Islam in Korea |

I was surfing the web again as I am won’t to do and I found this short and interesting description of how Islam came to Korea. Here it is:

Islam in Korea is relatively recent, but it has an interesting history. It seems to have arrived in Korea via contact with centuries-old Chinese Islam in the 1800s, later through contact with Turkish soldiers during the Korean War, and then through Koreans who worked abroad amongst Muslims, and returned home to establish an indigenously Korean Islam. My ex-housemate (from Pusan) told me there’s a lovely mosque in her hometown, built and run mainly by Korean Muslims, while in Seoul there’s a popular mosque serving a mix of Korean and foreign-worker Muslims. (I’d love to see more photos of these places!)

Also, a fascinating bit of trivia:

One of the most dramatic instances of growth in Korean Islam is the conversion of almost the entire village of Ssang Ryung in the Kyung-gi District, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Seoul. A native of the village, Abdullah Jeun Duck Lin, embraced Islam in 1977 while teaching in a Seoul secondary school. He returned to Ssang Ryung filled with quiet fervor and shared his new faith with his relatives and neighbors. Nearly all of the village’s 123 households - some 700 people - became Muslim. Today there is a new mosque, and the village boasts an Islamic school bursting with young students. -John Lawton/AramoWorld

The Muslim Cultures group here on flickr has a lot of photos of Muslim communities around the world, many of which have a long history but are not well known… well worth checking out!

Thanks for stopping by.