'K-Culture', hidden stories: Muslims in Korea

The horrific image of a pig's head strategically placed next to a legally permitted mosque construction site in Daegu, anti-Muslim pork barbecue street parties held by anti-Islam demonstrators in the same place, nationwide protests against the arrival of Muslim Yemeni refugees, petitions to withdraw Korea from global refugee protection systems, demonstrations against Muslim men due to flawed security concerns, protests against Muslim Afghan children entering mainstream schools in Ulsan, ethnic Korean Muslims who fear rejection and ostracization from society for choosing an alternative lifestyle (and so on) convey the clear and urgent need for research into what is quickly becoming a controversial micro-community.

This research investigates the socio-political impact of Muslim minority communities on Korean society in an era where Korea is receiving recognition for its cultural productions on a global scale. In line with various “K”-trends, this work playfully uses the concept of “K-Muslims”, a diverse community of communities with its own hierarchies and processes of racialisation that produce specific Muslim identities based on class, gender, culture and nationalities that are all uniquely shaped by, and rooted in Korean history, language politics and culture. Drawing on theories of race, gender, multiculturalism, identity and belonging, research questions for this work are as follows: 

1. What are the motivations for Koreans converting to Islam and are there generational differences? 
2. How do Korean Muslims negotiate belonging and identity on and offline? 
3. What is the impact of cross-cultural marriage on belonging and identity in Korean society? 
4. What are the hierarchies that exist within Muslim minority communities in Korea (for example, power and relational differences between ethnic Korean Muslims, Immigrant Muslims, Refugee Muslims and so on)? 
5. What are the gendered and racialised outcomes of conversion to Islam and being Muslim in Korea?

About the speaker

Dr Farrah Sheikh is Research Associate at the SOAS Center of Islamic Studies and currently holds the position of Senior Researcher at the Academy of Korea Studies- funded K-Academic Expansion Project at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, South Korea. 

Her research interests include the study of Muslim minority communities in multicultural contexts focusing on conversion to Islam, Muslim youth identities, refugee issues and Islamophobia with fieldwork sites in Britain and South Korea.