NotJabba: You can also play as a Monk using Baldur's Gate Trilogy, which combines both games into one continuous playthrough and runs on the BG2 engine. The only time I've ever played through BG1 was as a Monk. It's not as bad as people are telling you -- pretty tough for the first couple of levels, and you have to rely more on other party members than you would as a plain Fighter, but the same is true for someone playing a Mage.
POLE7645: Then, I'd like to ask some advice from you. I'd like to go through the game (Enhenced Edition) as a monk (since there's no Monk NPCs and it seems like an interesting class. Unfortunately, I heard that it makes your main character completely useless in the first game. Is there a way to make a monk useful in the first game?
My best advice is to roll high for STR, DEX, and CON*, and focus on giving your monk lots of items that help to avoid hits (Boots of Avoidance, etc.), because his main weakness early on is that he's easy to hit. High dexterity in particular will help to improve your armor class, which is obviously weak initially because you can't wear armor.
A Monk is a fast-hitting offense character, not a tank. Don't try to use him as a front-line damage sponge; he's better as a second-line fighter, because his fists have the reach of a two-handed weapon (one of the special perks of the Monk class), so he can hit while standing back behind your front-liners. Monks are also good for running past enemy fighters and attacking the magic-users; their stealth skills can help with this too.
One other weakness you'll have is that your fists can't hit enemies that can only be hurt by magic weapons. This isn't a huge deal in BG1 (and in BG2, you'll have magic fists), but remember that you have a couple of weapon proficiency points, and you can use those weapons to fight monsters you can't hit with fists. I put one point in Longsword and one in Sling; the latter is the only missile weapon you can use, and it's usually a good idea to fight those types of enemies from afar.
*I rolled a Monk with 17/17/18/12/13/14 in about 10 minutes, and you can always sacrifice more WIS or CHA to max out STR and DEX. I made sure the CON was maxed so that I could eventually get 20 CON in BG2 (+1 with the tome in BG1, and +1 with the Machine of Lum the Mad in Watcher's Keep in BG2), which allows you to regenerate health -- a very useful skill for a fighter type with relatively low HP.
EDIT: I noticed you're playing the canon party. I did too, so don't worry -- I relied on the exact same party balance you're using, and I did just fine.
