4.2 The Audience of Taiwanese Mainstream Society
4.2.4 No Religious, Political or Social Confrontation between
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different religions. Most interviewees identified the fact that most people in Taiwan practice polytheistic beliefs such as Taoism and Buddhism when trying to explain how Taiwanese people perceive Taiwanese Muslims. The interviewees believe that in the general public in Taiwan is accustomed to the circumstance of seeing people worship different gods at different temples; they also frequently used the Christian and Catholic populations in Taiwan as reference groups. For these reasons, the interviewees believe that once the Taiwanese people gain a better understanding of Taiwanese Muslims, they will be able to view the Islamic religion as just one of the very diverse religious components in local society. As Basim said:
“ I believe the Taiwanese people don’t specifically value any single religion.
This is why they don’t oppress any religion. This is really a convenient form of society for Muslims because no one would come and attack you because of your beliefs. There are extremists in every religion. There are Christians who are extremists and bring negative images to their religion, too. Actually, Taiwanese people can tell the difference between religion and radical thinking.”
4.2.4 No Religious, Political or Social Confrontation between Taiwanese Muslims and Other Members of Society
The fourth feature that the interviewees believe to be part of Taiwanese people’s
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perceptions of Muslims is the perceived peaceful political and social relationships between Taiwanese Muslims and other groups of the community. In the interviewees’
opinions, in comparison with other countries they’ve been to or are aware of, very few large-scale political and social conflicts involving religion have occurred in Taiwan, not to mention specifically the religion of Islam. Due to the migrant history of the interviewees’ families, their parents’ diplomatic or business careers abroad, most interviewees have previously spent a significant portion of time overseas in countries where Muslim communities are familiar with the local society, for instance, Myanmar, China and the US, or even in countries where Muslims compose the majority of society such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Mahmud, whose family moved from Myanmar to Taiwan, provided the following example.
“ You know the Rohingya people? Some people in Myanmar have been provoking conflicts between Buddhist and Muslims. At a certain point in time last year the situation became extremely awful. People hacked each other down, and some [non-Muslim locals] stopped and burned a bus that was full of Muslims passengers. I know that at the time, many Muslim women took off their hijabs for safety. It is pretty hard to imagine the same chaos happening in Taiwan.”
Basim also brought up conflicts between different religious groups in other countries as proof of viewpoints similar to Mahmud’s. He went to university in Turkey and is
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now in charge of business operations within the Middle East region at work. He said he has to be careful with Turkish friends on religious issues even though they are all Muslims.
“ Once, when my Turkish client found out that I was going to meet an Israeli client, he joked and asked me to slam the Israeli for him…… You know the hatred between them is deeply rooted on the experience of having to fight for lands or the lives of their families. So I’d say situation creates point of view. But you would never imagine the same circumstances happening in Taiwan. People in Taiwan may fight for political parties and ideologies, but religion? No.”
The interviewees are all aware that the smallness of the Taiwanese Muslim population leads to the absence of representation of them as a social group within Taiwan. This however also allows them to live a life that doesn’t involve confrontations and clashes with other ethnic groups, political interest groups, and cultures. As Basim said, almost gladly:
“ I think, in Taiwan, the life of the Muslim minority is easier than it is in many other countries.”
As a result, all the interviewees affirmatively expressed that they have never had to
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worry about being assaulted or discriminated because of their religion when revealing their religious identity in front of non-Muslim Taiwanese. Almost all interviewees said that most Taiwanese people usually just don’t understand Muslims and Islam much and show curiosity toward the Muslim lifestyle, even though many of the interviewees have encountered Taiwanese people’s biased opinions against Muslims from the Middle East.
Nevertheless, the interviewees strongly express that the desire to reverse Taiwanese peoples’ stereotypes and negative impressions against Islam and foreign Muslims Many of them believe that they are obliged to clarify, if not defend, and to provide more comprehensive aspects of facts about their religion and other Muslims around the world. Even if they have never encountered conflicts because of their own identity, they still care for improving the impression of the global religion and its believers.
The interviewees believe the stereotypes and bias from the mainstream society can be gradually eliminated if they continue to provide correct information to people around them. By presenting the “right image” of Islamic religion and what a “real” Muslim looks like, as Abbas said:
“I’d like show people around me that Islam does not equal terrorism starting with my own image. I don’t want to see people hold wrong or biased opinions toward Islam.”
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Hazim also reveals his intentions to distinguish between ethnicity and religion. He said:
“Sometimes I am worried that people would be afraid of us [Muslim]
because they don’t understand our religion…By posting on Facebook, I want my friends to know that there are Arabs who are suffering deeply. The news media in Taiwan always links ISIS to Islam or Arabian people. That’s awful. I’d like people in Taiwan to be able to tell the difference between religions and ethnicity and to know that there is no definite causal relationship between the two concepts.”
In other words, to the interviewees, when Taiwanese people encounter a Taiwanese Muslim, they are usually the unprepared audience who entered the theatre with very few expectations about the performance going on inside. It is quite possible that the audience have gained some negative impressions about the performance from elsewhere, but they are willing to examine these impressions of Muslims and Islam because the performers on the stage do not possess the “bad guy appearance” that corresponds with their impressions, and the phenomenon gives Taiwanese Muslims great opportunity to offer forms of self-presentation and performance that differ from the negative expectations.
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