Can Islam dominate China, Korea, and Japan in the future?

When you look at the conditions of success for the spread of Islam rather than the opinion of people about pork belly, rice wine and beer or even atheism then you can see why success is unlikely in North Asia.

It is the basic responsibility of all Muslims to pray, live life based around the word spoken by Prophet Mohamed, to under take the Haj if possible and to convert other people they meet to Islam and I do not mean by by force as is the current IS/AQI abhorrence.

So Islam thrived in SE Asia and for a time in China at the height of the Silk Road trade to Turkey, India, Persia etc (hence the millions of current Chinese Muslims the Hui which reflect that historical fact). Islam thrived at a time of change in Asia and it was grown and fostered by individual Arab / Muslim traders who were as people wealthy successful, religiously and culturally tolerant, highly educated and literate, they had qualities to be respected and they worked from the merchant class inwards and the top down, those conditions dont exists in 2017, what is being exported is Wahhabism, punitive, intolerant, bad for women and girls, anti scientific, against social progress for segments of society, violent to non Sunnis, not attractive to high developed societies like Japan Korea and China.

The other conditions where Islam thrives and is very attractive is, were there is an absence of law and order, when civic government is weak, where corruption is high and education is poor. This is because Islam has an amazing civil and legal code contained in one document the Koran. The Koran is backed by Haddith and many other easy to understand and accessible rulings, it offers a highly structured alternative to poor Govt. The quality of this guide to life is party why Islamic conservatism and even extremism is on the rise in some parts of S.E. Asia, because when central Govt fails trusted preachers can step in with a system that every body knows and can read or understand, look at the civic governance in remote parts of Indonesia, South Thailand, Ache, Myanmar and of course the Southern Philippines, these unstable conditions dont exist for the most part in China, Korea and Japan, there is no avenue for Islam as an alternative path to stability and law and order this way in North Asia.

You hear a lot of people dissing the Chinese or Korean Govts but the fact there is strong Govt and for most people a rule of law and a working civil code, sure its not perfect but its more perfect than Mosel, Mindanao, Alexandria, Kabul, Karachi, Sanna etc, so the conditions are not right for any advance for Islam.

Lastly not enough people in the region care about religion, it has the highest measured rate of no particular affiliation or minimal involvement in religion, Many, many, many, North Asians don’t feel they need their souls saving or that there is a gap in their life that needs filling with a omnipotent and prescriptive god, they have had enough of that from dictatorial Govts, also consider that women have a different position in society in North Asia with small families work and a diet that is loved and a strong string to the culture.

To learn more about the growth of Islam in South Korea, check out “How Influential Is Islam in South Korea?”

The question is worded horribly, but here goes:

Islam has a very small presence in South Korea. Currently, the number of Muslims in South Korea reportedly stands at roughly 200,000, or about 0.4 percent of the population. Many are migrants from countries where Islam has a bigger presence, while some are South Koreans who converted. According to a local website introducing Islam, there are only eight mosques in South Korea.

A lack of familiarity with Islam, coupled with the headline-grabbing antics of groups like the Islamic State and Al Qaeda, have helped breed a degree of Islamophobia in South Korea. Many Muslims residing in South Korea come as migrant workers from countries such as Bangladesh and Uzbekistan, which Koreans often look down on as poorer, less developed countries.

This is often stoked by less inclusive Christian groups and publications, who have come up with alarmist reports alleging that Muslims are using tactics like “spreading halal food” and having more children through polygamous families in order to “Islamize” Korea.

The unbearable seduction of halal food… (Source: Kenneth Miller via Wikimedia Commons)

Islam and the South Korean Government

The government proposed building a halal food production zone in Iksan, a small city in western South Korea. This proposal sparked a predictable backlash, spearheaded by Christians.

Despite the backlash, producing halal food and providing other facilities (hotel room prayer mats, for example) for Muslim visitors and consumers can be seen as a form of acknowledging the growing prowess of many Muslims worldwide.

Money from Muslim states has also played a role in boosting the South Korean economy, since the country has targeted Middle Eastern countries for construction contracts in the mid-1970s. According to daily newspaper Donga Ilbo, the value of orders won by South Korean companies for construction projects in the Middle East shot from 750 US dollars in 1975 to 8.2 billion dollars in 1980.

Today, South Korean firms remain highly active in the region, with projects such as the Burj Khalifa and Barakah nuclear power plant in UAE, and power and desalination plants in Saudi Arabia.

Will Islam replace other religions in South Korea?

Seems unlikely for the following reasons:

1. Islam is associated by many South Koreans with states that are either less politically liberal, such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, or less prosperous, such as Bangladesh, Indonesia and Pakistan. It is generally not associated with better lifestyle prospects.
2. Many conservative Protestant organizations in South Korea wield a degree of prosperity and media influence that will allow them to strongly resist any sign of growing Muslim influence in the country. Their neurotic reaction to the tiny Islamic presence in South Korea today suggests that they would ramp up their Islamophobic resistance in the future if they felt the need to do so.
3. Islam prohibits two things that play an essential role in South Korean culture: pork and alcohol. Enjoying grilled pork belly with soju is something approaching a national pastime, while drinking itself is an integral element in corporate and social culture.

Conclusion

It’s a fact that South Korea’s Muslim population is growing. According to the Hankook Ilbo, it grew 54 times in the half century. In 1965, when the Korea Muslim Federation was founded, the country counted 3,700 Muslims; in 2015, the number of legal foreign resident Muslims, illegal resident Muslims and South Korean Muslims amounted to roughly 200,000.

But this growth accompanied a huge increase in the overall number of foreigners living in South Korea. From 2005 to 2015, the overall number of foreign residents in the country rose faster than the total number of foreign Muslim residents.

Thus, there’s little reason to think that Islam is set to grow beyond the status of a very minor religion in South Korea — at least for the time being.

A2A

IMO ….. NO.

Islam was introduced into China in the 7th century, being during or just after Muhammad died. To which there are approximately 25 million Muslims in China today, for about 2% of the population. That is not really any growth in 14 centuries.

Observing China culturally, dogmatic religious practice is not congruent with Chinese mannerisms.

I understand Islam was introduced to Japan in the 19th century. The Islamic population is well below 1% and compromise mostly of resident foreigners. Japan is a very homogeneous and conformist culture. It is also a very old in term of the age of the citizens and it has begun to depopulate.

South Korea’s Muslim population is very small. Most Koreans are not religious or follow the Korean cultural religion. Christians are about 25% of the population so if Islam were to make any inroads in South Korea it will come from that group.

As a general observation …….. in modern times, religious importance in daily life correlates with higher levels of dysfunction/stress societies are experiencing.

Neither of the three countries comprise of societies in those circumstances.

No.

I can’t speak for Korea and Japan, but I can say about China as someone who lived in both China and US, and have had close experience with Christianity. IMO, Islam and Christianity will never dominate China thanks to its shared inherent non-Chinese-ness, for lack of a better word, and its late entry to China, Japan.

The inherent foreigness of Islam and Christianity

Islam and Christianity are very foreign to Chinese culture. I have lived in the US and China for 20 years each and have had very close contact with Christianity, I still go to church occasionally on Sundays, but I have not gotten over the foreignness of it. Sometimes in church I find myself staring at the Bible and just feel I am so out of place. The Chinese translated Bible is not a very poetic book by any means, so it pales in comparison with the vast library of beautifully written poems and essays in the long Chinese history. As the holy book, this is supposed to be the words from the creator of the universe? That’s just hard to swallow. And it’s not because it’s poorly translated, it is a faithful translation perfected by generations of experts. I don’t know about you, but if it was up to me, I would make sure the holy book is the most beautiful book ever written, a book that human can only be in awe of, just to show the mastery of a human language is a trivial matter to me.

For example, the translation of the scriptures, the word the Lord (主), the name Jesus（耶稣), the idea of original sin(原罪), the idea of one omnipresent God, the idea of talking to God (praying), the idea that God controls every aspect of your destiny, the idea that you should put yourself in God’s hands, the list goes on and on, they all seem foreign to a person raised in Chinese culture, as opposed to Buddhism, Buddhism was exported from India to China more than 1000 years ago. Buddhism was well incorporated into Chinese culture thanks to its early entry, it had major impact during the formation of Chinese culture, along with Taoism, and Confucianism. That window of opportunity is long gone for Islam and other religions. Timing is essential.

First mover advantage

If you have a blank sheet of paper, anybody can paint on it, if your paper is already full of messages, it is harder for someone else to write over it and still convey a clear message.

In summation, the more educated one is in Chinese culture, the more foreign one finds about Islam and C, and the harder it is for one to convert. And as more people are educated, that trend is only continuing. I think my observation applies to Japan to an extent too, but it breaks down in case of Korea.

World wide trend

I would like to add a different but relevant perspective. I have not factored in the world-wide march towards atheism/ agnosticism. If you think of the progress of human civilization as a moving train, the first stop on this journey is animism (everything has a spirit, including the river, the tree, the mountain), the next stop is polytheism (not everything has a spirit, but my dead great grandfather who was a chief is a spirit), to monotheism (there is only one God, the prophet told us that), following the logic, the final stop has to be atheism (no god, period) or agnosticism (I am suspicious of existence of god, I need real evidence). For more info on this hypothesis, I recommend the book, “Sapien: A brief history of humankind”. Most importantly, this train does not go backward. As a whole, humans are close to the final stop, the declining number of religious people in Western Europe and USA has borne out this claim.

U.S. Public Becoming Less Religious

And of course China is a country of mostly atheists/agnostics, they have already reached the final destination, and they are not getting back on this train.

Therefore it is far more likely Islam and C will gradually fall out of favor with people everywhere rather than dominating another populous country like China, or Japan.

It can be hard since China is an atheistic country with relatively fewer people believe in any god.

But some people do worry about that for several reasonable aspects.

1. Population

Due to the selective one child policy, Han people have a birth rate far far below Muslims, who tend to have several children each family. Now Han is still the dominant ethnic group, but Hui grows fast.

2. Religious extremism

There are trends show religious extremism rises in some multi-ethnic-populated areas. For example, Uighur girls take off colorful beautiful traditional ethnic clothing and wear black veils instead. Western people sometimes can’t understand why some Chinese local governments ban those black masks and veils in public. I read several questions about this in quora, it seems that they consider the bans as “ethnic oppression”. No, it’s nothing to do with ethnic relationships. It’s good if minorities keep their ethnic feature and culture(of course except for those traditions that conflit the law). But religious extremism is dangerous and has caused several public violent incidents. Mild Islam can hardly dominent China, but extreme Islam has strong calling and tends to spread in remote and underdeveloped areas where the government can’t totally control and people are less educated and easy to be instigated.

3. Policy mistakes

For a long time till now there is an unwise policy principle that provides too many priviledges for Muslims. In China Muslims is the very special group to be respected and pay attention to while other religious groups, including Christian, Buddhist, and Taoist, can never imagine that. The central government gives a lot of money every year to ethnic related administrations and agencies. And we now see so many news like “tear down the ancient Taoist temple to build a giant sumptuous Musjid instead”. And there is Halal food generalization problem also, which equals to taking money from ordinary non-religious consumers to support Islam.

Some policy mistakes are unintentional while others are intentional. Because quite a few policy makers are Muslims themselves, playing a role of religious representives in the government and some of them even secretly supporting extreme Islam.