Talk:Islam in Japan

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[edit] Copyright Violation

This article was copied fron this site:

http://www.missionislam.com/knowledge/japan.htm

PMLF 06:07, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mission Islam note

From their home page: As far as non-copyrighted material hosted at this site is concerned, you are not only allowed, but in fact are strongly encouraged to copy, print and otherwise reproduce and distribute articles to teach others about Islam, as widely as possible. We believe that ALL Islamic Knowledge is the Property of Allah, and as such it is our duty, as Muslims to make that knowledge widely available as a resource.

This is from their homepage, look at the bottom of the page. Luka Jačov 17:56, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] removed this text as it is without context of time, and otherwise irrelevant

["In the coming few years there should be substantial developments for Islam in Japan," says Nur Ad-Din Mori. "If not, then we cannot really speak of the future of Islam in this country." Mori maintains it is a turning point now because of the relatively recent return of five young Muslims to Japan after completing their studies on Islam in Arab countries. Two graduated from the Umm al-Qura University, Mecca, one from Islamic University, Madinah, one from the Dawa College, Tripoli, and the last from Qatar University. Though the number may not seem very impressive it is a significant increase in the Japanese scene where, before these five, only six students graduated from universities in Arab countries during the last twenty years, with three of them majoring in Arabic, not Islamic, studies.

Mori, who studied theology and general Islamic studies in Mecca, is one of the recent five: he confirms their responsibilities." Islam is a religion of knowledge and we cannot stand well without learning. I think the efforts and activities made in this respect in Japan remain very minor up to this day."

Mori's pronouncement also refers to another problem in Japan: there have been few who can teach Islam to the indigenous people in their own language. The history of Dawa in Japan for the past forty years has basically been that of efforts by foreign Muslims who happened to stay here in this mainly Buddhist country.] Naerhu 02:40, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] This article isn't even CLOSE to being neutral

The author obviously seems to think that Japan NEEDS to convert to Islam, that it is somehow an important goal for the nation. Wikipedia is hardly the place for such religious preaching.

Also, much of the language used in the article is far from neutral and seems to show that Islam is the "smart" thing to do.

Honestly, I don't see any value in the article at all aside from a stat here and there. I think the article should be scrapped.

Probably needs to be rewritten, anyway. Not particularly NPOV. It doesn't seem to be a particularly "important" religion in Japanese society, but I guess more sources are needed. 惑乱 分からん 21:25, 30 April 2006 (UTC)
For example, this is a quote from the article.

The problem is perhaps being felt in more acute terms for Muslim children who, in the absence of any Muslim kindergartens or schools constitute indeed easy targets for the transmission and cultivation of unIslamic cultural and social habits. Now that is unabashedly POV. Immigrants need to assimilate into the cultures/societies they enter. Period. That is pov too, but like the above quote it does not belong in an encyclopedic article. This article needs to be rewritten.


I did some editing, but since the original article was taken from a muslim missionary site it's still highly POV. Other parts sound anecdotally and need better references. I also edited out some contradictions (one paragraph was talking about "a few thousand" adherents, the next about "hundred thousands".) Still much work to be done. I will try to make some own researches in the future. Azami213 5 August 2006

[edit] Mosques

The statement that there is only 1 mosque in Japan is incorrect. There is a large mosque in Yoyogi district of Tokyo, for example.

There are quite a few mosques dotted all over Japan but obviously more-so in the larger cities. The first one built in in Kobe, which has historically been the most open to foreigners with trade etc. The old Kobe mosque is located in the old foreign quarter where church(es) and a mosque still remain part of the international style architecture in the area.

[edit] Dubious statement

This particular statement sounds rather dubious, especially since it isn't backed up with any references:

["Beside numerous sincere conversions to Islam at the time, there were also mass conversions of several tens of thousands of people"]

And as PMLF already pointed out, this article was copied from a Muslim missionairy website, so we can hardly expect the original article and its statements to be objective.

Therefore, I suggest that we delete this statement until someone can provide proper evidence about these alleged mass-conversions.

.. And another thing I'd like to point out: among the links in the article is a link to a YouTube video about a Japanese woman converting to Islam.

Now then, conversion stories like these have very little informative value, since they are about personal (and thus subjective) convictions and beliefs, and not about objective information about the Muslim community in Japan.

Furthermore, aside from not providing objective information, such conversion stories are usually just about pointing out why one religion would be so much better than all the others - i.e. religious preaching.

And as has been pointed out earlier, Wikipedia is not the place for religious preaching. 75-Rolf 23:50, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

Just a footnote; I have removed the link to the video for reasons already mentioned. 75-Rolf 00:15, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Did General Cleanup in the "Education" Section

I just did a pretty extensive edit of the section, cleaning up the writing in general and tagging statements that need citations. I've also cut out the pervasive POV. The only significant deletion I've made is of the following sentences:

Because of poor distribution, even translations of the meanings of Qur'an into Japanese language are not publicly available. Islamic literature is virtually absent from bookstores or public libraries to the exception of few English-written essays and books that are sold at relatively high prices.

I have very strong doubts about this claim. The Qur'an has been available in translation in Japanese for quite a while now, and there is an active Islamic Studies community at most major universities. In fact, a quick look at Amazon.co.jp shows up almost 3 pages of results for just the Qur'an, and a search for "Islam" under "Japanese books" brings up 1,336 results. If the editor who made the statement originally meant access to Arabic material, or the absence of books on Islamic studies or theology from local mom-and-pop bookstores, then that needs to be explicitly stated. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wintersmith (talk • contribs) 03:01, August 29, 2007 (UTC)

[edit] To 1945

Atrocias as is! Lacks mention of political/secret service aspects of pre-war Islam. The first haji was a convert for political purposes. There existed a state sponsored "Dai Nippon Kaikyo Kyokai" (Greater Japan Muslim League). The 'Nanzan Guide to japanese Religion' (ISBN 978-0-8248-3002-1 mentiones "1974: founding of Japan Islam Federation (no jap. name)."

Suggested sources for improvement:

--194.95.59.130 (talk) 12:25, 6 December 2007 (UTC) (Currently preparing a German wikipedia bit on Islam in Japan)

Started on cleaning up the pre-war section. Comments @[zenwort] --194.95.59.130 (talk) 13:29, 6 December 2007 (UTC)