Al-Azhar’s official role in South Korea, where the state fights extremism and supports Sufism

East Asia is one of the most politically and economically promising areas in the world, where the countries have strong economic capabilities and play an important role in world politics, having strong relations with various countries around the world.

The East Asian region is characterized by the fact that there are no organizations affiliated with Islamist movements, except in China, even though the region is a destination for many Muslims, both for the purpose of work or tourism. There are also a number of citizens in these countries who have converted to Islam because of its spiritual capacity that helps them in the face of life-controlling materialism.

However, there are increasing indications that the region will be the locus of Islamist radicalism due to the interest of several countries with false religious beliefs spreading their ideologies there, in addition to the actual crises facing Muslims in some of these countries, as in the case of China.

The nature of the Islamic situation in South Korea

This study reviews the nature of Islam’s status in South Korea as an attempt to uncover the situation facing Muslims there, especially since information on this field is rare in Arabic. This will also help us to understand the nature of the societies and the possibility of terrorist movements emerging in those countries.

In 2005, the South Korean state issued a statement regarding the country's religions, and Islam was not included on the list. Currently, the number of Muslims in South Korea reaches about 200,000, or about 0.4% of the population. Many of them are immigrants from Islamic countries or from countries that have a large percentage of Muslims, while others are Koreans who converted to Islam.

The low number of Muslims in South Korea is due to Koreans’ lack of knowledge of the correct Islamic rules, as well as the dominance of Islamist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS in South Korean media, which has led to a negative image of Islam. There have also been anti-Muslim campaigns by non-Muslim groups warning of the spread of halal (Islamically permissible) food and the Islamization of families through Muslims marrying Korean girls. All of these factors have contributed to increasing Koreans’ fear of Islam.

Despite this, South Korea has eight mosques and a few Islamic centers spread throughout the country, including in Seoul, Busan and other areas. These mosques and centers allow non-Muslims to enter in order to learn about their activities, but they are expected to wear appropriate clothing as these are religious institutions.

According to official reports, the South Korean government, aiming to attract more Muslim tourists, has spent 200 million South Korean won ($175,000) to create suitable places for Muslims to pray at tourist areas, in the form of rooms designed as mosques.

Arab contributions

Some Arab countries have contributed to the spread of Islam in South Korea, such as Saudi Arabia, which provided educational grants to the first generation of Korean Muslims. This was the case with Abdul Rahman Lee Ju Hwa, the first South Korean imam, who studied Islam at the Islamic University of Madinah as part of a Saudi mission.

Saudi Arabia has not only provided scholarships but has also contributed to the spread of Islam through the construction of mosques, such as the Seoul Central Mosque, which is located in the center of the South Korean capital. Completed in 1976, it was the first mosque to be built in South Korea.

The mosque houses the Prince Sultan Islamic School on the second and third floors, which is supervised by the Islamic Research Center and offers religious services in three languages: Arabic, English and Korean. The mosque also includes a meeting hall.

South Korea’s second mosque, the Busan Al-Fatah Mosque, was built in 1980 through Libyan financial support provided by Libya’s finance minister at the time. Next to the mosque’s prayer hall are held computer lessons, Arabic and English lessons, and Islamic lessons to teach the general public and Muslims in particular about the religion.

The mosque is the only Muslim center in Busan and the largest Islamic center in the country’s northeast, so it therefore serves several provinces in the region and is visited by 25,000 Muslims every year. The center plays several roles, with a mosque for men on the second floor and another for women on the third floor, as well as a Turkish restaurant for halal food.

There are several other Islamic centers in South Korea that are controlled by several countries or international organizations, such as the Minhaj Islamic Center in the northwestern city Suwon, which was established through the organization Minhaj-ul-Quran International that is supervised by Pakistani Sufi Dr. Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri.

Al-Azhar’s presence

Minhaj-ul-Quran International has a close relationship with the World Association of Al-Azhar Graduates, where it oversees the association's branch in Pakistan, which was inaugurated in 2010 under the auspices of the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb, who was serving as president of Al-Azhar University at the time. The aim of the organization is to spread Al-Azhar’s philosophy around the world through its students in various countries.

The center publishes and disseminates various religious lessons held there, such as Quran classes that are broadcast live, and it also broadcasts the lessons of sheikhs belonging to the World Association of Al-Azhar Graduates throughout various countries around the world. This indicates that the center is working to guard South Korea from extremist ​​thought through Sufi ideas.

The Muslim Student Association in Korea (MSAK) is a non-profit organization that includes students at various educational levels and aims to connect these Muslim students to each other. It also organizes lectures on Islam and its various sciences in order to present correct religious knowledge to Muslims. It offers Arabic, English and Korean lessons, as well as academic courses such as writing scientific papers. It also hosts scholars from different countries and is active on social media platforms.

Although it is difficult to determine the philosophical direction of MSAK, as it is not clearly stated, we are able to identify the nature of the scholars it hosts, such as Dr. Anis Mohammed, the first dean of the Faculty of Theology at the International Islamic University in Pakistan, where Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb had previously worked and which is linked through solid knowledge-based relations with Al-Azhar University and Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh.

MSAK also conducts some charitable activities, which differs from other associations in the area. It clearly declares through its official pages the nature of these activities and the beneficiaries, even showing different pictures of the events. One such event raised funds for Yemeni citizens who have suffered from the scourge of the Yemeni war.

There is also the Islamic Center of Daejeon (ICD), which is located in the central city of Daejeon, South Korea’s fifth largest city. The center does not show much information about the nature of its funding, but it is interested in the dissemination of religious traditions in Arabic, English and Korean on its official Facebook page, as well as live-broadcasts of religious lessons in Korean held at the center.

The center's importance comes from the fact that the city is filled with world-renowned universities and research institutes and is therefore a destination for students from Islamic countries. The center is concerned with providing places of prayer, halal food options, and financial and material aid for these students to help facilitate their lives in South Korea.

It is noteworthy that the center also posts pictures of famous Egyptian mosques and religious monuments on its official Facebook page. This shows how the mosques and religious centers in South Korea are impacted by the Egyptian Islamic thought emanating from Al-Azhar.

South Korea could be aware of the danger of radical Islamist groups and extremist ideas, and thus has allowed the spread of moderate Islamic centers and mosques that rely on the ideas of Al-Azhar, the lighthouse of moderation in the Islamic world. It does this either through groups associated with Al-Azhar or by allowing individuals who have studied at Al-Azhar to take responsibility for the education of Muslims in the country.

Moreover, allowing a Sufi-based organization to be legally present in South Korea points to the state's understanding of the centrality of Sufi thought in countering the extremist ideas of radical groups, as Sufism is dominated by spirituality, acceptance of the other, and the rejection of making takfir on society or citizens.

South Korea has also actively contributed to providing of a good communal environment for Muslims, whether they are newly converted citizens or immigrants from abroad. This is evident by the state’s support for building the country’s first mosque.