A large number of predominantly Indonesian Muslims gathered in the Daan Forest Park in Taipei yesterday for the annual Eid al-Fitr event held by the Taipei City Government, marking the occasion with Halal food, music and culture.
Ria, from Indonesia, said she learned about the event online and was excited to visit the Halal food stands at a bazaar set up for the occasion, especially those offering Indonesian food, which she missed.
A public health PhD student at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University’s Taipei campus, Ria praised Taiwan for being Muslim friendly, citing Family Mart’s designated sections for Halal-certified food at its stores, as well Taiwan’s abundance of Halal restaurants and prayer rooms.
Photo: CNA
Aside from stands selling food and drinks, the city government also invited Taiwanese and Indonesians to set up stands that juxtaposed Taiwanese and Indonesian cultures.
These included stands displaying handmade Indonesian masks and shadow and string puppets placed side-by-side with a stand introducing Pat ka-tsiong, or “the eight infernal generals,” a traditional Taiwanese religious dance believed to rid the human realm of pandemics, demons, and evil spirits.
Gema Angklung, a band that features a traditional Indonesian percussion instrument known as Angklung, performed an instrumental rendition of “Tian Mi Mi” (甜蜜蜜) by late Taiwanese songstress Teresa Teng (鄧麗君).
The Taipei City Foreign and Disabled Labor Office, which organized the cultural events, said these activities were meant to promote mutual understanding between Taiwanese and Indonesians.
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) in a speech thanked the Muslims for choosing to live and work in Taipei.
“Taipei is a passionate, friendly, inclusive and diverse city where people treat members of all ethnic groups as family, regardless of who arrived first,” he said.
Indonesia’s representative to Taiwan Arif Sulistiyo said there were around 35,000 Indonesians in Taipei, over 90 percent of whom are Muslims.
Arif said he was moved to see some Indonesian caregivers attending yesterday’s event with the seniors under their care, promising to continue working with the Taipei City Government to hold what he described as the largest Eid event in Taiwan.
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do