Islam has not made significant inroads in the Far East. China has less than 35 million Muslims in a total population of 1.3 billion and Japan has none. Only 35,000 Muslims live in South Korea, yet the country had to endure a painful confrontation with Islamists and was forced to capitulate.

The Islamists demonstrated that taking Christian hostages pays. In exchange for the release of 19 live hostages South Korea agreed to withdraw all of its troops, contractors, and missionaries from Afghanistan.

Reports reaching this border town say the Taliban have agreed to free all the prisoners in a couple of days after an assurance that South Korea will withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by year-end. Seoul has about 200 troops serving with an 8,000-strong US-led force that is separate from the 40,000-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led force.

In addition, all South Koreans working on reconstruction projects will leave the country by the end of this month. And Christian missionaries from South Korea will stay away from Afghanistan.

Since last Thursday, four members of the Korean Muslim Federation (KMF) have been camped in Peshawar to appeal to the Taliban in Afghanistan to release the remaining hostages and prove that Islam is a religion of peace and brotherhood.

The KMF delegation, which ignored security warnings to visit Peshawar, said they had initiated the visit because the small Muslim minority in South Korea has for the first time come under a cloud since the abduction of their Christian missionary countrymen on the Kabul-Kandahar highway. There are about 35,000 Muslims in South Korea.

Two male hostages were killed and two women set free this month by the Taliban, who had insisted that the Afghan government release Taliban prisoners in exchange for the South Korean hostages.