Omnes Sancti et Sanctæ Coreæ, orate pro nobis.

Now Blogging Afresh at Ad Orientem 西儒 - The Western Confucian



Thursday, May 27, 2004

Islam in Korea

Re: South Korea: Islam is this country's fastest growing religion. (Thanks to weblog@orankay for the link.)

While that may sound staggering or alarming, depending on your point of view, the numbers are so small that the article doesn't mention them. (As a point of comparison, recently Wicca was cited as the fastest growing religion in the United States.) As far as I know, 35,000 Koreans practice Islam, which was introduced to the nation by Turkish troops during the Korean War.

What is really amazing is the growth of Chrsitianity, particularly Catholicism, in Korea, which has the world's highest per capita adult baptism rate. Korea also has the highest number of saints per capita Catholic, if I'm not mistaken. The 1000 (one thousand) adult believers from Pohang (pop. 500,000) who will be confirmed with me by the Archbishop of Daegu in a stadium on June 6th testify to the growth and depth of the Catholic Faith in Korea.

That said, I'd rather see Koreans convert to Islam than remain in the darkness of non-belief (무교 - 無敎). At least then they'd become spiritual children of Abraham (Ibrahim) and be honoring the Creator.