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[ASPB]

South Korea "Anti-Iraqi" for Anger Over Beheading?

Reporter James Brooke on Thursday reviews reaction in Seoul to the killing of a South Korean hostage in Iraq, including demonstrations against sending more troops to Iraq. But he also notes the killing "set off an angry backlash. Callers deluged mosques with telephone bomb threats, e-mail messages crashed a Defense Ministry Web site with offers to fight terrorists, and nearly one-quarter of poll respondents at two youth-oriented Web sites said the killing of their compatriot prompted them to back the deployment of more troops."

Brooke elaborates: "An unexpected reaction was Wednesday's wave of anti-Muslim and anti-Iraqi sentiment." Brooke blames "conservatives": "At a rally in Seoul, conservative protesters said the government should send combat troops to Iraq, instead of doctors and engineers. 'We want revenge for [murdered hostage Kim Sun Il's] killing,' the conservative protesters shouted."

(We guess Brooke added that second "conservative protesters" in case we'd forgotten it since reading it one sentence beforehand.)

Brooke then notes: "After callers threatened to blow up Seoul's main mosque, riot police officers were posted outside the building."

Times Watch definitely sees the anti-Muslim sentiment (bomb threat) but fails to see what's "anti-Iraqi" about sending more troops to Iraq and wanting revenge for the gruesome killing of a South Korean civilian (by a Jordanian terrorist, by the way, not an Iraqi national). Sending more troops actually sounds rather "pro-Iraqi."

And, for some reason, Brooke doesn't balance his account by blaming the demonstrations against sending more troops to Iraq on "anti-American sentiment."
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