ed Islamophobia, xenophobia

Korea may face flare-up in anti-foreigner sentiment

Suspicions toward foreigners often reside on the edge of natives’ consciousness, waiting for a chance to jump out and materialize at the first sign of provocation. The maturity of a society may be measured by its level of tolerance to and ability to absorb any such challenge, and move on.

By this standard, Korea has been untested and is unprepared for Islamophobia, whipped up by the multiple organized attacks by the Islamic State (IS), the extremist terrorists, threatening to sweep the world.

If left unattended, there is a possibility that uneducated fear of Islam and Muslims will feed on itself and grow out of control. Thereby, it is important for the government to make early intervention to educate people about the differences between Islam and IS. The difficulty in this task lies in the dual role for the government, which also is stepping up its surveillance to ferret out and expel any IS elements at the earliest stage. But it may be alleviated by Muslims openly promoting the peaceful nature of their religion and condemning the extremists.

Already, the conflicting writing is on the wall.

There has been a deluge of worrying reports. First, the National Intelligence Service (NIS), the spy agency, disclosed that about 10 Korean nationals and four foreign residents have declared their allegiance toward IS, pointing out an approximately 27 percent increase in the number of illegal aliens over the past four years. The NIS also revealed that about 200 Syrians have recently arrived here with some 80 of them granted entry on humanitarian grounds.

Reports also have it that a total of 48 foreigners have been deported for potential ties with terrorist groups. Topping it off, an illegal immigrant ― an Indonesian national ― was taken into custody and law enforcement authorities reported that he exhibited sympathies and affiliation with IS.

The situation being as it is, one can’t be blamed for giving a second look in the direction of a Muslim in the streets, a knee-jerk reaction taken by many Americans after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Demographics also play a factor. There are about 200,000 Muslims living in Korea ― about 35,000 Korean converts, 143,000 long- and short-term residents and about 20,000 illegal immigrants. Muslims account for 1.62 billion or 23 percent of the world’s population. Korea is actively engaged in business with many Islamic nations with human resource exchanges on the rise.

This means that disengaging from all Muslims is not an option.

Adding to the mix is Korea’s large, vibrant Christian population that has issued a condemnation against IS but carried a veiled message opposing the inflow of Muslims into the country. For this type of complicated issue, it is best to start with small steps in the hope that they will add up eventually. We suggest a town hall meeting of a kind where Muslims and other residents can identify terrorism as their common challenge and speak their minds in pursuit of a solution.