Vigilance on Muslim Warriors

By Kwon Yule-jung

I have been questioning Muslims' roles and their constant radicalism for a long time. Beyond that, I have been suspicious of their motives behind some of the troubles in the world that almost always involves the Islamic religion and its fanatic followers.

I am curious about clarifying ulterior causes for unimaginable conflicts brought in mostly by practitioners of Islam. Therefore, I used to read many books and updated news reports on incidents surrounding the religion.

I enjoyed watching the two programs on Muslim warriors and Christian warriors under the title “God's Religion” on CNN International a few days ago. To prove my keen interest and to not miss the programs, I even put off leaving work on a Friday.

However, I succumbed to exhaustion and fell asleep while the Christian warriors were on air. When I awoke a few hours later, I regretted missing the useful program.

I switched on the cable news and coincidently the program was showing, I was thrilled to have another opportunity to watch the program.

I was anxious to compare the two religions on the same issues; to have the balance on the two religious activities surrounding radicalism by militants, I was required to look more closely at the two different features on the two occasions.

The programs were presented by Christiane Amanpour, famous for her reports on wars and conflicts in major battlefields around the world. The chief international correspondent is of Iranian descent and versed in international issues.

She is used to interviewing many heads of state, like kings, presidents, influential intellectuals and prominent leaders. I thought that the cable news broadcasts and the presenter were properly combined to show the balanced features of the two antagonistic faiths.

To my surprise, the Christian warriors were mainly focused on the chosen few who were devoted to Christian fundamentalism. Some Christians were eager to be related with Jews, who were recorded to be the chosen people in the Old Testament.

For a battle cry rally for Christian causes in San Francisco, many youths were excited to champion putting their principles of life through biblical teachings. In general, their activities shown on the program were described as very peaceful and orderly.

On the other hand, the Muslim warriors were depicted as merciless and troublemakers. It was implicated that they were involved in nearly every conflict in the world, which featured sectarian strife, suicide bombings, internal feuds between Shiites and Sunnies, discrimination against women; who are forced to veil their faces and are deprived of their basic rights of voting and other political activities, and many other controversial issues.

Pundits may devaluate the two comparisons as Western supremacy-based perspective devoid of consideration to Islam. They may go as far as saying that such broadcasts might make hard-line Islamists more and more extremely radical and militant.

However, I don't agree to such interpretations in that the broadcasts were grounded in facts. There is little or no evidence that Christians were involved in the ruthless confrontations in any of the world, just some areas in Arab in which some Christians, the minority, were persecuted by the majority, Islamists.

There is ongoing evidence of Islam's harsh behavior toward Koreans. Afghan insurgents known as the Taliban forcefully had an unprovoked capture of 23 innocent Koreans in July. After stringent efforts for their freedom, the remaining 19 hostages were freed in six weeks.

This was preceded by the release of two females. In contrast to their freedom, one pastor and one male captive were executed for no apparent reason. All the 23 Koreans were enthusiastic in helping the impoverished Afghans with medical services and other aid work, as well as Christian missionary objectives. The Good Samaritans were abducted on a major road in Ghazni province by the armed Islamic insurgents.

Much to their dismay, some Koreans blamed our compatriots for their efforts to convert Afghans into Christians, saying that they deserved being captured.

In reverse, many Muslim workers coming to Korea to make money, not to do charity works, are not afraid of being held as hostages at all regardless of what they do here even to spread Islamic messages.

In any civilized country, respect of other religions and followers should be observed. As origins of Islamic religion and guardian of its creator, Mohamed, and its faith, Saudi Arabia is notorious for banning Bibles and forbidding women to even drive cars.

Around early 1990s, the Cold War came to an end defeated by the free and capitalist democracy. Unfortunately, such vacuum was replaced by Islamic militancy.

It reached the highest point when al-Qaida masterminded the demolition of two World Trade Center buildings in New York in 2001, claiming the lives of 3,000 civilians. In times of peace, such inhumane and heinous acts were unthinkable in other societies and religions.

We should be alert to the possibility that Islamic-style crimes may arise in our country. Without vigilance, we could at anytime become victims of it.

england6227@hanmail.net

Kwon Yule-jung is director of the management division at Daejeon National Cemetery.