JEDDAH, 27 December 2007 — Several international Dawa workers are active in Taiwan spreading the message of Islam, Yunus Ma Chou-Shien, leader of the Taiwanese Haj mission, said here on Tuesday night. The mission comprised 29 members, 18 of them women.
Yunus said more than 100,000 foreign Dawa workers, mostly Indonesian and the rest from countries such as Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore, are in Taiwan. “Dawa work is in full swing,” Yunus told Arab News on the sidelines of a reception hosted by Munir J.Y. Chiou, Jeddah-based director general of Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, at his residence.
He said Taiwan had been hosting summer camps for youth leaders from Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia.
“The camps have been focusing on the true image of Islam that is being misconceived and misrepresented after 9/11,” he said, adding that he also plans to host a conference on Islam around June-July next year, in cooperation with the Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs.
Taiwan, which has a population of 23 million including 60,000 Muslims, has also been conducting seminars every three months, with the participation of scholars from Indonesia and other countries, the imam added.
During the Haj, Yunus said, he was able to interact with Minister of Culture and Information Iyad Madani, Minister of Haj Dr. Fouad Al-Farsy and officials from several Islamic agencies, including the Muslim World League and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth, and discussed future cooperation between them and Taiwan.
Sheng-tsng Yang, representative of Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Riyadh, said that the mission enjoyed Saudi hospitality during the pilgrimage and expressed its thanks to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for providing brilliant facilities at the Haj, which was “absolutely smooth and satisfactory.”
Taiwan, whose joint venture Jubail Fertilizer Co. has been a success since the commencement of its operations in 1994, is studying the prospects of bidding for contracts for its companies in the Kingdom’s newly planned economic cities including the King Abdullah Economic City in Obhur, north of Jeddah. The volume of trade between the two countries reached $10.3 billion in 2006. In the first 10 months of 2007, Taiwan has marked a 40 percent jump in its exports, while its import of oil from the Kingdom remained at $9.7 billion. Trade missions from Taiwan continue to visit the Kingdom and have been taking part in all major international trade exhibitions both in Riyadh and Jeddah, Yang said.
“Our whole effort is to promote economic, commercial, investment and cultural ties with the Kingdom,” he added.
