Islam and Life of Muslims in Non Muslim Countries: Ireland

Islam in the Republic of Ireland is a rather new religion for the first presence of Muslims occurred in the 1950s when students from different countries came to Ireland for higher studies, especially to study medicine at the famous Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin. And it was they who founded the Dublin Islamic Society (later called the Islamic Foundation of Ireland) in 1959. Since then from a few to over 64,000 practicing Muslims, today Islam is the third largest religion after the Catholics and Followers of the Church.

The Census 2011, showed 49,200 people who declared themselves Muslim. But just five years later in 2016, this number jumped to 63,400 - a rise of 29% in the number of people registering themselves as a Muslim from that in 2011.

Sunnis are in the majority in Ireland and the largest membership is from Pakistan, Algeria and Libya. The Sunni community have a number of mosques and centres around Ireland (details at end of section).There are over 2,000 Shi'a followers and the majority come from Pakistan, Lebanon, Iran and Iraq. The majority of the Shi'a community live in Dublin where there is a centre, while others live in major urban centres such as Cork and Galway.

There are over 50 mosques that are spread over the country. The largest mosque is in Dublin, the Clonskeagh mosque or the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland, which about 5,000 people attend. Aside from the five qualified imams here, there are a number of “congregational leaders” who know parts of the Qur’an by heart who can lead prayer.

Life of Muslims is as normal or otherwise as any other European country. The Hijab remains an issue for the Muslim women as the mainly Christian population around is not very comfortable about it. Muslim teenagers complain of isolated incidents of Hijab being pulled off in public. Likewise there are racist occurring with slurs being passed on to Muslims, specially women, but Muslims are becoming used to it. However, in an interview with Muslim girls, one of the girls remarked: "We definitely feel a lot more comfortable than in Britain or France." When asked about recent events in the UK, France and elsewhere that might give a negative impression of Islam, one of the Muslim student said that there are people who try to “skew” the religion into something that fits their own agendas.

The Islamic Cultural Centre, Dublin, Ireland [Photo Credit:  Wikimedia Commons / Source / Author ]

As to halal food, one find food outlets offering halal meat and meat products in most larger towns and by the dozen in Dublin. Look for signs in Arabic, especially mentioning "halal" or describing the food as "ethnic". A huge number of Pakistani shops stock a good selection of food from mainly the UK and Turkey that will have a halal seal. A smaller number will also have a butcher's counter selling fresh halal meat.

The acceptance of the Muslim as an individual has much to do with the fact that half of the Irish health system would collapse if it were not for Muslim doctors. Enter any Irish hospital and chances are good that you will be treated by a Muslim doctor, often from Pakistan. However, ethnicity and religion are somehow intermingled here. Expect to hear things like "Oh, he is a Muslim ... but a good doctor nonetheless!" on occasion. 

Muslims enjoy celebrating their festivals in colours and happiness. Watch herein under a video of Muslims celebrating the festival of Eid and how they feel about being in the country:

Disclaimer: The data for this post has been collected from the references as given below. If any one differs with the material contained in this post, one may consult the references and their authors.  If someone has more material about the subject, he/she is most welcome to share in the comments box to make the post all encompassing.

To know more about life of Muslims in other non Muslim countries, please visit our page: Islam and Life of Muslims in Non Muslim Countries

You may also refer to our Reference Pages for knowing more about Islam and Quran.

Photo | References: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |

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Sinead O'Connor takes her Ultimate Decision to Embrace Islam

Everyday when a non Muslim reverts to Islam, the truth contained in the last Divine religion of Islam solidifies and adds yet another fortunate and blessed Muslim into its fold. And when someone form the show business embraces Islam, it adds yet another feather to the religion of Islam as from the pomp and show of the show business, entering Islam is really a hard and big decision that one makes. There have many many such examples in the past when singers at the top of their popularity graph decided to revert to Islam. I remember when my favourite singer Cat Stevens embraced Islam many years ago.

And today is yet another blessed day. When Irish singer Sinead O'Connor's song "Nothing compares 2 You" became a hit in the 1990s, she or other would have never know that the mere name of the song would one day mean to her: Nothing Compares 2 Islam. 

And today this hidden meaning of the song have surfaced to her surprise, though she many not draw a comparison the way I am describing, but Islam has finally become a way of life for the 51 years old singer.

While announcing her "Ultimate decision" to  renounce Catholicism and embrace Islam, Sinead O'Connor says: "This is the natural conclusion of any intelligent theologian’s journey. All scripture study leads to Islam. Which makes all other scriptures redundant.” it may be added that O'Connor had changed her legal name to Magda Davitt last year. But now she has announced that henceforth she would be "Shuhada (which means ' martyrs' in Arabic) Davitt."

Connor's twitter message to her fans [3]

O'Connor was ordained a priest by a fringe Catholic group in 1990s and has been a devout Christian, has finally exhibited the truth that Islam is the way to be blessed, both in this world and in the hereafter. [1]

The revelation came twenty-six years after she made headlines around the world when she ripped up a photo of Pope John Paul the Second during an appearance on the Saturday Night Live show in October, 1992. [2]

In a video that has gone viral on the social media, Sinead O'Connor is seen trying the "adhan" - the Muslim call to pray (done five times a day). The video was captioned with: “Here is my 1st attempt at singing the adhan. I got some pronunciation (sic) wrong because emotions took me from my page… but there’ll be hundreds of others on stage to come …,” she wrote. And her effort is simply beautiful:

However, there has been a strong reaction from some of the Christians who have expressed shock over her decision and have rather condemned Islam "for taking advantage of a person with ill health and prevailing upon her." One person remarked: "Jesus Christ what a racket. She's really lost the plot this time." While another comments: "Notice she is wearing combat cammo," as if to show that with Islam comes militancy into her. And still one remarks: "One can see the insanity in her eyes." The last one I want to share here: "Lindsay Lohan and now Sinead O'Connor... oh noes! The west is losing all it's intellectuals to Islam!!!"

Embracing a new religion has never been easy and it takes real strength, conviction and guts to do it and Sinead O'Connor has done it very boldly and we really commend her. May Allah bless her.

To read personal accounts of many a celebrity who have reverted to Islam, please visit our page: Embracing Islam: Revert Experiences.

You may also refer to our Reference Pages for knowing more about Islam and Quran.

Photo | References: | 1  | 2 | 3 |

If you like Islam: My Ultimate Decision, and to keep yourself updated on all our latest posts to know more about Islam, follow us on Facebook

Follow @IslamUltimate

Please share this page to your friends and family members through Facebook, WhatsApp or any means on Social Media so that they can also be benefited by it and better understand Islam and the Holy Qur'an - Insha Allah (Allah Willing) you shall be blessed with the best of both worlds.

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