In this week’s installment of Looking South, Eric Gau chats with Dr. Nurundin Ting, convener of the Halal Accreditation Board and Executive Director of the Taipei Grand Mosque, to talk about the government’s efforts to reach out to the Muslim community, both in Taiwan and abroad.
Transcript:
Eric Gau: Good morning everyone, and welcome to another episode of “Looking South” here on ICRT. I’m Eric Gau, and today we are joined by Doctor Nurundin NH Ting, the Convener of the Halal Accreditation Board and the executive director of the Taipei Grand Mosque, to talk to us about the Muslim outreach under the new Southbound Policy. Doctor Ting, welcome to the show.
Dr. Ting: Thank you. Hi everybody. Good morning!
Eric: Doctor Ting, the Tsai administration has made Muslim Outreach a big part of the New Southbound policy. Can you tell us what the situation is like for Muslims in Taiwan right now?
Dr. Ting: Okay. First of all, I think it is a very wise decision to make Muslim Outreach a key issue in Taiwan’s New Southbound policy. Considering the Muslim population is about 62% of the Asia Pacific region, in accordance to the Pew research center. Muslims in Taiwan actually place a pivotal role to prop up the success of the New Southbound policy. Taiwan Muslims have extensive connections with many Muslims in the East Asian countries, on the basis of brotherhood. Sometimes the brotherhood is more efficient than blood relatives. And conventionally, Muslims in Taiwan have been very quiet and disadvantaged prior to the turn of the century because of our political history. Well, it seems Taiwan’s Hala the awareness is getting more and more publicized now, I think Muslims are much happier and more comfortable in Taiwan. It will be wise for us to extend this more broadly.
Eric: You touched on this just now, but in your view why is it so important to become friendlier towards Muslims?
Dr. Ting: Number one: worldwide, the number of Muslims consuming markets are picking up on a fast speed. Number two: Halal awareness is getting recognized across the entire market. In particular, the Asian market. Halal of consumables are being more and more widely accepted in the entire consumer market because of food safety concerns. Halal products are an assurance of health and food safety. Number three: halal tourism is becoming the fastest growing tourism sector. The growth rate of the global Halal or global Muslim tourism is twice as much as its worldwide counterpart— it’s 7.6% versus 3.8% of annual growth. And while Taiwan is striving to attract more international travelers, more importantly, to attract more inbound tourism expenditures. It is therefore, very important to make Taiwan a Muslim friendly environment considering that our neighbors Korea, Japan, Australia, etc., are all building Muslim friendly infrastructures for accommodating Muslim travelers. It is truly a global trend.
Eric: It’s been a year since the New Southbound policy was first implemented. What achievements have you seen, when it comes to the local Muslim community?
Dr. Ting: Alright. We have actually witnessed that Taiwan is making Muslim friendly movement from all government sectors. The recent establishment of Taiwan’s Halal center at Taiwan’s External Trade Development Council demonstrates that Taiwan is fully aware and making effort to help promote Taiwan’s Halal product outreach. At my post, I do feel excited about the growth of Halal awareness in Taiwan. We have also seen that Taiwan’s tourism bureau has had favorable and incentive policies encouraging hotels and restaurants to turn into Muslim friendly ones. Many local governments are also taking Muslim friendly moves—especially Taipei Mayor, Professor Ke has visited Taipei Grand Mosque three times during the past year. Knowing that the space of Taipei Grand Mosque is not enough to accommodate the frequent activities of both local and expatriate Muslims, Mayor Ke also addressed that it is important to find another larger space to build a new larger mosque in the metropolitan Taipei area. So I think that Mayor Ke’s proposals are very important and also excites the local Muslim community.
Eric: That’s good to hear. In your opinion Dr. Ting, what is the government’s greatest challenge when it comes to Muslim outreach, and what suggestions do you have to overcome that challenge?
Dr. Ting: I think the greatest challenge is the lack of higher end Muslim human resources in the public sector. When it comes to Muslim outreach, it is necessary to have Muslims to prop up the project. This is also evidenced by the fact that the delegation of the Taipei Grand Mosque, wel have visited Kuala Lumpur in April. We have done, by the private sectors, many achievements. We have also managed to invite the current and retired government leaders to be our advisors in both Islamic finance and Halal affairs. We have also reported such achievements to Taiwan’s ambassador to Malaysia’s, James Zhang, to overcome such challenges. I suggest that the government can integrate resources existing in Taiwan’s private sectors. I think we can integrate a group of talented and well internationalized Muslims to compliment the shortage in the public sector.
Eric: And finally Dr. Ting before we go, what other recommendations do you have for the government when it comes to issues of interest to Muslims?
Dr. Ting: Well, it is important to establish Muslim welfare foundations. Such NGOs will be able to carry out many tasks concerning taking care of the disadvantaged local Muslims, newly immigrated Muslims, and international Muslims. It will be very helpful if we can establish a few well-disciplined welfare foundations dedicated to the minority Muslim humanitarian tasks. We will be able to contribute and bring in more international resources into Taiwan. Such efforts will also prove that Taiwan is a Muslim friendly environment to be known globally.
Eric: We’ve been chatting with Dr. Nurundin NH Ting. Dr. Ting, thank you so much for joining us on the program today.
Dr. Ting: Thank you, thank you so much.
Eric: And that wraps up this episode of “Looking South” here on ICRT. I’m Eric Gau, and we’ll see you again here next week.