A pork knuckle restaurant in Taoyuan on Tuesday said that it would change its billboard showing its wares and a cartoon pig out of respect for its neighbor, the historic Longgang Mosque (龍岡).
The restaurant, which opened at Jhongjhen Market last month, sparked an outcry from mosque goers, who said that pigs are seen as unclean in their religion and the smell of pork is nauseating to them.
Taoyuan City Councilor Shu Tsui-ling (舒翠玲) said that her office had received multiple complaints about the sign since the restaurant opened.
Photo: Hsu Cho-hsun, Taipei Times
After visiting the restaurant, she determined that the owner was unaware the sign could cause offense and secured their promise to remove it, Shu said.
The mosque’s prayer hall was established in 1964 by former fighters from Burmese and Cambodian guerrilla groups that were backed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), who later settled in Taoyuan.
As the Taipei Grand Mosque was too far away, the community raised funds and built a prayer hall, which was expanded in 1989.
When asked to comment, one worshiper at the mosque said it is common knowledge that Muslims do not eat pork.
“While it is legal to open a restaurant, there was no need to put that billboard with the pig right next to the sign for the mosque,” they said.
“A lot of migrant workers pray at this mosque and this kind of behavior creates the impression that Taiwanese do not respect other religions,” they added.
The restaurant said it would change its billboard by the middle of the month.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
RSS