ‘halal’ (allowed).

Another aspect of Islam is that modesty in dress for men and women is strongly encouraged, and many Muslim women follow the Quranic injunction to cover their bodies and heads; this is known as hijab – meaning ‘covering’.

In terms of who the Muslims are, there is no particular ethnicity associated with Islam.

The Prophet Muhammad and most of his contemporaries were Arabs, but today Arabs only make up about 20 per cent of all Muslims.

Islam continued to spread across the world from North Africa as far as Spain, and through Persia and India all the way to China, Malaysia, Indonesia, and parts of Russia, as well as Turkey and further into some Eastern European countries such as Bosnia and Albania.

Thus, Muslims are of many ethnicities, and in the last few centuries, Muslims have reached practically every country in the world, and people everywhere are entering Islam all the time.

The Fermanagh Muslim community is made up of people from many different socioeconomic, occupational, and educational backgrounds. We have doctors of every type, teachers and other professionals, we have business owners in the food and tech industries, workers, students, and migrants with a vast range of skill sets, such as butchers, restaurateurs, farmers, carpenters, mechanics, engineers, and so on.

Work or circumstance usually brings someone to Fermanagh, but it is the beauty of the county and its inhabitants which encourages people to stay.

As a Fermanagh native, who entered Islam around 22 years ago, I first encountered the faith during my studies in Queen’s University, Belfast, then travelled to the Middle East to study Arabic, and subsequently got married and lived for a time amongst Muslims in Greater Manchester, learning bits and pieces about Islam along the way.

After making a big move back to Enniskillen with my family, we were welcomed by the small number of Muslims here at the time, who graciously offered to make me the representative for Muslims locally – hence my position as Imam, religious leader, despite my personal feelings of being unworthy of such a position.

After having established our community group, by force of circumstance, and resulting from terrible happenings abroad, our small Enniskillen group of Muslim families began to grow exponentially, as mostly Syrian refugee families began to be placed here over a four to five year period. There are now an estimated 35 or so families living in the vicinity, as well as 12 or so families living in Omagh, and other families scattered throughout Fermanagh.

Through help from the divine, we fundraised among UK-based Muslims, and gathered enough to purchase a modest property within which to hold our communal prayers.

And this is where we find ourselves today.

Our small community lives among and alongside everyone else in the area, experiencing the daily ups and downs of Fermanagh life.

I am extremely proud of my Fermanagh natives for having so graciously and warmly welcomed Muslims, as well as peoples of many different faiths and ethnicities, to live amongst them over the past decade or more.

Although people who see me walking around town might assume I am foreign because of my particular style of dress, I assure you; you might take a Fermanagh man out of Fermanagh for a time, but you’ll never take Fermanagh out of a man!

Overall, despite how they might be portrayed in some sectors, we Muslims are ordinary people who appreciate life and its finer things, and we get on with living just like everyone else.

Although we sometimes may look a little different in terms of dress, or have some particularities when it comes to diet, most are very happy to be asked about their way of life, and if they don’t know the answers to your questions, then they will surely direct you to someone who could answer them for you.

So the next time you meet a Muslim, be sure to say hello.

Thank you for reading, and may our shared time together bear the wonderful fruit of understanding, togetherness, and community.

Darragh Monahan is Chairman of the Aman Association, Enniskillen.