Social media personality Daud Kim (real name Kim Jae Han, 김재한) recently took to his official YouTube page to share his thoughts on the various reasons why there are not many Muslims in his home country, South Korea.
At the beginning of the clip, the former K-pop singer stated that there are about 40,000 Muslims in Korea (0.1% of its total population), much to his surprise, as he assumed the numbers were less than that.
For those curious, here are his reasons for the aforementioned:
1. Lifestyle factors. Daud shared that a Muslim’s lifestyle is different from how Koreans live. “For example, Muslims pray five times a day, they don’t consume pork and alcohol and they don’t practise any Korean rituals and traditions,” said the content creator.
2. The people in the country are too competitive. He reasons that most Koreans are always trying to outdo each other when it comes to having “a good car, a stable job, a comfortable house”. That is apparently how they measure success in life.
3. There are not many mosques in Korea. According to Daud, despite the interest among locals and foreigners in Islam, there are not many venues for them to properly learn about the religion. “It’s difficult to learn how to pray and how to live as a Muslim, so, that’s not easy,” said Daud.
4. Lack of information. As pointed out by Daud himself, “There aren’t too much nor in-depth information about Islam. Sometimes there are distorted and wrong information created by anti-Islam groups.”
5. Negative depiction of Islam by the media. “When we search about Islam in Korea, you can only find controversial topics such as human rights, the war, and also terrorism,” shared Daud. He also added that when Koreans read or watch news with regards to Islam, they will perceive the religion as dangerous.
6. A minor group of Korean Muslims themselves. In this case, Daud shared that some Korean Muslims sometimes shun those who just converted to the religion. “Some even threatened me to quit Islam. They even came up with a statement that Korean Muslims should cancel Daud Kim,” recalled the famous YouTuber.
Despite all the negative vibes surrounding the situation, Daud emphasised that there’s no need for Muslims to fight with each other. To quote Daud on the clip, “Islam is a religion of peace. We, as brothers and sisters, support and embrace each other. We must work together to develop Islam in Korea.”
For those interested, watch the full video here:
