By Satuk Bugra Kutlugun and Izabela Kuczynska
ANKARA
Almost two weeks after two Japanese men were executed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, religious officials in Japan have been working overtime to counter any prejudice against Muslims in the country.
But Japan's recent history is very closely tied to the West, which has been criticized by some Muslims for tying Islam to terrorism and suggesting that Muslims as a whole have something to apologize for.
Imam Muhammed Rasit Alas told The Anadolu Agency in a phone interview that the murders appeared not to have changed Japan's view, despite Western media influence.
“We published necessary statements on our website after the attack, and during our Friday sermon we held a special speech titled 'There is no room for terrorism in Islam' in Turkish, English and Japanese,” he said.
He added that the answer had been very positive.
Alas is the imam of the largest mosque in Japan, Tokyo Camii. Situated in the Oyama-cho district of Shibuya ward in Tokyo it has an adjoining Turkish culture center.
Visitors to the mosque have not diminished since the violent executions of Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto, in fact quite the opposite, said Alas.
"On average we have 100 to 150 visitors per day, but since the tragic incident interest has increased."
Japan - which has a population of 127 million - has around 100,000 Muslims, 10,000 of whom are of Japanese origin.
The country - which is predominantly Shinto, although religion is rarely preached - has around 200 mosques, the oldest of which is Tokyo Camii, which was built in Ottoman style in 1931.
Since the murders, religious leaders of all faiths in Japan have frequently underlined that ISIL has nothing to do with Islam. But Japan's history is very closely tied to the West, which has been quick to tie the two together and suggest that Muslims as a whole have something to apologize for.
Shimoyama Abdulkerim Sigeru - a 65-year-old Muslim of Japanese origin living in Tokyo - told AA that reforms carried out during the era of Emperor Meiji from 1868 to 1912 had seen the country follow Western societies in many fields, including education and politics.
He gave the constitution of 1869 as an example, saying that it was influenced by those of Germany and France.
“During those 150 years, Japanese people have accepted the biased image of Islam shown by Western countries,” he added.
Tokyo Camii Imam Ali, however, disagrees, telling AA that even if Japanese media has become influenced by Western media, "there is no such thing here as Islamophobia."
"I have not come across any negative reaction,” he said, drawing on the relationship shared between the Japanese and those who inhabit the adjoining cultural center.
“The Japanese people have sympathy for Turks, as well as Turks had sympathy for the Japanese. This allows the creation of a positive image.”
To illustrate his point, he says he frequently walks outside the mosque and neither him nor his wife had received any bad looks since the murders.
Ikemato Eiko, a 66-year-old Tokyo-based acupuncturist, told AA that affiliating terrorist organizations with Muslims was just “wrong”.
“I don't believe in any religion, but I know that these people who do miserable things are not Muslim... Muslims are doing good activities,” he said, fondly remembering how some Muslim countries had helped Japan recover from earthquakes.
"We know that Muslim countries helped us during the disasters, we remember it," Eiko added.
Sigeru told AA that he had accepted as many media interview requests as he could after the deaths in order to tell "the truth of Islam, and how it had nothing to do with ISIL."
"But many Japanese people - under the influence of western media - have confused Islam with terrorism, saying 'it is a horrible religion',” the 65-year-old added.
“I have been telling them – 'Please don’t get Islam wrong. Islam prohibits such kinds of violence and terrorism'."
He said he was concerned Islamophobia could emerge in his country through the influence of the West, saying that such practice fails “to explain why incidents are happening, what is Islam, and the background to each incident.”
He underlined that after the 9/11 attacks Japanese people had started to see Islam as an image of terrorism.
“We have to let the Japanese know what is the true message,” he stated.
On Jan. 31, ISIL - a multinational terrorist group that has overrun vast territories of both Iraq and Syria - published a video in which one of its militants is seen to behead Japanese journalist Goto.
The 47-year-old was captured by ISIL in late October after allegedly traveling to Syria to find and ask for the release of Yukawa, a Japanese businessman reportedly seized in August and killed earlier in January.
