The Islamic Association of Taiwan will not officiate weddings for same-sex couples, as such marriages are against the doctrine of Islam, it said in a statement on its Web site on Friday, the first day that same-sex couples could legally register their marriages following passage of the Enforcement Act of Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 748 (司法院釋字第748號解釋施行法).
According to the Koran, homosexual behavior is strictly forbidden, and the association has been following Islamic law since its establishment, it said.
“Even though the government of Taiwan has distorted the definition of marriage, citizens of Taiwan holding the pure faith in Allah are not ready to succumb to this erroneous direction,” it said.
However, it said that discrimination against gays or lesbians has never been the spirit of Islam.
They “need proper help from the society and correct guidance of God,” it added.
“Unfortunately, those who are occupying the important positions of Taiwan’s government have made incorrect diagnoses, which have led to wrong prescriptions,” it said.
Insightful people should never try to create their own world away from that of the creator, and Muslims have the essential human right to observe their religion in Taiwan, it said.
There are more than 200,000 Muslims living in Taiwan, including many from Southeast Asia.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift