When ill-informed public takes collective action

Halal initiative loses ground owing to Islamophobia

By Kang Hyun-kyung

The recent Christian protest against the establishment of halal food zones for Muslim tourists and the anti-American beef rallies in 2008 cannot be any more different from each other in terms of scale and motivation.

During the spring of 2008, hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life joined daily beef protests against the Korean government’s resumption of American beef imports which was halted after the alleged mad cow disease outbreak in the Western nation.

By contrast, the anti-halal movement consists of small-scale, scattered protests triggered by the Islamophobia which was created and fanned by radical Protestants. The protests began in the southwestern rural city of Iksan, Daegu Metropolitan City and the eastern province of Gangwon. Some 100 people, mostly Christian fundamentalists, joined the rallies and called for the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the local governments of Daegu and Gangwon Province to drop their plans for halal food zones.

However, Eum Ik-ran, a professor at Dankook University’s GCC Institute, notes that the two events have one thing in common — they present the danger of collective action by an ill-informed public.

“The beef and anti-halal rallies became viral with the spread of flawed information,” she said. “Some anecdotal stories about American beef and halal food were fabricated and spread rapidly through the Internet, stirring up the public to take collective action against the government to influence the key policies.”

She said the agricultural ministry’s suspension of the establishment of halal zones designed to help processed food exporters in the food cluster in Iksan is setting a bad precedent.

Protestors hold a rally in central Seoul on July 5, 2008, urging the government to renegotiate the agreement to resume American beef. / Korea Times photo by Sohn Yong-seok

“This sends the wrong message,” she said. “With flawed information, a small number of radical people made their voices heard and put the brakes on the key national agenda.”

Jo Young-chan, CEO of Seoul-based consulting firm Penta Global, which helps Korean companies seeking halal certification and marketing in Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern markets, said the beef and halal protests show that Koreans sometimes overreact.

“I personally think the campaign against halal zones is worse than the anti-beef protests, because the beef protests were at least based on more than just idle rumors, given that mad cow disease had been reported in the United States,” he said. “But the characterization by some Christian groups of Muslims as terrorists is totally wrong.”

Jo lamented that no politician or policymaker has dared to confront such public insanity for fear of a backlash from the religious groups. “Nobody has attempted to place a bell around the cat’s neck,” he said. “Everyone knows that the vocal Christian groups were misinformed and their arguments were wrong. But nobody raised such an issue publicly, and this has made things worse.”

Groundless stories about the possible impact of halal food zones were created and spread fast online, soon after the agricultural ministry and the two local governments announced the establishment of halal zones. For instance, one online comment stated that if the halal food zones are created, nearly 1 million Muslims will rush to Korea to do business, followed by tens of thousands of imam or Islamic religious leaders and some 7,000 Muslim butchers. The comment added that once Muslim communities are established in Iksan, Daegu and Gangwon Province, the Muslims will refuse to lead the local way of life and subsequently impose the Sharia or Islamic law on their communities. The Muslim population will grow fast until it is large enough to attempt to launch a separatist movement, which will inevitably lead to political unrest.

Jo considers these stories “goedam” or fabricated stories to stir up people to take action.

“Contrary to their speculations, there will be few or no Muslims stationed in the food zones once they are established,” Jo said. “Those facilities are for Korean exporters or companies doing business with Muslim tourists.”

Nevertheless, such fabricated anecdotal stories seem to have had an impact on many people. An elderly citizen who participated in an anti-halal zone protest in Icksan said she joined the rally to prevent her hometown from turning into a terrorist base. “I heard that once the halal food zone is in place, Islamic terrorists will come to Korea in the guise of tourists and then attack us,” she said in an interview.

Gangwon Province Governor Choi Moon-soon backed off from his energetic campaign to court Muslim tourists from Southeast Asian countries, which followed the announcement of the establishment of halal food zones in the cities of Chuncheon, Wonju, Gangneung and Pyeongchang.

“I think the concerns about the halal food zones in Gangwon Province raised by some local religious leaders are reasonable,” he said on March 24, during a CBS radio program. “So I will scrap all measures that the provincial government has taken to make it happen.”

His announcement came weeks after Daegu withdrew a similar plan to attract Muslim tourists. The southeastern city was looking at tourism as a new growth opportunity and has since sought to attract Indonesian and Malaysian tourists to help revive the sluggish local economy.

It unveiled a plan to establish halal food booths and restaurants and launch a halal certification program to help local companies seeking to expand to Middle Eastern markets. However, the announcement drew a backlash from Christian groups, and the plan was scrapped in the following week.

The scrapping of the plans for halal food zones indicate the local governments’ surrender to the vocal radical Christian groups, who alleged that the establishment of the zones will not only discriminate against other religious groups but will also make Korea vulnerable to terrorist attacks. They further alleged that an increase of the Muslim population would turn Korea into an East Asian terrorist base.

The groups’ opposition set an obstacle to the halal initiative, which became a national agenda item last year when Korea signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Arab Emirates on halal food during President Park Geun-hye’s state visit to the Middle Eastern country. The government has since encouraged Korean companies to find opportunities in the Middle East and in Southeast Asia and offered financial support for halal certification.

Local governments have jumped on the halal bandwagon to attract Muslim tourists because the lack of halal restaurants has hampered tourism.

Gangwon Governor Choi was one of the supporters of the halal initiative.

His endeavor to win over Muslim tourists’ hearts led him to have a cameo appearance in the movie “Jilbab Traveler: Love Sparks in Korea,” an Indonesian film describing a love affair between a Muslim woman and a Korean man.

In the 2016 movie, Choi plays a local resident who helps the main female character, who is lost on a scenic island in the province. Part of the movie was shot in cities in the province.

Choi also launched efforts to host the annual conference of the World Islamic Economic Forum Foundation in the province in 2017 to attract Muslim investment.

However, some Christian groups labeled Choi as a pro-Muslim governor and urged him to stop what they consider a policy of discrimination.