The Muslim community is a major partner of Taiwan and an indispensable force for promoting the government’s New Southbound Policy, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday at a meeting with a Taiwan-based Muslim association.
At the beginning of the meeting, Tsai congratulated the Taipei-based Chinese Muslim Association on its hajj to Mecca.
The association organizes an annual hajj and sponsors an international Islamic conference, an Asia regional Muslim youth summer camp and Islamic study courses.
Islam is one of the foremost world religions, Tsai said, adding that there are many Muslims in Taiwan who have helped to improve Taiwanese’s knowledge about Islam.
According to government statistics, there are between 50,000 and 60,00 Taiwanese Muslims and more than 200,000 Muslim immigrants and migrant workers mainly from Indonesia and other areas of Southeast Asia.
Tsai said she hopes to build a more Muslim-friendly Taiwan that helps people feel at home.
“With this in mind, prayer rooms have been established in major transport hubs around the nation, such as airports and bus terminals, to meet the needs of Muslim travelers,” the president said.
Taiwan has also been promoting a halal certification for restaurants that serve food in compliance with Islamic dietary laws to attract more Muslim travelers, Tsai said.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS