Korean Evangelical Churches Under Cyber-Attack Amid Hostage Crisis
ICC Note: The South Koreans who were kidnapped in Afghanistan are receiving a barrage of insults from their countrymen back home. Some have even asked the Taliban to kill their hostages.
By Daniel Blake
7/25/07 South Korea (Christian Post) Evangelical churches in Korea are receiving criticism for sending missionaries to Afghanistan , following the recent kidnapping of 23 church volunteers.
In one of the worlds most internet-savvy countries, cybercitizens have been building up anti-Christian sentiment by posting up insults to victims and their families on blogs and community forums.
Other more extreme and distasteful blogs have been used by some internet users to call for negotiators not to try and seek the hostages release, while others have even called for the Korean Christians to be killed
One popular website, DC Inside, was used by some cybercitizens to boast they had emailed the Taliban calling for them to kill the hostages. The website has now attempted to filter out and remove these postings.
Chosun has also reported that the official websites of Saemmul Church in Bundang, the home church of the hostages, and Korea Foundation for World Aid have had to close after being inundated with attacks and insults for sending the Koreans to Afghanistan
Some of the 23 Korean hostages, meanwhile, had been freed and were taken to a U.S. base in Ghazni, said two Western officials who asked not to be identified, according to AP. Although the officials did not know how many had been freed, South Korean news agency Yonhap said eight Koreans had been freed.
