KJC Korea
Journal Central

The prejudice of Islamophobia did not suddenly appear after the terrors of 9/11 2001. It has had long and deep historical roots. In November 1997, the Runnymede Report, Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All launched in the UK launched discussions in public and studies in academic level as well. According to Runnymede, “Islamophobia refers to unfounded hostility towards Islam. It refers also to the practical consequences of such hostility in unfair discrimination against Muslim individuals and communities, and to the exclusion of Muslims from mainstream political and social affairs.” Chris Allen insists that there are three different components of Islamophobia; 1) Islamophobia is an ideology, 2) it operates and functions in the public and privates spaces through a vast range of different actions, and 3) it performs as exclusionary practices against Islam and Muslim, including prejudice, discrimination, and vandalism and so on. One of prejudices of Islamophobia is monolithic view towards Islam and Muslim, although there are huge diversities among them. Muslims in Europe and the US have lived in different social and economic settings. Terrorists based on Islam like IS kill many Muslim themselves. In South Korea, the diversity of Muslims is growing as the population of them is increasing caused by the influx of immigrated labor population. Like the case of tragic accidents in France in 2015, most media only focus on religion of people who committed terror or massacre rather than deal with fundamental issues like discrimination which Muslims have to face daily lives. They are excluded and marginalized in a wider society of Europe. The sense of Islamophobia is increasing in Korea in relation to growing immigrant workers, terrors in the globe, and prejudice of the mass media. Since Christians experiences the unconditional love and grace of Jesus Christ, we need to view them in different ways compared to ordinary people. Like Jesus who talked to a woman in Samaria called Sychar, Christians should talk with them without prejudice so that they may get an opportunity to be introduced to the Kingdom of God.

Some says that the best way to overcome ‘Islam phobia’ is the ‘fact-check.’ This paper suggests another factor, ‘self-check’ of Christians.’ It seems that ‘Islam phobia in Korea’ has some uniqueness coupled with Christianity. Christians have phobia to Islam’s challenge, and citizens blames on Christians’ Islam phobia because of some moral fails. In other words, it appears as ‘Islam phobia-Anti Christianity.’ It needs to be studied on the solution for this perplexity. That’s the point of self-check of Christians. In this meaning, this paper delves into the meaning of reformation for moral horizon of church from the perspective of M. Luther and J. Calvin. Luther’s experiences of facing with Turks and Islam during 16~17th centuries to be good cases for coping with the Islam phobia of our times. Luther’s basic in this issue is the Gospel. He required double tasks of Christians as the inner and outer struggles. Inner struggle means the repentance of Christians, outer warfare is to defend to the Turks’ invasion. Luther’s insight of biblical self-check for overcoming the phobia of Turks and Islam would be a meaningful guide for Christians in Korea. In addition to Luther’s perspective, also the insight of J. Calvin has important meaning. Calvin taught double attitudes of pointing out the error of Islam and evangelizing the Muslim. Calvin’s insight would be an useful guide for Christians who have some severe phobia to Islam. Based on these insights, there are two tasks of being a Christian and corresponding peace-making. In short, ‘fact-check’(to Islam phobia) and ‘self-check’(for biblical faith) should be the most important attitudes to Islam phobia of Christians in Korea.

Islamophobia has tended to be present among Christians in Korea. Phobia is a pathological form of fear, which often easily captivates people"s emotion and behaviors. Extreme fear causes us Christians to risk the traditional virtues such as hospitality, peacemaking, generosity, and more importantly evangelistic love. The Korean society has been faced with the "rush of Muslims" who mostly come as laborers from Middle East and Africa in recent times. This paper begins with exploration into the background reasons of islamophobia among Korean Christians. First, it may stem from the historical rival relationship between Christianity and Islam dating back to the Middle Ages in Middle East and Africa. Expecially, there is suspicion that it is Muslims that have tried to persecute and conquer Christians. Second, Muslims are often and wrongly regarded as responsible for the growing terrorism. Third, there is some worried awareness that Islam targets Korea for Islamic mission with systemic strategies. Also, the global world in the twenty first century has been suffering from the increase of terrorism, and there is widespread impression that most terrorist attacks are connected to Islam fundamentalism. Fourth, I suspect that islamophobia may not be generated in part by the Korean church"s struggle with its internal crisis and attempts to overcome it. This paper then deals with the Christian and missional approaches to the culture of fear. To begin with, we need to have a larger perspective that contemporary Korean society easily generates the culture of fear among populace. Then this paper proposes the Christian approach to fear and phobia with. For example, fear needs be in a right place, that is, to fear God, not anything else. Also, fear is other side of the same coin. On the basis of this understanding we can think of the ways in which we develop the missional attitude towards Muslims without falling into a phobia. In conclusion, I offer three evangelistic principles for Korean Christians as we try to overcome islamophobia. The first is an evangelism of hospitality which guides us in seeing Muslims as strangers who need to be welcomed and placed in our society. We need to be reminded that it is more than often that strangers give us wisdom and growth. Above all, the main reason why we practice hospitality is because God has been hospitable towards us. Thus it is our prime duty to do hospitality in order to follow God"s will and character. The second is peacemaking evangelism, which will humble us to be more gentle and understanding towards those who are different from us. As St. Francis showed a peacemaking evangelism to a Sultan during a crusade campaign, we need to seriously consider an way in which we can share the gospel with Muslims peacefully and respectfully. A preconceived judgment or suspicion of them may run the risk of breaking peace between Christians and Muslims. Third, while pursuing hospitality and peacemaking, we need to endeavor a proper evangelism which promotes Christian faith. However, this evangelism needs to be understandable and contextual to Muslims. We can develop a common ground for a missional dialogue since Islamic faith shares in common with Christianity such as the use of the Bible, Jesus the prophet, and monotheism. This would give us apologetic strategic points, although there are significant differences between Christianity and Islam. I would call his evangelistic principel "emphatic evangelism" if it is added to hospitality and peacemaking.

The meaning of Halal in Islam is an object or action which is permissible to use or engage in their religious and daily lives in accordance with Islamic law. Haram has an opposite meaning and accordingly it is often described as a forbidden action which is unlawful and against Islamic Scriptures. The principles deriving from Halal and Haram are important for Muslims and they are obliged to abide by those principles in their daily lives because they are based on the Scriptures in Quran. These principles are applied to the dietary life of Muslims as the meaning of food in their life represents not only the cultural peculiarities of the Islam but also the unique identity in their social relationship. For this reason, Islamic food (Halal food) can be expressed as the cultural and social identity of Muslims. Most of Muslims accept that the concept of Islam represents their distinctive religious, cultural, political and social life. Having Halal food, therefore, is quite understandable as a standard of life from a perspective of Islamic world. It permeates their everyday lives. Along with unexpected increase of Muslim’s population since the 1990s in South Korea, Muslim’s population reached more than 200 thousand including traditional Korean Muslims who were born and grew in South Korea. These Muslims in South Korea have tended to keep Islamic principles including Halal food although South Korea is not an Islamic country. Because of this tendency, these Muslims have experienced the conflicts between their Islamic principle and Korean standard of living based on its culture in respect of dietary life. These conflicts can be divided into two classifications i.e., internal and external conflicts. An internal conflict is resulted from Muslim’s adaption process to Korean culture because Muslims likely feel difficult to adapt to Korean food and its culture. An External conflict is resulted from the circumstances where Muslims and non Muslims encounter each other in Korean context given that non-Muslims likely do not understand Halal food. With the rapid growth of Korean Muslim’s population despite it being minority group, South Korean central and local governments announced a policy, particularly, regarding Islamic food. It has resulted in significant cultural complexity regarding Islam in South Korea. In fact, there have been external conflicts and social controversies after the policy announcement in January 2016. In response, the central and local governments decided to withdraw its policy related to Islamic food taking into account growing tensions resulted from external conflicts and social controversies thereby. Nevertheless, Koreans will continue to face these conflicts and social controversies given that Korean Muslim’s population continues to rise. In this context, we need to pay close attention to these conflicts from a perspective of Christian mission. In terms of Christian mission, we need to become a witness of gospel. As a witness of gospel, we can help them. In other words, we can assist Muslims to overcome their internal conflicts by inviting them to our life and sharing our food culture. In this way, the conflicts can be reduced, and as a result Muslims and non-Muslims can be more harmonized in terms of Christian mission without adversarial confrontations with respect to Halal food. All of this is possible through Christian mission when we become a witness of gospel.

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