Ramadan brings Ireland’s Islamic community together
Friday night iftar meals at the Dublin’s Islamic Cultural Centre in Clon-skeagh are standing room only.
Every evening since 20 July, as the sun sets, Muslims around the world gather to break the daily fast of Ramadan, the holiest month of the Islamic calendar. On Friday evenings in Clonskeagh and many other mosques around Dublin, prayers and iftar are shared as a community.
The Islamic community is experiencing rapid growth in Ireland. According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the number of Muslims in Ireland increased by 51.2 per cent between 2006 and 2011, bringing the Muslim population to almost 50,000 – about one per cent of Ireland’s total population.
The number of mosques in Dublin has increased significantly to keep up with the demand, and other mosques have sprung up around Ireland, including in Cork and Galway.
Although Ramadan is a community-based holy month, the budding Islamic community in Ireland is extremely close throughout the year. “You have to be involved in the community,” said one man at the Islamic Cultural Centre. “The work doesn’t end if you are a part of the community.”
Citing soccer, tae kwon do, and swimming leagues as programmes sponsored by the mosque for younger Muslims, he added: “It’s a way to keep [the children] connected to the shelter.”
Although fasting is perhaps the most widely distinguishable characteristic of Ramadan to those outside the Islamic faith, to Muslims it is about so much more than simply not eating or drinking.
The fasting focuses Muslims on their daily prayers, and Ramadan includes a few additional daily prayers. “Extra prayers are added so people have more time to have a relationship with God ” said Imran Ahmed, press secretary of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association. “This brings people closer to God.”
Zakat, one of the five pillars of Islam, instructs Muslims to practice charity, and this requirement becomes even more crucial during Ramadan fasting, explains Sheikh Umar Al-Qadri, imam of the Al-Mustafa Islamic Educational and Cultural Centre in Blanchardstown.
“Charity increases because fasting makes [Muslims] aware of people around the world who are hungry and thirsty,” said Al-Qadri, who is quick to add that many religions, including Christianity and Judaism, have a fasting component.
Samir Shirin, imam of the Milltown mosque, elaborated: “Iftar has spiritual, social and gastronomical sides to it. It is a good time for the community to come together [and it is] highly recommended to break the fast with other people.”
Because of Ireland’s northern latitude, when Ramadan falls during the summer months the long daylight hours can prove challenging for the sunrise-to-sunset fasting requirement. Experts of Islam meet to interpret and discuss such issues, and sometimes make allowances.
But Ahmed explained that because of the shifting calendar for Ramadan, the seasonal and weather challenges that different locations face are generally equal. For example, Muslims in the Sahara region in Africa might have shorter fasting days than Dublin in the summer, but the hot, dry, weather poses its own problems. “It’s a balance for people all around the world,” he said.
Overall, fasting during Ramadan encourages Muslims to focus on the ideal behaviours they wish to practise and promote throughout the year, explained Ahmed. “Moral and spiritual values are intensified this month through stricter control. It’s not only that you abstain from eating; you refrain to give more purpose to promoting righteousness. One month is a sort of training.”
