S. Korean soldiers convert to Islam before Iraq tour<\/p>\n
Kim Kyoung-hoon
\nand Choi Yoon-sang
\nReuters\/Seoul<\/p>\n
South Korea's 35,000-strong Muslim community gained 37 new
\nconverts on Friday when officers and enlisted soldiers destined
\nfor a tour of duty in Iraq were admitted to the faith in a
\nceremony at Seoul's main mosque.<\/p>\n
South Korea, where Buddhism is the most common religion and
\nChristianity has grown rapidly, has pledged to send 3,000 troops
\nto help reconstruction in Iraq. About 650 South Korean army
\nmedics and engineers have served in the country for a year.<\/p>\n
\"You are reborn as believers and believers are true human
\nbeings,\" Sulaiman Lee Haeng-lae Imam told the new converts at the
\nSeoul mosque, one of five in a country of 48 million people.<\/p>\n
Sulaiman, a South Korean leading the congregation in Seoul,
\nsaid the men's decision to convert to Islam will go a long way
\ntoward helping their 3,000-strong contingent become accepted by
\nIraqis once it is deployed.<\/p>\n
\"The Iraqis could become your friends for eternity,\" Sulaiman
\ntold the new converts after he received oaths from the soldiers.<\/p>\n
A public affairs officer attached to the unit, Capt. Lee Yun-
\nse, said many of the 37 new converts had some background in Arab
\nculture, including Arabic language study in college and travel to
\nthe Middle East.<\/p>\n
All 3,000 soldiers in the contingent took courses on Arabic
\nculture and customs to help them fit in in Iraq.<\/p>\n
\"The 37 soldiers then volunteered to learn more about Islam at
\nthe Seoul mosque and then converted out of faith,\" Lee said.<\/p>\n
The troops of the Zayitun unit -- the Arabic word for \"olive\"
\n-- are awaiting orders to ship out to northern Iraq to help
\nmaintain peace and rebuild the country.<\/p>\n
But seven months after a pledge by President Roh Moo-hyun and
\nthree months after parliamentary approval, the government has yet
\nto officially announce where they will be deployed and when.<\/p>\n
A team of liaison officers will leave soon for Iraq to
\ncoordinate logistics and operations with the Coalition
\nProvisional Authority and local leaders, the defense ministry
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
In the face of small protests and calls by members of
\nparliament to scrap the deployment, the government has said it
\nwill still go forward.<\/p>\n
The 37 new Muslims boosted to 41 the number of Muslims in the
\nIraq-bound contingent. The other four are military interpreters
\ndrawn from the country's Muslim community.<\/p>\n
\"There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah, and
\nMohammed is his messenger,\" each of the 37 soldiers recited and
\nin return received a copy of the Koran.<\/p>\n
They were completing a crash course on the religion, a mosque
\nofficial said, finishing in 10 days what can take up to six
\nmonths.<\/p>\n
South Korea's defense ministry barred the soldiers from
\nspeaking to the media covering the ceremony.<\/p>\n
South Korea is home to another 70,000 Muslims from outside the
\ncountry, primarily from Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n
First introduced to the country by Turkish soldiers who fought
\nin the 1950-53 Korean War against North Korean aggression, Islam
\nhas had a small but steady following until in recent years the
\nnumber swelled with an influx of foreign workers.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/s-korean-soldiers-convert-to-islam-before-iraq-tour-1447899208",
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