The Islamic spirit of standing in awe of the supreme God, upholding peace and justice, helping the weak and the poor, promoting social stability, being content with what one is and working hard is what Taiwan needs most at present, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said yesterday.
Chen urged Muslims in Taiwan to introduce the doctrine and spirit of Islam to their compatriots to enhance exchanges between the Islamic community and various other sectors of society.
The president made the remarks during a meeting with a Taiwanese Muslim delegation which recently concluded an annual pilgrimage to the Islamic holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
Chen said that this is the fourth consecutive year that he has met the returning Muslim pilgrims and said that through the meeting, he hopes to express the government's concern for the development of Islam to promote religious harmony.
Chen said that the government always pays great attention to religious development and encourages all religions in Taiwan to communicate with one another to promote mutual tolerance and respect and to serve as a driving force for stability, peace and prosperity.
Although there are only 50,000 to 60,000 Muslims in Taiwan, the minority religion is respected and enjoys full protection under the country's laws, he said.
With more than 2.5 million Muslims from over 170 countries making the pilgrimage to Mecca this year, and after hundreds of people were killed in a tragic stampede, it is fortunate that all the pilgrims from Taiwan returned home safe and sound, he said.
Senior judges yesterday met to discuss the constitutionality of a law that makes adultery a criminal offense, before being ordered by Judicial Yuan President Hsu Tzong-li (許宗力) to set a date for a constitutional interpretation within the next month. The judges met to discuss Article 239 of the Criminal Code on offenses against marriage and family, after 18 judges had called for a constitutional interpretation of the issue. Taipei District Court Judge Lin Meng-huang (林孟皇) said that while he had previously tried adultery cases and never questioned the law, his feelings changed when trying a case last year involving baseball star Wang
Instead of hating the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), help change it, KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said, as he urged young people to join efforts to reform the party. As the nation marked Youth Day on Sunday, Chiang said in a Facebook post that he wanted to remind people that “the KMT used to be very young.” Now, when people think of the KMT, they equate it with older people, he wrote. “Even if [the KMT] is a 100-year-old party, it must maintain a young mentality, and understand what young people want and what they want the KMT to do,” Chiang wrote.
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DISTRUST WARRANTED? The WHO is under China’s control and has become a useless organization, while data from China cannot be trusted, a Control Yuan member said China’s demand that the novel coronavirus that emerged in Wuhan, Hubei Province, not be referred to with names like the “Wuhan pneumonia” betrays its lack of confidence in itself, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) told lawmakers yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Yi-yu (蔡易餘) asked Su, during a interpellation at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei, for his view on China’s attempts to redeem its national image in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. These included China’s efforts to “bleach” its image, including having WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus publicly praise its handling of the COVID-19 outbreak, and thanking it for buying time
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