SEOUL: On a sunny afternoon in the second week of Ramadan, hundreds of Muslims gathered at the Seoul Central Mosque in the district of Itaewon for their weekly Friday prayer.
Those who could not fit inside the mosque sat on their prayer mats outside the main prayer hall. Most of the worshippers were immigrants from Southeast and Central Asia.
“I was travelling an hour from Ansan (southwest of Seoul) by train and bus to perform a prayer along with my two children,” Ahn, a Korean Muslim, told Arab News.
“It’s a ritual to come here every Friday afternoon, and the past two weeks have been special as we’ve entered Ramadan, the holiest month in the Islamic religion.”
Living as a Muslim in South Korea has been tough, and is getting tougher due to Islamophobia, said Ahn, who converted to Islam a decade ago after marrying a Pakistani Muslim.
“Lots of incidents occur allegedly in connection with Islamist extremists and terror groups, and many Korean people just think all Muslims could be associated with them,” she added. “Hatred and prejudice against Muslims still prevail here.”
Park Si-eun, 36, who converted to Islam in 2010, said: “Even some of my family members feel inconvenienced being with me just because I’m Muslim. There are a lot of challenges for Muslims in Korea, and even more for Korean Muslims. Nevertheless, I feel there have been some changes in the public perception of Islam, slowly but surely.”
Islam has a very small presence in South Korea, where Protestantism is dominant. According to the Korea Muslim Federation, the number of Muslims in the country stands at about 150,000, some 0.3 percent of the population. Of them, Korean Muslims account for 35,000.
There are at least 30,000 Protestant churches in the country but only eight mosques, including the Seoul Central Mosque, which was built in 1976 with the help of a large monetary contribution from Saudi Arabia and other Islamic nations.
Rahman Lee Ju-hwa, imam at the Seoul Central Mosque, said despite widespread misunderstanding and ignorance about Islam, there is a slow but steady change in perception.
“The 2007 hostage crisis in Afghanistan was a major turning point in the history of Islam in South Korea,” he told Arab News, referring to the kidnapping of 23 South Korean missionaries by members of the Taliban, who executed two of the hostages.
“The incident had many more South Korean people think negatively about Islam. But on the other side, many people were beginning to be curious about the religion and wanted to know it better,” he said.
“The number of Muslims in the country is stagnant, but the public perception and understanding of Islam are getting better, slowly but surely,” he added.
“An increasing number of students visit the Seoul Central Mosque to attend lectures and study the Muslim culture.”
The number of visitors to the mosque peaked at 2,500 last year, a 10-fold increase from a decade ago, he said.
During a visit by Arab News on May 8, a group of middle-school students was touring the mosque.
“We came here for a cultural study class to help students understand different cultures and religions,” said Lee Eun-il, a teacher at Shindong Middle School in Seoul.
“In particular, Islam wasn’t familiar to students and misunderstood by many people. That’s why we came here, to understand it better.”
The imam said: “Social media is an effective tool for providing accurate information on Islam. Wrong information spreads so fast online, but that information can be fixed instantly on social media.”
Park Dong-shin, a South Korean Muslim, runs two YouTube channels — one for the Arabic language and the other for Islam. They have about 10,000 and 50,000 viewers, respectively. He also has a Facebook account with approximately 200,000 followers.
“I started running YouTube channels in 2011 with the goal of providing accurate information on Islam, and they’ve gained popularity fast in recent years thanks to the YouTube boom,” Park, who converted in 2009, told Arab News.
“Many of the viewers post malicious comments insulting Islam and Muslims, but I feel that’s a very normal process of a new culture being mixed in a society. It’s a process of people learning a new culture and religion,” he said.
“I’m super surprised to see a number of Christians join my channels to get to know Islam better, not criticizing Islam,” added Park, who studied the Arabic language and Muslim theology at the Islamic University of Madinah, Saudi Arabia, and subsequently majored in Shariah law at Al-Azhar University in Cairo.
Safiya Kang Na-yeon, a female manager at the Seoul Central Mosque, is an Instagram user with nearly 50,000 followers.
Having converted in 2015, she posts photos and videos of Islamic food, fashion and cultural events, which she said help bridge the gap between Korean and Muslim cultures in a more effective way.
“Youngsters in South Korea show a big interest in hijab fashion and halal food,” she said. “I also post photos related to South Korean culture, such as hanbok, traditional Korean clothing. That helps Muslims understand Korea well.”
Since the 1990s, an increasing number of migrant workers from Muslim countries have been settling in South Korea.
“The image of most Muslim migrants has been improved to an extent due to their hard work and faithfulness,” said Safiya Kang.
“Their children with multicultural backgrounds are growing up, and they’ll be able to play a role in finding a common denominator with Korean people.”
Muslim tourism has become a key growth area for South Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy, since the number of Chinese travelers declined in the aftermath of a diplomatic row over the deployment of the US Terminal High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) system in 2017.
The South Korean government has laid out a tourism initiative aimed at attracting 1.2 million Muslim visitors annually.
Last year, 971,649 Muslim tourists visited the country, an 11 percent increase from 865,910 in 2017, according to the Korea Tourism Organization.
Despite efforts to increase halal restaurants, 34 percent of Muslim visitors said food was their biggest inconvenience in South Korea, whose people enjoy pork and alcohol, according to a 2018 survey conducted by the tourism organization.
“The government should address the lack of infrastructure for Muslim tourists, such as halal restaurants, prayer rooms and other Muslim-friendly facilities, which could attract many more Muslim visitors and boost the national economy,” Imam Lee said.
Still, South Korean Muslims pride themselves on keeping their faith in the face of numerous challenges.
“Practicing Islam is such a difficult mission in this country, where our religion is marginalized in many cases,” Safiya Kang said.
“In another sense, I’m proud of keeping the faith in this most challenging of environments. I find peace in Islam.”
Young Muslims become flag-bearers of Islam in South Korea via social media
Young Muslims become flag-bearers of Islam in South Korea via social media
- Islam has a very small presence in South Korea, where Protestantism is dominant
- According to the Korea Muslim Federation, the number of Muslims in the country stands at about 150,000, some 0.3 percent of the population
France asks Indonesia to transfer national on death row
- Indonesia has in recent weeks released half a dozen high-profile detainees
- French diplomats have acknowledged that talks were underway for the transfer of Serge Atlaoui
Indonesia has in recent weeks released half a dozen high-profile detainees, including a Filipino mum on death row and the last five members of the so-called “Bali Nine” drug ring.
French diplomats have acknowledged that talks were underway for the transfer of Serge Atlaoui, a 61-year-old Frenchman arrested in 2005 at a drugs factory outside the capital Jakarta.
The Indonesian government has now confirmed it received the official transfer request, which will be discussed in early January.
“We have received a formal letter requesting the transfer of Serge Atlaoui,” senior law and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra said.
The French embassy in Jakarta declined AFP’s request for comment.
Father-of-four Atlaoui has maintained his innocence, claiming that he was installing machinery in what he thought was an acrylics plant.
He was initially sentenced to life in prison, but the Supreme Court in 2007 increased the sentence to death on appeal.
Atlaoui was held on the island of Nusakambangan in Central Java, known as Indonesia’s “Alcatraz,” following the death sentence, but he was transferred to the city of Tangerang, west of Jakarta, in 2015 ahead of his appeal.
That year, he was due to be executed alongside eight other drug offenders but won a temporary reprieve after Paris stepped up pressure, with Indonesian authorities agreeing to let an outstanding appeal run its course.
In the appeal, Atlaoui’s lawyers argued that then-president Joko Widodo did not properly consider his case as he rejected Atlaoui’s plea for clemency — typically a death row convict’s last chance to avoid the firing squad.
The court, however, upheld its previous decision that it did not have the jurisdiction to hear a challenge over the clemency plea.
Atlaoui’s lawyer, Richard Sedillot, said last month that there was still “considerable hope” for a transfer.
Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) said the official request is the “penultimate step in a long fight” for those at the Paris-based organization who have campaigned for years to prevent Atlaoui’s execution.
“We are now waiting for this transfer to become a reality,” ECPM director Raphael Chenuil-Hazan said.
Earlier this month, Filipino inmate Mary Jane Veloso tearfully reunited with her family after nearly 15 years on Indonesia’s death row. She was transferred to a women’s prison in Manila where she awaits a hoped-for pardon for her drugs conviction.
Indonesia has some of the world’s toughest drug laws and has executed foreigners in the past.
At least 530 people were on death row in the Southeast Asian nation, mostly for drug-related crimes, according to data from rights group KontraS, citing official figures.
According to Indonesia’s Immigration and Corrections Ministry, more than 90 foreigners were on death row, all on drug charges, as of early November.
Despite ongoing negotiations for prisoner transfers, the Indonesian government recently signaled that it would resume executions — on hiatus since 2016 — of drug convicts on death row.
India’s former PM Manmohan Singh cremated with state honors
- Singh’s body, draped in Indian flag, was carried through the capital on a flower-decked carriage pulled by a ceremonial army truck
- Modi, who called Singh one of the nation’s ‘most distinguished leaders,’ attended the funeral, along with President Droupadi Murmu
NEW DELHI: The body of Manmohan Singh, the former Indian prime minister whose death has spark outpourings of grief at home and accolades from abroad, was cremated on Sunday on the banks of the Yamuna River in New Delhi with full state honors.
The funeral was conducted in the Sikh tradition as priests chanted hymns, after Singh’s body, draped in the Indian flag, was carried through the capital on a flower-decked carriage pulled by a ceremonial army truck.
The flag was removed and the body covered with a saffron cloth before it was placed on the pyre.
Since Singh died on Thursday at 92, many have taken up his comment near the end of his 10-year rule that “history will be kinder to me than the contemporary media.”
He was referring to a perception of weak leadership as he headed a coalition government facing numerous charges of corruption, which was thrown out of office in the 2014 election won by his successor Narendra Modi.
Modi, who called Singh one of the nation’s “most distinguished leaders” after his death, attended the funeral, along with President Droupadi Murmu and representatives of various countries. Modi’s government has decided to allocate land for Singh’s memorial.
Singh, considered the architect of India’s economic liberalization, had criticized Modi’s economic policies such as demonetization and introducing a goods and services tax.
Singh is survived by his wife and three daughters.
Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi accompanied Singh’s family on the truck to the Nigambodh Ghat cremation site after the procession from party headquarters in New Delhi, where people joined Congress party leaders and members to pay their last respects.
The leaders of the US, Canada, France, Sri Lanka, China and Pakistan were among those expressing grief at Singh’s death and highlighting his international contributions.
Regular flights between Ashgabat and Moscow suspended for a month from Dec. 30, says TASS
MOSCOW: Regular flights between Ashgabat and Moscow are to be suspended for a month from Dec. 30 after an Azerbaijan Airlines jet crashed in Kazakhstan, the state-run TASS news agency reported on Saturday citing Turkmenistan's national air carrier.
A passenger jet operated by Azerbaijan Airlines crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, after diverting from an area of southern Russia where Moscow has repeatedly used air defence systems against Ukrainian attack drones.
Turkiye’s pro-Kurd party to meet jailed PKK leader Saturday
ISTANBUL: A delegation from Turkiye’s main pro-Kurdish DEM party is due on Saturday to visit jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is serving life on a prison island off Istanbul, a party source said.
“The delegation left in the morning,” the source told AFP, without elaborating how they would travel to the island for security reasons.
The visit would be the party’s first in almost 10 years.
DEM’s predecessor, the HDP party, last met Ocalan in April 2015.
On Friday, the government approved DEM’s request to visit Ocalan, who founded the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) nearly half a century ago and has languished in solitary confinement since 1999.
The PKK is regarded as a “terror” organization by Turkiye and most of its Western allies, including the United States and European Union.
Detained 25 years ago in a Hollywood-style operation by Turkish security forces in Kenya after years on the run, Ocalan was sentenced to death.
He escaped the gallows when Turkiye abolished capital punishment in 2004 and is spending his remaining years in an isolation cell on the Imrali prison island south of Istanbul.
Saturday’s rare visit became possible after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s nationalist ally, MHP party leader Devlet Bahceli, invited Ocalan to come to parliament to renounce “terror,” and to disband the militant group.
Erdogan backed the appeal as a “historic window of opportunity.”
Afghan Taliban forces target ‘several points’ in Pakistan in retaliation for airstrikes – Afghan defense ministry
KABUL: Afghan Taliban forces targeted “several points” in neighboring Pakistan, Afghanistan’s defense ministry said on Saturday, days after Pakistani aircraft carried out aerial bombardment inside Afghanistan.
The statement from the Defense Ministry did not specify Pakistan but said the strikes were conducted “beyond the ‘hypothetical line’” – an expression used by Afghan authorities to refer to a border with Pakistan that they have long disputed.
“Several points beyond the hypothetical line, serving as centers and hideouts for malicious elements and their supporters who organized and coordinated attacks in Afghanistan, were targeted in retaliation from the southeastern direction of the country,” the ministry said.
Asked whether the statement referred to Pakistan, ministry spokesman Enayatullah Khowarazmi said: “We do not consider it to be the territory of Pakistan, therefore, we cannot confirm the territory, but it was on the other side of the hypothetical line.”
Afghanistan has for decades rejected the border, known as the Durand Line, drawn by British colonial authorities in the 19th century through the mountainous and often lawless tribal belt between what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan.
No details of casualties or specific areas targeted were provided. The Pakistani military’s public relations wing and a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Afghan authorities warned on Wednesday they would retaliate after the Pakistani bombardment, which they said had killed civilians. Islamabad said it had targeted hideouts of Islamist militants along the border.
The neighbors have a strained relationship, with Pakistan saying that several militant attacks that have occurred in its country have been launched from Afghan soil – a charge the Afghan Taliban denies.
