Author: Kwang-Tae Kim, Associated Press Writer
Publication: Yahoo News
Date: August 27, 2008
URL:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080827/ap_on_re_as/skorea_buddhist_protest;_ylt=AukqC.iSzw6L2.BDhACS9UABxg8F
Tens of thousands of South Korean Buddhists
took to the streets of Seoul on Wednesday to protest what they say is pro-Christian
bias in the administration of President Lee Myung-bak.
Discontent among Buddhists has been brewing
for months over Lee's alleged favoritism toward Christianity. Buddhists have
criticized Lee, a Presbyterian, for filling most of his Cabinet and top presidential
posts with other Christians.
Police estimated that 38,000 people, including
4,000 monks, gathered Wednesday at Seoul's City Hall. Organizers said they
would march to the Jogye temple, South Korea's main Buddhist temple, several
blocks away.
Buddhist ire was raised again in June when
the transportation ministry dropped Buddhist temples from electronic maps
of the public transit system and by a photo in which the head of the national
police agency posed with a famous pastor at a Christian event.
The ministry said the omission of the temples
was a mistake by a lower official and they were later restored to the maps.
Adding fuel to the fire was a police inspection
of the car of the Venerable Jikwan, head of the Jogye Order, South Korea's
largest Buddhist sect, in July when his car was moving out of the Jogye temple.
The temple is harboring some eight civic activists who led weeks of street
rallies earlier this year against Lee's decision to resume imports of U.S.
beef.
The protests rocked the president's administration,
which took office in February, and Lee's approval ratings plummeted.
Monks and other Buddhist officials have called
on the government to take steps to end what they say is religious discrimination.
Lee "should fire the head of the national
police agency to show his sincerity" toward religious neutrality, said
Park Jeong-kyu, a spokesman for one of the Buddhist groups that organized
Wednesday's rally.
Park also called for legislation banning religious
discrimination.
Buddhism is the oldest major religion in Korea,
though Christianity has grown dramatically, especially during the 20th century.
According to government figures, Buddhists made up 22.8 percent of the population
in 2005, while Christians accounted for 29.2 percent.
In early July, Prime Minister Han Seung-soo,
a Catholic, instructed all ministries not to give the mistaken impression
that the government favors a specific religion, according to his office.
Han also visited the Jogye temple and expressed
regret over alleged discrimination.