Civic group files petition to UN as Daegu locals continue to oppose construction of mosque

Residents of Daegu’s Buk District hold a barbecue party earlier this month outside an Islamic mosque under construction in the neighborhood. [YONHAP]

A local civic group supporting Muslims who are facing vehement backlash from local residents in Daegu after trying to build a mosque there announced on Monday that they submitted a petition to the United Nations requesting emergency relief.

The so-called Task Force for a Peaceful Resolution of the Mosque Problem told the press in a statement that they turned in the petition to the UN special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief last Thursday and was subsequently informed by the UN that the petition was received.

The group said it was expecting a response within the next two months.

The activists slammed the central government, Daegu Metropolitan Government and Daegu’s Buk District Office for turning a blind eye to the situation, arguing that their indifference was in and itself a serious violation of human rights.

“The fact that the government, Daegu and Daegu Buk District neglect and virtually tolerate religious discrimination and acts of racial hatred constitutes a serious human rights violation of international conventions such as the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination,” the group said it wrote in the UN petition.

The controversy goes back to September 2020 when the Buk District Office allowed a group of Muslims to build a mosque in a residential neighborhood near Kyungpook National University in Daegu, a conservative stronghold located about 240 kilometers (149 miles) southeast of Seoul.

Construction went smoothly until February 2021 — when the building started to look like a mosque.

Residents filed strings of complaints with the Buk District Office, leading the district office to halt construction.

The case went to court, and after a long legal battle, the Supreme Court finally ruled against the residents last September.

A lower court in December 2021 ruled that the Buk District Office had no right to halt the construction of the mosque simply due to the collective complaints, stressing that it should have notified the Muslim community about the halt well beforehand and provided them an opportunity to submit their own opinions about the office’s decision.

The Supreme Court ruling, however, did little to solve the problem.

The Muslim community is still at odds with local Daegu residents of Buk District, who have in recent days gone as far as to hold barbecue parties outside the construction site, an attack on Islam’s prohibition to eat pork.

On Monday, three pig heads were placed near the construction site.

Residents have hung placards around the neighborhood opposing the mosque’s construction and claimed that Muslims are “terrorists.”

BY KIM YOON-HO, LEE SUNG-EUN [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]