Posted on 06/25/2004 11:25:03 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Members of Seoul's small Muslim community filed past rows of riot police to attend prayers Friday amid bomb threats and an angry backlash over the beheading of a South Korean hostage in Iraq.
Police have been guarding the Central Mosque in Seoul since anonymous callers threatened to blow it up earlier this week.
"I think a lot of people won't come out today because of the harassment," said Shariq Saeed of the Korea Muslim Federation. "But the security is very good."
Noticeably absent from Friday prayers were some of the country's newest followers: a handful of South Korean soldiers who converted ahead of their planned deployment to Iraq.
Last week - before the beheading of hostage Kim Sun-il - the troops turned out as they had done for weeks, shedding their boots at the mosque's doorstep to pray in camouflaged fatigues emblazoned with South Korean flag patches.
The Defense Ministry said the Muslim soldiers didn't attend prayers Friday because they were attending training.
But their absence underlined growing sensitivity over Seoul's plan to send 3,000 more troops to Iraq, making it the biggest coalition partner after the United States and Britain.
Iraqi militants beheaded Kim on Tuesday after the South Korean government refused to bow to their demands and stop the deployment.
South Koreans were outraged by video footage of the blindfolded Kim kneeling in front of his masked captors who later sliced off his head.
Most directed their anger at the killers, while others blamed the government.
But South Korea's 180,000-member Muslim community, all but forgotten in this predominantly Buddhist and Christian nation of 47 million, also became the subject of interest, curiosity - and ire.
In one incident, an angry man stormed into the Central Mosque compound ranting anti-Muslim slogans.
Worshippers at the mosque said they shared the country's anger at Kim's death but cautioned that the killers, not their faith, should shoulder the blame.
"Such terror acts are against our law," said Moon Sung-jo, 25, a university student who is among the 30,000 ethnic Koreans in a Muslim population dominated by foreigners.
"Most Koreans don't understand Islam. People always say I'm the first Korean Muslim they've ever met. They think it's pretty special."
Islam was unknown to most Koreans until the 1900s; among the first Koreans to join the faith were World War II conscripts in the Japanese military who converted while serving in China. Turkish troops who fought with United Nations forces in the 1950-53 Korean War had no place to worship, and the Seoul Central Mosque wasn't built until 1976.
ISLAM remained UNKNOWN to Kreans to- bad it just didn't remain that way "Unknown" Disappearing in a cloud of smoke...
Good to see the Koreans showing some spunk.
Well, some of them already got hit overnight in Inchon, S. Korea (about an hour west of Seoul). I'll post the photos of the cleanup later here on FR.
WTF?
When you think about it we probably have a few Muslims in the U.S military as well.
But I assume that most of them are either raised Muslim or converted in prison, etc.
I've never heard of a US soldier who said: "Oh, I'm being sent to Iraq? I guess I might as well convert to Islam if I'm going!"
Again, I say, WTF?
This is a baldfaced lie. How can Muslims condemn what Allah commanded and Mohammed practiced by beheading huge numbers of surrendered prisoners and other Christians, Jews and pagans he captured and stole from.
While no one wants to publicly admit that it's a religious war, it is. Islamics refuse to condemn other islamics in whatever horrific thing they do but they unite and condemn all other religions. Repeatedly, islamics have taken hostage or murdered Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhas, etc. and bombed these same religious sites throughout the world. Can you imagine the reaction if Mecca and/or the Dome of the Rock were bombed?
We may find out what the reaction will be before too long. Things are coming to a head.
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