Al-Qaeda In Korea?

Suspected al-Qaida Member Visited Korea (Hat tip: evariste at discarded lies)

SEOUL (Yonhap) - South Korea went on a high alert as a suspected al-Qaida member from Pakistan sneaked into Seoul last month, police said.

The Pakistani man, 46, stayed in South Korea from June 23 to July 3 after receiving a tourist visa from the Korean Embassy in Thailand, said officials at the National Police Agency.

The man, identified only as A, is staying in Malaysia after a stopover in Thailand, an agency official said.

The South Korean police are cooperating with their Thai and Pakistani counterparts and Interpol to verify the identity of the man, the official said.

I would not be terribly surprised if Islamic terrorists targeted South Korea. For one, S. Korea is a long-time close ally of the United States and sent troops to Iraq. Secondly, some 70% of S. Koreans are Christians—and they tend to be fervent. In fact, S. Koreans have been evangelizing the Middle East in large numbers in the last couple of years.

When I was in S. Korea during the spring of ’04, I stumbled upon Seoul’s single Islamic “neighborhood” located in the Itaewan section. These were my impressions at the time:

… we walked up a steep hill. I noticed a huge chunk of Shwarma being cooked on a vertical spit, roasting meat Middle Eastern style. There were two guys standing there; one had a thick unibrow that only a man from the Middle East could sport. They were Turks and seemed friendly enough even though I declined to buy their product. We continued walking up the road and turned a corner. I saw a thickly bearded Pakistani wearing salwar kameez. I saw another Pakistani and then noticed Arabic script on a sign. Were it not for sporadic splashes of Hangool (Korean script), it felt like I could have been entering Pashawar or Quetta, Pakistan. And that would really suck, by the way… A second after that I looked up to see the magnificent facade of a Mosque, which I am dubbing "Al-Masjid Al-Seoul." It was made of light blue, intricately decorated tiles; like something you'd see in Isfahan or Samarkand. The rest of the structure was 'normal' in that only the facade was the decorated part. In the area there were numerous stores selling halal (Kosher for Muslims) meat and even a "Pakistani and Arab" restaurant… Within a few meters we were back in good 'ol Korean Seoul. There were various little shops selling medicinal herbs, huge chunks of cinnamon, squid jerky (I think—I’ll have to buy some and try it) and big slabs of dog breast- just kidding.

Just as I was about to return home, a S. Korean national was kidnapped by terrorists in Iraq and decapitated, despite his anguished pleas for mercy. A fairly large cadre of police were later required to protect Itaewan’s Muslims from the wrath of pissed off Koreans. The two Koreas are perhaps the most ethnically homogenous countries in the world. Korean society is very different from that of politically correct, multi-cultural British society. Koreans are also extremely emotional. If there is an Islamic terrorist bombing in S. Korea, well, let’s just say I wouldn’t want to be a Muslim living there. As our own relationship with the two Koreas shows, Koreans are capable of being your best friends or your worst enemies.