For its 41st anniversary this weekend, the Taipei Grand Mosque (台北清真大寺) will open its doors for two days of activities, including photographic retrospectives of the mosque and Taiwan's Muslim community and an exhibition of ebru, a traditional form of Turkish marbling and calligraphy.
The event will be held tomorrow and Sunday at the mosque located opposite Ta-an Forest Park on Hsinsheng South Road (
The Taipei Grand Mosque is a familiar landmark to most Taipei residents, but few have actually stepped inside the building. This weekend's event is both a literal and official opening of the mosque's doors, as Ishag Ma (
Unknown to many, Muslims have played an important part in Taiwanese history, though they now form only a small community of little more than 60,000 people. According to Ma, some of Taiwan's earliest Muslim immigrants were troops who came with General Shihlang (施琅), dispatched to Taiwan to end the renegade rule of Ming loyalist Koxinga (鄭成功) in 1683. The Muslim soldiers settled in Lugang, Changhwa County, which still has many people with distinctly Muslim surnames, such as Ma (馬) and Kuo (郭).
Being such a small community, Immam Ma says Taiwanese Muslims come under enormous pressure to renounce their faith and the Islamic way of life. "Many people of the Kuo clan still live in Lukang," Ma said, "but they have lost their Muslim faith. We have invited them to this event."
Ma said the event is primarily a cultural celebration, but another function will be to invite no longer practicing Muslims back to the faith.
"Muslims in Taiwan are very much misunderstood," Ma said, pointing to the violence of such groups as Hamas, the Taliban and Abu Sayyaf as characteristic of the media portrayal of Islam.
"We want to present the positive face of Islam," he said, citing the exhibition of ebru art as intended to highlight Islamic artistic achievement.
Ma also emphasized the great contribution made to Taiwan by its Muslim population, not least in the area of international diplomacy, where Taiwan often finds itself isolated from the international community.
"We served as an important link with the Middle East during the oil crisis," Ma said.
For the Muslim community in Taiwan, the mosque serves as an important education center, offering Arabic lessons every weekend. It is also the center of the community's social life, and draws many of the nearly 60,000 expatriate Muslims living in Taiwan.
In other steps to inform people about Islam, the Taipei Grand Mosque has a Web site still partially under construction and Ma has suggested redesigning the wide sidewalk in front of the mosque into an information corridor about Islam.
Event Notes
What: 41st Anniversary of Completion of the Taipei Grand Mosque
When: Tomorrow and Sunday 10am to 5pm
Where: 62 Hsinsheng S. Rd., Sec. 2, Taipei 〈北市新生南路二段62號〉
On the Net: http://www.taipeimosque.org
One of the biggest sore spots in Taiwan’s historical friendship with the US came in 1979 when US president Jimmy Carter broke off formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan’s Republic of China (ROC) government so that the US could establish relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Taiwan’s derecognition came purely at China’s insistence, and the US took the deal. Retired American diplomat John Tkacik, who for almost decade surrounding that schism, from 1974 to 1982, worked in embassies in Taipei and Beijing and at the Taiwan Desk in Washington DC, recently argued in the Taipei Times that “President Carter’s derecognition
This year will go down in the history books. Taiwan faces enormous turmoil and uncertainty in the coming months. Which political parties are in a good position to handle big changes? All of the main parties are beset with challenges. Taking stock, this column examined the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) (“Huang Kuo-chang’s choking the life out of the TPP,” May 28, page 12), the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) (“Challenges amid choppy waters for the DPP,” June 14, page 12) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) (“KMT struggles to seize opportunities as ‘interesting times’ loom,” June 20, page 11). Times like these can
Dr. Y. Tony Yang, Associate Dean of Health Policy and Population Science at George Washington University, argued last week in a piece for the Taipei Times about former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) leading a student delegation to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that, “The real question is not whether Ma’s visit helps or hurts Taiwan — it is why Taiwan lacks a sophisticated, multi-track approach to one of the most complex geopolitical relationships in the world” (“Ma’s Visit, DPP’s Blind Spot,” June 18, page 8). Yang contends that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has a blind spot: “By treating any
You can tell a lot about a generation from the contents of their cool box: nowadays the barbecue ice bucket is likely to be filled with hard seltzers, non-alcoholic beers and fluorescent BuzzBallz — a particular favorite among Gen Z. Two decades ago, it was WKD, Bacardi Breezers and the odd Smirnoff Ice bobbing in a puddle of melted ice. And while nostalgia may have brought back some alcopops, the new wave of ready-to-drink (RTD) options look and taste noticeably different. It is not just the drinks that have changed, but drinking habits too, driven in part by more health-conscious consumers and