Anti-Islam protest derails plan for Muslim prayer rooms

The Gangneung City Office, with the Korea Tourism Organization and the Gangwon Provincial Government, designed the “mobile prayer room” for Muslims visiting the city for the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games. / Courtesy of Korea Tourism Organization

By Ko Dong-hwan

Gangneung’s plan to introduce prayer rooms for Muslim visitors to the PyeongChang Winter Olympics opening Friday has been halted in the face of strong criticism from a South Korea’s anti-Muslim group.

The plan for two container-style prayer rooms hit a snag after the civic group drew over 56,000 people to its website opposing the idea.

Titled “Crowd signature campaign against introducing Muslim prayer rooms for PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games,” the site stated nine reasons why the plan should not be put into practice. It said it is unfair to use South Korean citizens’ taxes to support a certain religion, excluding other religious groups such as Buddhists and Catholics.

“The plan was pushed by the Gangwon provincial government and the Olympic organizing committee, which ignored the provincial citizens who had strongly rejected the region’s previous plans to employ a Sharia financial system, halal towns and halal butcheries,” the fifth clause said. “It is a biased decision that will divide the citizens.”

The clauses were stark in expressing the group’s concerns about “fundamental Muslims” who need careful monitoring. The last clause stated that preparing the prayer rooms was “not in line with various international governments’ movement of stringent screening of extreme Muslims.”

The Gangwon Provincial Citizens’ Association for the Anti-Islam Campaign told The Korea Times it was deeply concerned the country was turning a blind eye to Islamic movements affecting not just the city but the whole country. One of the association’s executives, who wished to remain anonymous, said that based on how Muslims have been influential in European countries, it could be the same in South Korea.

“Gangwon Province Governor Choi Moon-soon, who took over the office in 2014, was burdened with a huge debt,” the executive said. “For three years, he extensively communicated with Middle Eastern nations. We supposed his moves derived from a motive to induce investment in our province to clear the debts.”

The executive mentioned the 9th World Islamic Economic Forum in London in 2013, which she claimed the city hosted to let in Muslim investments. This led to changes in the city’s legal system, introducing Sharia courts for Muslims. She was also concerned about South Korea’s Muslim population that increased to 930,000 in 2017.

“We saw what extreme Islamic terrorists did to their enemies in England, Germany, France, Belgium and other European countries,” she said. “We felt threatened by them.”

The mobile prayer rooms, planned by the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), the Gangwon Provincial Government and the Gangneung City Office, were to have been seven meters long, 2.8 meters wide and 3.3 meters high. They were to have air conditioning and heating and a separate space for washing feet. Each room was estimated to cost 40 million won ($36,800).

“The group members kept calling on our Asia-Middle East team to give up the plan,” KTO public relations department chief Kim Yeong-ju told The Korea Times. “The members seemed to have shared contact numbers of the Gangneung City Office and our organization.”

The group started its anti-Muslim activities after news reports of the prayer rooms in early January.

An online site shared by group members said: “Just as our bodies weaken when they are defenseless against germs infiltrating our bodies, we, as the church armies, must arise. Unless we do, we and our descendants will have to pay the price.”

The tourism organization said the prayer rooms were designed to accommodate not just Muslims, who need to pray five times a day, but those with other religious beliefs, therefore “not specifically catering to Muslims as argued by the anti-Muslim association,” according to NewsNJoy.