Protests intensify in South Korea over construction of court-approved mosque

Seoul: Pig heads and signs with hateful words against Muslims were displayed in front of an under construction mosque in South Korea’s Daegu city. The incident drew ire of rights activists and Muslim students who described it as an “Islamophobic act”. What happened? Recently, a big pork barbecue was organised by the “Daegu Anti-Mosque Committee” barely metres away from an under construction mosque in Daegu, which is one of the largest cities in South Korea where Muslim students from nearby Kyungppok University often gather in large numbers. During the event, pig heads were placed on stools at an alley outside the mosque construction site, a report by SCMP quoted Mian Muaz Razaq, a representative of Muslim students at the university saying. Students reportedly go to the site to pray passing through the alley where the pig head was placed every day. They had found this installation a dubious reference to Islam’s ban on eating pork. There has been rise in similar kind of incidents at the mosque construction site in Daegu. The first one was on 27 October, followed by another of 14 November and the third incident on 6 December when a pig’s head was placed on a chair in front of the mosque. Hateful words against Muslims Signs with hateful words against Muslims were also put up at the under construction mosque site. A banner that was put up on the wall of a home next to the construction site read, “We’ll fight against the mosque construction till our last breath.” There were pigs’ feet and tails seen strung along the wall of the house. Denouncing the act of the locals as “pure Islamophobia”, Razaq said, “They held rallies against Islam, they called us terrorists, they hung banners against our religion, they distributed hate pamphlets against Muslims in our area, what can these acts be called? This is pure Islamophobia.” Muslims in Daegu Since 2014, Muslim students had been meeting in Daegu to pray in a two-storey house that served as a cultural and religious centre that they used as a mosque. Towards the end of 2020, they obtained an administrative nod to properly transform this centre into a real mosque. But since then, they have been facing opposition from people residing in the neighbourhood who regularly protest to block the construction work. Razaq says relations with the neighbours were “quite good” before the construction of the mosque started in 2021. “In the beginning, some of us were called terrorists when we met the demonstrators. They covered the site with anti-Islamic signs and distributed flyers with Islamophobic messages in the streets. It calmed down a bit after the South Korean Human Rights Commission (in October 2021) ruled that this form of protest was discriminatory,” a report by France24 quoted Razaq as saying. However, in the last few months, the people who are against the construction of the mosque have started to play loud music during prayer time, or put pig heads in front of the mosque, he alleged. He further said that students who went to pray were shocked after seeing pigs’ heads. “It’s not just because it’s a pig’s head, it could have been any animal, apart from the religious dimension, it’s quite violent to be confronted with that, to put that in front of someone’s house,” Razaq added.

The pork BBQ party has started in front of the mosque construction site in Daegu's Daehyeon-dong. Pig heads are on display, and a whole pork roast is being cooked. The meat is being carved and distributed to locals for lunch. pic.twitter.com/DmUP7xTWEM

— Raphael Rashid (@koryodynasty) December 15, 2022

The Muslim student further said opponents have argued in the Korean press saying that it was a tradition. He questioned, “Why they doing it in front of the mosque? And if it’s such a widespread tradition, how come I’ve never seen this in the three years I have lived in South Korea?” Korean press spoke with several residents who rejected any accusation of Islamophobia and argued that they just do not want to see a religious building in the heart of their neighbourhood, as it would threaten their privacy because of traffic and noise generated. Razaq however did not seem convinced by the claims of the locals and said, “Even if they say it is not Islamophobia, their actions speak for themselves.” “Why then don’t they say anything about the huge church next door? They also complain a lot about the smell and the noise. But having a finished, modern mosque, unlike what we have today, would change all that,” he added. ‘Remove pig heads immediately’ A group of local human rights activists have urged the UN Special Rapporteur on religious freedom to ask South Korea’s central and local government officials to intervene to prohibit the residents’ obstruction of the mosque construction work and “remove the pig heads immediately”. In the petition to the UN Special Rapporteur, it was also requested to recommend the government and local authorities to publicly condemn all forms of discrimination based on a particular religion or race, conduct education on the duty of religious neutrality and anti-racism for all public officials of Daegu City, and remedy all damage. Meanwhile, city officials said they had no authority to clear the pig heads without consent from residents as they were useful items bought by people. Notably in February, local residents objected to the construction of the mosque. A petition signed by more than 10,000 people was submitted to the Daegu Buk-gu district office in February 2021, calling for the project to be stopped. They said the proposed mosque would create noise, crowd the narrow alley and undermine the neighbourhood’s real estate value as potential buyers and tenants would turn away from an area frequented by Muslims. Following the petition, the local government ordered an immediate halt to the construction. The Muslim students then moved Daegu District Court which nullified the construction halt order and the ruling was affirmed by the Supreme Court in September this year. But, residents continue to demonstrate the construction of the mosque. Muslims in South Korea According to the Korea Muslim Federation, the number of Muslims in the country is estimated to be around 200,000, or 0.4 per cent of the 52 million population. Notably, South Korea has no official state religion. In the 2015 census, 28 per cent of South Koreans said they belonged to Christianity, while another 15.5 per cent described themselves as Buddhist. Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.