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Islam in Macau is a minority religion in the region. According to the Islamic Union of Hong Kong, together with all of the foreign Muslim workers combined (such as from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and Pakistan), there are around 10,000 Muslims in Macau. Only around 400 are local Macanese people, and they are collective known as The Macau Islamic Society. [1] [2]
Islam has been present in Macau since the Yuan Dynasty. It is generally accepted that Islam were brought to Macau by traders from Middle East and Persia during that time until Qing Dynasty era. [3] Some of this evidence can be found at the Muslim Cemetery nearby Macau Mosque where some of the tombs dates back to hundreds of years ago. [4] [5]
During the Portuguese rule of Macau, many Muslims came from South Asia with the Portuguese Army. In the 1880s, they founded a Mosque for their prayer place. [6] [7]
During the World War II, many Hui people escaped to then-Portuguese Macau from the Republic of China to avoid the devastation from the war. Many of them are from Zhaoqing in Guangdong province. However, many of them moved to Hong Kong after the end of the war. [8] Some Muslims also came to Macau from Northwest China after the end of Chinese Civil War in 1949. [9]
Before the Macau handover from Portugal to China in 1999, the Islamic Union of Hong Kong used to provide about HK$150,000 to support the Muslim community in Macau.
Over the past ten years, the Muslim community in Macau has grown to more than 10,000 with the arrival of Muslim workers from South and South East Asia, working at various sectors in Macau. [6]
Macau currently has one mosque, which is the Macau Mosque, located at 4 Ramal Dos Moros in Our Lady of Fatima Parish. The mosque was built in the 1980s by the Muslim people from the second wave of immigrants during the Portuguese-ruled of Macau. This mosque is especially crowded during Sunday where most of the employees have their work break days. [10]
Every year during Eid al-Adha, Muslims in Macau gather at Macau Mosque to celebrate the Muslim festivity by performing prayer and animal slaughtering for the needy and poor. [11] [12] The same thing also happen during the annual Eid al-Fitr celebration which is held at the mosque. [13]
Macau has one Muslim cemetery. Built in 1854, it is located within the same area as Macau Mosque. Some of the tombstones' styles are of Persian origin with writing in Farsi, Arabic, Chinese, English and Portuguese. Some of the tombs dates back to hundreds of years ago. [14] The cemetery consists of around 120 graves. [7]
As of January 2015, there are five Halal restaurants and shops selling Halal food in Macau, both on the Macau Peninsula and Taipa. [7] [15] [16] [17] [18] Macau's first Halal restaurant was launched in 2012, called the Taste of India at Macau Fisherman's Wharf, serving Halal Indian and Portuguese cuisines. It took them three years to obtain the Halal certification. [19]
Macau Muslim people usually have typical name such as Fatimah, Soraya, Umar etc.
The Islamic Association of Macau (IAM; Chinese :澳門伊斯蘭會; Portuguese: Associação Islâmica de Macau) is an Islamic organization in Macau founded in 1935. [20] The headquarters of the organization is at the Macau Mosque. [21] The Islamic Union of Hong Kong in Hong Kong provides annual budget and subsidy to the IAM so that the association support Muslims in Macau and to propagate Islam in the region. [8] The current President of IAM is Ahmed Din Khan and the Vice President is Fazal Dad.
The Peduli Indonesian Migrant Workers Concern Group was established in 2009 in Macau. The group assists the Indonesian workers in Macau, such as explaining about Macau immigration law, employment documents translation etc. The group currently has around 350 members. It offers English classes, computer courses and holds many activities, such as visits to elderly homes, AIDS campaigns, hip-hop competitions, etc. [1]
To attract more Muslim tourists from Southeast Asia, the Macau Government Tourism Office has been engaging in several efforts to give a new perception that Macau is not only a gaming region. Over the past two years, the government has been engaging in seminars on Muslim practices during travel, encouraging more restaurants to get halal certification from Hong Kong and requesting hotels to reconstructing their lobby so that visitors do not have to go through casinos when going to restaurants or their rooms. [22]
Muslims in Macau are often faced with time availability to pray, because most of them time they have only one break during their working period, which is not enough to hold two daily prayers. Some Muslim women workers also sometimes face difficulties to keep wearing their veil during working time, although this has never been a major issues in Macau. [1]
Macau or Macao, officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a population of about 680,000 and an area of 32.9 km2 (12.7 sq mi), it is the most densely populated region in the world.
The Macanese people are an East Asian ethnic group that originated in Macau in the 16th century, consisting of people of predominantly mixed Cantonese and Portuguese as well as Malay, Japanese, English, Dutch, Sinhalese, and Indian ancestry.
Coloane is the southernmost area in Macau, connected to Taipa through the area known as Cotai, which is largely built from reclaimed land. Known as “Lou Wan” in Cantonese, Coloane forms the southern part of Macau. Its population consists of several settlements dotted around the parish, such as Vila de Coloane, Hac Sa, Ká-Hó, and Cheoc Van. Administratively, the boundaries of the traditional civil parish of São Francisco Xavier are coterminous with that of Coloane.
The Monetary Authority of Macao is the currency board and the de facto central bank of Macau. The regulatory institution was established on December 20, 1999, upon the transfer of sovereignty over Macau from Portugal to the People's Republic of China as the Macau Special Administrative Region.
Air Macau Company Limited is the flag carrier of Macau. It operates services to 24 destinations in Mainland China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan and Vietnam, from the airline's hub at Macau International Airport. In 2014, Air Macau carried 2.12 million passengers with an average load factor of 68.20% and carried 15,900 tonnes of cargo and mail.
Under the Basic Law, Macau's diplomatic relations and defence are the responsibility of the central government of China. Except diplomatic relations and defence, nonetheless, Macau has retained considerable autonomy in all aspects, including economic and commercial relations, customs control.
The Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of Chinapassport is a passport issued to Chinese citizens who are permanent residents of the Chinese Special Administrative Region of Macau.
Religion in Macau is represented predominantly by Buddhism and Chinese folk religions. During the period in which the city was under Portuguese rule (1557–1999) the Catholic Church became one of the dominant faiths, but nowadays it has greatly declined.
According to the 2016 census, Islam is practised by 4.1% of the population of Hong Kong, or about 300,000 Muslims. Of this number, 50,000 are Chinese, 150,000 are Indonesians and 30,000 are Pakistanis, with the rest from other parts of the world. The vast majority of Muslims in Hong Kong are Sunni.
Islam is a minor religion in Taiwan and it represents about 0.3% of the population. There are around 60,000 Muslims in Taiwan, in which about 90% belong to the Hui ethnic group. There are also more than 250,000 foreign Muslims working in Taiwan from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, as well as other nationalities from more than 30 countries. As of 2018, there are eleven mosques in Taiwan, with the most notable being the Taipei Grand Mosque, the oldest and largest one.
The transfer of sovereignty over Macau from Portugal to the People's Republic of China (PRC) occurred on 20 December 1999.
The 12-3 incident was a series of political demonstrations and riots against Portuguese colonial rule in Macau which occurred on December 3, 1966. The incident, inspired by the Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic of China, occurred as a direct response to a violent police crackdown by colonial authorities against local Chinese protesters demonstrating against corruption and colonialism in Macau.
The Macau Resident Identity Card or BIR is an official identity card issued by the Identification Services Bureau of Macau. There are two types of Resident Identity Cards: one for permanent residents and one for non-permanent residents.
There are 15 consular missions in Macau, of which four are consulates-general, one is a consular office and ten are honorary consuls.
The Macau Mosque and Cemetery is the only mosque and Muslim cemetery in Macau, China, located in the parish of Nossa Senhora de Fátima.
The Ammar Mosque and Osman Ramju Sadick Islamic Centre or Wan Chai Mosque is a mosque and Islamic centre in Wan Chai, Hong Kong. It is the third mosque built in Hong Kong.
The Incorporated Trustees of the Islamic Community Fund of Hong Kong is an organisation recognised by the Government of Hong Kong that represents the interests of the Muslim communities in Hong Kong. It is generally known as The Board of Trustees among local Muslims. The board office is located at the Ammar Mosque.
Macau independence is the political movement that advocates for the independence of Macau from China. Despite receiving little attention within Macau, the issue was raised in the Legislative Assembly of Macau following the Hong Kong Legislative Council oath-taking controversy. In 2017, several Chinese media outlets warned against discussion of Macau independence, fearing that speculation would lead to further action.
The COVID-19 pandemic in Macau was a part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The first known case of the disease in the special administrative region of China was confirmed on 22 January 2020. The city saw nine more cases by 4 February, but no more cases until 15 March, when imported cases began to appear. Stringent government measures have included the 15-day closure of all 81 casinos in the territory in February 2020; in addition, effective 25 March, the territory disallowed connecting flights at its airport as well as entry by all non-residents, and from 6 April, the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge was closed to public transport and most other traffic.
