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.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching