Islamic bonds touching off war of religions

Church says no compromise on its opposition to sukuk introduction

By Yoon Ja-young

The conflict between conservative church leaders and the government regarding “sukuk,” or Islamic bonds, seems to be subsiding. At the National Assembly last month lawmakers gave up pursuing the bill to enable its introduction into the market. David Yonggi Cho, the most influential pastor in the country, on his part, retracted his threat to campaign for the resignation of President Lee Myung-bak in the case the bill was approved.

This doesn’t mean that duel has ended. The disagreement can reappear and rise to the surface at anytime. The government, which has been preparing to start sukuk for years, is convinced that it will benefit the economy, while conservative pastors pledge to not support such a move. The Korea Times interview with pastor Hong Jae-chul, head of the group trying to block sukuk at the Christian Council of Korea, made it clear there won’t be anything like a compromise.

Pastor Hong said sukuk is extremely dangerous money. “As Christians give tithes, the committee at Shariah makes it obligatory to donate 2.5 percent of profit from Islamic finance, in the name of zakat. The money is used for Islamic missionary work,” Hong said. He added that it’s dangerous because missionary work for fundamentalist Islam means more than building schools or helping the poor. “Fundamentalist Islam regards violence and terrorism as holy war. It’s not like Christianity where violence or terrorism is never justified,” he said. “When the church receives tithes, it keeps the records for years. The record of transmission is destroyed right away for zakat. We never know what the money is flowing into,” he said.

He contended that it could cause a religious war in the future. “Korea has various religions, Buddhism, Confucianism and Christianity, but there has been no such thing as a religious war here. Islam here, however, could start a religious war.”

He even went on to say that the polygamy practiced within Islam could negatively affect Korean society. “This isn’t a religious problem. This is for the sake of our country. Though introducing sukuk may seem to be an economic gain in the short term, it could trigger serious problems such as terrorism, violence, and social conflict,” he said.

He added that the ranking official at the finance ministry tried to convince him by explaining that the country needed sukuk to diversify funding, citing how it suffered in the Asian financial crisis by resorting only to U.S. funds. “He was a patriotic young man. However, he knows of only one thing, not two or three,” the pastor said.

He said levying taxes on sukuk and spending the money on social welfare will be better for the economy than exempting the tax and thereby letting businesses enjoy interest of 0.3 percentage points lower than ordinary loans. “If sukuk isn’t going to be implemented in Korea with taxes, then don’t accept it. That’s what we ask from the government,” the pastor said.

He said that most other countries that allow sukuk levy proper taxes. “The United Kingdom, Singapore and Ireland are the only countries that exempt property tax and corporate tax in such cases, but the Korean government is planning to exempt sukak of all taxes,” he said.

He also reproached Rep. Lee Hoi-chang of the minor Liberty Forward Party, who criticized church leaders for breaching the constitution which separates the church from state. “We are talking about the issue as citizens, for the good of all the people. We are qualified enough as we represent 12 million Christians in the country,” the pastor said.

He said that his association would do what it took to stop any efforts for approval of the bill regarding sukuk. “We can never accept that. We will continue monitoring the matter.”