Despite the restrictive online service and the wretched
delivery service, there is a reason why even in Korea I subscribed to
Hankyoreh, it is paper that was most like the Guardian in many ways. While it
has its share of the problems (including the unreasonably friendly to China and
have almost knee-jerk reaction against America), it is always breaking new
ground, viewing issues that no other mainstream papers will deal with. Now whether
they do that justly or not… the article will tell us about that.
The article here deals with the small community of Muslims
in Korea. And the focus of the article is the life of 2nd generation
born of Pakistani immigrant. Much of the article deals with the cultural
dislocation, prejudices, generational conflict and many other problems that immigrants
have. This article when it came out created a small controversy last year. Hankyoreh’s
position that the unofficial social persecution toward the 4000 Muslims (especially
naturalized Muslims) must end, and that the government must extend social
protection toward them.
The response to the articled ranged from the fact that many
of these Muslims, do not adopt Korean cultural convention to the more nativist arguments
about the Korea’s race purity and need to keep the distinct Korean race (how
long will that wretched idea haunt the East Asian societies!) as well as
talking about the supposed barbarism and the dangers of Islam (one commentator
in the article makes argument that no immigrants can be truly Korean or accept
the Korean values). Others made more nuanced argument that if these were the
teething pains of a society were Islam is after all, new introduction, and was
therefore considered alien compared to Christianity and Buddhism. After all,
religious completion, like everything else in Korea, is highly and viciously competitive.
We must also consider the many, many evangelicals
in Korea which parrot the narrative of their American brethren. But still, even
the most positive commentaries demanded the subordination of Islam identity to
the Korean and too many were negative in accepting them in any measure.
It has been twenty years since the Korean construction
industries have been working in Middle East, Ten years since 9/11 where 50
Koreans perished. 7 Years since the War in Iraq and deployment of troops. 16
Years since the first civilian government pushed for internationalization of
Korea. Still, we seem to be in dark about world that is not Japan, China or
America.
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| How far have we progressed since his time? |
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