asianlayleaders.com – When discussing Korea’s religious characteristics, it is usually emphasized that it was a historically multi-religious society. In addition to this, a number of migrants, including migrant workers from Southeast Asia, have migrated from around a generation ago, adding to the characteristics of a multicultural society. As of 2023, multi-religion and multi-culturalism are becoming a common social phenomenon in Korean society in the era of 2 million immigrants. This is also confirmed by the Korean government’s understanding of religions. According to the Religious Studies Curriculum Guidelines revised by the Ministry of Education in 2015, Religious Studies is “a subject to develop the perspective and attitude to reflect on oneself on knowledge, experience, and life related to religion in a multi-religious and multi-cultural society.” Broadly speaking, the reality is that great religions such as Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism were born in Asia and still have a great influence on the lives of ordinary people as major cultural patterns are a distinctive feature of Asia as a whole. Even in East Asian countries, the influence of shamanism, which is more fundamental and basic so much so that Korea could be made more ‘Korean’ in fusion with Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, is still great.
Two important facts emerge here. First, the reality of multi-religion and multi-culture is the importance of shared historical experiences such as tension and conflict between religions, reconciliation, and coexistence between religions in East Asia and Korea. Through this, they have learned their own wisdom and ways to understand and coexist with the differences between religions in the multi-religious reality. Second, contrary to such tradition, although multi-religion and multi-culturalism are an undeniable current ‘fact’ in modern Korean society, there is a tendency toward inter-religious tension and conflicts rather than peaceful coexistence. This is very worrying. In particular, as the number of immigrants from Southeast Asia increases in recent years, the phenomenon of hatred against Islam is creating sharp conflicts in Korean society.
Last time, through this newsletter, I introduced the conflict between Muslim believers and local residents over the construction of a mosque in Daegu as one of the Islamophobic phenomena occurring in Korean society. (See the newsletter in March 2022) It’s been more than one year since then, but the situation has not improved and rather got worse.
Here’s a brief retelling of the story. Muslim students attending Kyungpook National University each saved up a little bit of money and started construction of the mosque in December 2020. When residents found out about this belatedly and opposed it, the local District Office in Daegu issued an administrative order to stop the construction. The building owner and civic groups filed a lawsuit to withdraw the administrative order, and following the first and second trials, the case was finally won in the Supreme Court in September of that year.
However, some residents who formed an emergency response committee placed pig heads in front of the construction site targeting Muslim students and held a pork party in time for prayer. Recently, even two live pigs appeared in front of the mosque construction site. Of course, this is to oppose the construction by exploiting the fact that pigs are taboo animals for Muslims.
On May 20, conservative Protestant forces held a rally against the mosque in downtown Daegu with 1,500 people. It was the largest rally organized to antagonize Muslims. With next year’s general elections in mind, it must be an attempt to expand support through the issue of opposition to the construction of this mosque in Daegu. Far-right Protestant groups and pastors were the main players, and according to, one of the major and progressive newspapers, they were exposed as a “fake news factory” that systematically produced and spread fake news about homosexuals, refugees, and Muslims.
Although multiculturalism is a reality in Korea, one of the main reasons why this problem cannot be solved is the problem of fundamentalism and exclusivism spreading in religion, especially Korean Protestantism. Even when the Muslims negotiate with the residents, they confess that they are experiencing severe difficulties due to the obstruction of these ultra-conservative Protestants. Therefore, in order to dispel Islamophobia in Korean society, efforts must be made to subdue the fundamentalism that is prevalent among religious circles, especially Catholics and Protestants, accept multi-religious and multi-cultural phenomena and reality as what’s actually happening now, and keep them into their religious beliefs. However, it should not stop at simply acknowledging multiculturalism as a phenomenon but move toward interculturalism that aims for communication and exchange with other religious cultures.
Interculturalism emerged in the late 1990s as an alternative discourse to overcome the limitations of multiculturalism. While multiculturalism affirms the parallel coexistence of various cultures by focusing on the recognition of diversity, interculturalism regards coexistence without interaction between different cultures as a problem to be overcome. In other words, interculturalism pays attention to the dynamic nature of culture and regards culture as an entity that constantly changes through the interaction and interaction of different cultures. Learn through mutual relationships and interactions. Thus, interculturalism encourages ‘contact’ or ‘encounter’ between different cultures. In other words, the creation of a common culture or an open public arena and alternative discourses and practices aimed at new social integration can be called interculturalism. It sounds easy in theory, but in practice, it is very difficult. However, it should be borne in mind that peace between religions and cultures can be achieved when Asian Christianity plays an important and major role in harmony and reconciliation rather than hatred and conflict. That could be the new direction of interreligious dialogue and cooperation among all the religions in Asia today.*
By: Dr. Paul Hwang (ALL Forum Director)