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Islam in Taiwan

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Through Islam, Mosque and China

Lab · Class 8–12Archaeology of Delhi

Taiwanese Muslims are mostly descended from Chinese Muslims in mainland China, and are Sunni Muslims mostly belonging to the Hanafi school. Nevertheless, they practically face no problem at all with other groups of Muslim schools. Differences are more a matter of mutual curiosity.

The spread of Islam to Taiwan

First wave of migration

Islam is believed to have first reached Taiwan in the 17th century when soldiers from the southern Chinese coastal province of Fujian accompanied Koxinga on his invasion of Taiwan to oust the Dutch from the southern city of Tainan in 1661 and established Kingdom of Tungning in Taiwan. Earlier before that, Islam is believed to have been brought to Taiwan by Admiral Zheng He in the 15th century. Many of them were Muslims and they brought their families with them to the island and settled in several settlements, such as Lukang, Tamsui etc. They built a Quanzhou-styled mosque in Taiwan. Although the mosque no longer exists now, relics from the building still exist. These people are believed to be the first Muslim settlers on the island. Their descendants, however, became assimilated into Taiwanese society, adopting local customs and religions.

According to Professor Lien Ya Tang (traditional Chinese: 連雅堂; simplified Chinese: 连雅堂; pinyin: Lián Yǎtáng) in his book History of Taiwan (traditional Chinese: 臺灣通史; simplified Chinese: 台湾通史; pinyin: Táiwān Tōngshǐ) (1918), there were few Muslims on the island, most of whom were from other provinces in China. There was no spread of Islam and no mosques were built.

The final traces of the first Muslims migration to Taiwan were wiped out during the Japanese colonial rule of Taiwan in 1895–1945. The Japanese government forbid the Taiwanese from practising foreign religions, which resulted in many of the local people practising their faith in secret. The last imam that came from China to Taiwan was in 1922. After the handover of Taiwan from Japan to the Republic of China in October 1945, the tradition of sending imams from China resumed again in 1948.

The Chinese Muslim Association (CMA) put a number figure for all of the people who come from the first wave of Islam migration to be around 20,000 people. Despite efforts of by the association to resuscitate Islam among them, basically they no longer practice Islam anymore in their daily life.

Yunlin

In Taiwan, one branch of this Ting (Chinese: 丁; pinyin: Dīng) family descended from Ajall Shams al-Din Omar resides in Taixi Township, Yunlin County. They trace their descent through him via the Quanzhou Ding family of Fujian. Even as they were pretending to be Han Chinese in Fujian, they still practiced Islam when they originally came to Taiwan 200 years ago, building a mosque, but eventually became Buddhist or Daoist. The mosque is now the Ding families Daoist temple.

Changhua

In Changhua County, there is another Ting family which resides in Lukang Township. They trace their Muslim ancestors from the family books, originated from Quanzhou, Fujian as well. It was recorded that there was a mosque and bath well built in this town in 1725 run by the Kuo family. However, many of the ancestors stopped practicing Islam once they arrived in Taiwan due to public pressure and the well also disappeared shortly before World War II. Their ancestors left some hints to the current generations of their Muslim heritage, which is shown in their siheyuan-shape of their house, resembling a square-shaped house with courtyard in the middle, different from the ordinary Taiwanese houses which is sanheyuan, a U-shaped house with courtyard in the middle. From the bird's-eye view, siheyuan houses resemble the Chinese character hui (Chinese: 回), which represents the Hui people, a minority Muslim people in northwest China. The families gained their fame and wealth by running business in Lukang.

Also in Lukang, there are also descendants of Hui who came with Koxinga who no longer observe Islam, the Taiwan branch of the Kuo (Chinese: 郭; pinyin: Guō) family which is not Muslim and follows traditional Chinese cultures, but still does not offer pork on Fridays nor offering it to their ancestral shrines. They also like to keep their heads covered during rituals. The CMA counts these people as Muslims. Based on certain historic documents, it was reported that there used to be a mosque in Beitou (traditional Chinese: 北頭; simplified Chinese: 北头; pinyin: Běitóu) area in Lukang. According to some studies, the former site of the Kuo family ancestral temple (Chinese: 鹿港郭厝保安宮; pinyin: Lùgǎng Guōcuò Bǎo'ān Gōng) would have been the site for the mosque few hundred years ago.

Keelung

There are also two families in Keelung whose ancestral shrine contains a Quran and examples of Arabic script, although they did not understand the significance of these objects until contacts were made recently with the newly arrived Muslims in Taiwan. Those two families are not Muslims and do not read Arabic, but they honor a book held sacred by their forebears.

Tainan

Similarly, two or three families in Tainan are reported to observe funeral customs more associated with Islam rather than Taoism or Buddhism, such as ceremonial washing of the body and wrapping it in white cloth, although in other aspects of their life they are normal Taiwanese.

Second wave of migration

The second wave of Muslim migrants occurred during the Chinese Civil War in the 20th century when around 20,000 Muslim families fled mainland China with the Nationalist Government to Taiwan in 1949 at the end of Chinese Civil War under General Bai Chongxi. Many of them were soldiers and government employees at the time and came from provinces were Islam is strong such as Yunnan, Xinjiang, Ningxia, Anhui and Gansu (mostly southern and western regions of China). First mainland Chinese Muslim settlers in Taiwan founded Taiwan's first mosque in 1947, the Taipei Grand Mosque in Taipei. The mosque symbolized the friendly gesture from the ROC Government to Islam and also reinforced ROC diplomatic ties with their Muslim allies. After the establishment of the mosque, diplomatic activities between Republic of China and other Muslim countries developed considerably and trade and commerce increased remarkably.

This second wave of Muslim migration from mainland China to Taiwan resulted in the creation of other mosques in Taiwan, such as the Kaohsiung Mosque in 1949 in Kaohsiung, Taipei Cultural Mosque in 1950 in Taipei and Taichung Mosque in 1951 in Taichung.

During the 1950s, contact between Muslims and Han Chinese were limited due to differences in custom. The Muslims were largely dependent on each other through the ummah (Islamic community) that met regularly in a house on Lishui Street (traditional Chinese: 麗水街; simplified Chinese: 丽水街; pinyin: Lìshuǐ Jiē) in Da'an District, Taipei, the original site of the Taipei Grand Mosque before it was relocated and rebuilt at its current site at Xing Sheng South Road (Chinese: 新生南路; pinyin: Xīnshēng Nánlù) in 1960. However, by the 1960s when Muslims realized that returning to mainland China would be unlikely and out of professional need, contact with Han Chinese became more frequent though there was still a considerable degree of interdependence within the ummah.

In 1953, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution condemning the ROC government for its actions and guerrilla warfare inside Burma. Finally, an agreement was reached between Taipei, Yangon and Bangkok for evacuation of all Kuomintang irregular forces under command of General Li Mi to Taiwan. Civil Air Transport transported 5,583 Kuomintang soldiers and 1,040 dependents to Taiwan. The majority of these guerrilla forces were Muslim and had no place to worship in their new Taiwan home and so they started to construct the Longgang Mosque in Zhongli in 1964 and was completed three years later in 1967. There are around 200 Muslim families living around this area with most of them belongs to Ma family clans. There are numerous Halal Yunnan, Burmese and Thai restaurants around the area as well.

Around those periods, a few Muslim leaders held seats in the Legislative Yuan and National Assembly. There were Muslims serving as ranking officers of the armed forces, notably Lieutenant General Ma Ching-chiang which once became one of the top advisers of President Chiang Kai-shek. Muslims also held important posts in the diplomatic service, such as the ROC Ambassador to Kuwait Wang Shi-ming.

Third wave of migration

Since the 1980s, thousands of Muslims from Myanmar and Thailand have migrated to Taiwan in search of a better life. They are descendants of nationalist soldiers that fled Yunnan when the communists took over mainland China. These people constituted to the third Muslim immigration in Taiwan. Many of them settle in Huaxin Street at Zhonghe District of New Taipei, Zhongli District of Taoyuan City and some other towns.

Fourth wave of migration

In 1989, Taiwan implemented a policy of allowing more migrant workers to take blue-collar jobs in the growing industrial sectors, many of whom came from Muslim-majority countries in South and Southeast Asia. The majority of Taiwanese Muslims today are relatively recent converts, mostly women, who have married mainlander Muslims. Today there are some 60,000 Taiwanese Muslims and a further 250,000 Indonesian Muslim workers and other Muslims from Malaysia, the Philippines, Pakistan, India and elsewhere, making the current total of over 310,000 Muslims living in Taiwan.

The growing Muslim population in Taiwan from Indonesia can be seen in many industrial towns, such as the one in Dayuan District, Taoyuan City where there are a growing number of Indonesian workers there, in which most of them are Muslim. An Indonesian worker married to a local Taiwanese man built the At-Taqwa Mosque, Taiwan's seventh mosque, which was opened on 9 June 2013. A group of Indonesian fishermen working at a nearby port established Taiwan's eight mosque, the Baitul Muslimin Mosque in Su'ao Township, Yilan County in 2014 and Taiwan's ninth mosque, the An-Nur Tongkang Mosque in Donggang Township, Pingtung County which was completed in 2017 and opened on 18 February 2018. Taiwan's tenth and latest mosque, the Hualien Al-Falah Mosque, was built in Hualien City, Hualien County and inaugurated by former Indonesian Minister of Law and Human Rights Mahfud MD on 18 March 2018.

COVID-19 pandemic

Religious activities in all worship sites in Taiwan were suspended from May 15 until June 8, 2021, due to surging cases of COVID-19.

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