Info on Islam in Korea

Taken from
http://world.kbs.co.kr/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Korea

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The first Koreans to be exposed to Islam were Korean laborers who were forcibly

relocated to Manchuria during the Japanese colonial rule. A few of them came in

contact with the Muslims in the area and adopted the religion. However, the real

evangelization of the Islamic faith took place during the Korean War when Turkish

troops were dispatched to Korea. In 1955 the Korean Islam Association was founded

to elect the nation’s first Korean imam. Then, in the 1970s, a mosque was built in

Hannam-dong, Seoul, followed by a series of mosque constructions in Busan, Daegu,

Jeonju and other local cities. As of late 2007, the Islamic population in Korea is

estimated to be around 140,000.



In South Korea, the Muslim population has been steadily increasing since the

introduction of the Islamic faith shortly after the Korean War. The Muslim

(both Korean and foreign born) community is centered around Seoul, where the first

large 20th-century mosque was built in 1976 using the funds of the Malaysian Islamic

Mission and other Islamic countries.



In addition to the 45,000 indigenous Korean Muslims, there has been a slow but

evident growth of South Asian (Bangladeshi and Pakistani), Middle Eastern

(i.e. Iranian and Iraqi) and Malaysian immigration to South Korea, the majority being

Muslims, during the 1990s and 2000s, usually arriving as guest workers to the country.

There are more than 100,000 foreign workers from Muslim countries,[1] particularly

Bangladesh and Pakistan.[2] In total, there are up to 200,000 Muslims in Korea.[3]

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