Abdullah II

The 4th king of Jordan .

As a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, he is the 41st generation direct descendant (paternal lineage) of Muhammad's daughter Fatima and her husband, Ali , the 4th orthodox caliph . Jerusalem in recognition of its lineage He is also the custodian of the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount .

King Hussein I and his second British wife, Queen Muna al-Hussein, at the Palestine Hospital in Al Abdali, Amman, on January 30, 1962.[1] was born between[2] He was named after his great-grandfather, King Abdullah I, who founded modern-day Jordan . He is from the Hashemite family , the most prestigious Arab family , and is famous as a direct descendant of Muhammad . This family managed the holy city of Mecca for over 700 years from the 10th century until Mecca was conquered by the Saud family in 1925.[3] Although they were driven out by the Saud family in the Hejaz region, their homeland , the lineage has been maintained uninterrupted in Jordan .

As King Hussein's eldest son, as soon as he was born, he became the legal presumptive heir (crown prince) to the Jordanian throne according to the 1952 Constitution. However, as political instability in Jordan reached its peak at the time, King Hussein decided to appoint an adult successor and appointed his younger brother and Abdullah's uncle, Prince Hassan, as the new heir to the throne in 1965. Abdullah began his studies at the Islamic College of Education in Amman in 1966 and went on to study at St. Edmund's School in England . Afterwards, he moved to the United States and completed middle school at Eagle Brook School and high school at Deerfield Academy.[4]

In 1980, while serving as a training officer in the Jordanian army, he entered the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in England and began his path as a soldier in earnest. After graduating from Sandhurst, he was appointed as a second lieutenant in the British Army and served as a platoon leader in the 13th/18th Royal Cavalry Regiment (now the Light Dragoons Regiment) for a year between England and West Germany .[5]

In 1982, he entered Pembroke College, Oxford University , and completed a one-year special studies course in Middle Eastern studies. After returning to Jordan, he returned to the Jordanian Army and served as a lieutenant, and then served as a platoon commander and deputy company commander in the 40th Armored Brigade. Afterwards, he completed a high-altitude descent (free fall) parachute course in Jordan, and in 1985, he completed the highest-level armored officer course at Fort Knox in the United States. After being promoted to captain, he became commander of a tank company under the 91st Armored Brigade. Not only that, he also worked in the anti-tank helicopter unit of the Royal Jordanian Air Force and received training to fly Cobra attack helicopters .

Afterwards, in 1987, Prince Abdullah entered the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, USA, and took advanced research and survey courses in international relations. Upon returning to Korea in 1989, he served as a unit commander in the 17th Royal Tank Battalion and was promoted to major. In 1990, he completed a staff training course at the British Army College, and the following year he served as a representative of the armored forces at the Jordanian Military Inspector General's Office. In 1992, he commanded a battalion under the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, and the following year he was promoted to colonel and led the 40th Brigade.

In January 1993, while he was making his way as a soldier, Abdullah first met Rania Alyasin, who was working as a marketing employee at Apple 's Jordan branch in Amman, at a dinner meeting arranged by his sister, Princess Aisha. The two fell in love at first sight and got engaged two months after meeting, and announced their engagement in June of the same year.

In 1994, Abdullah was promoted to brigadier general and took command of the Jordanian Special Forces and other elite commando units. Two years later, these units were completely reorganized by merging them into the Joint Special Operations Command. Afterwards, he was promoted to major general and completed a defense resource management course at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School (NPS). In 1998, he led elite special forces in an all-out manhunt operation to eliminate vicious prison escapees . It is said that the manhunt operation carried out by the prince himself ended with great success, and his popularity in Jordan soared to the sky.

Although Abdullah was not crown prince, he accompanied his father on many diplomatic trips, including overseas meetings with the Soviet Union and the United States . However, most of the regent position belonged to Crown Prince Hassan. Abdullah led the Jordanian delegation to a conference held in Moscow in 1987 and frequently visited the Pentagon in Washington to request expanded military aid to Jordan. Additionally, before the Gulf War broke out in 1990, he accompanied his father on visits to Syrian President Hafez al-Assad in Damascus and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in Baghdad . When high-ranking Israeli military officials visited Jordan in 1997, he directly led military training, and in 1998, he was dispatched as a special envoy to deliver a personal letter to Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi .

When King Hussein was diagnosed with cancer in 1992, he frequently traveled back and forth to the United States for treatment. At the end of 1998, after King Hussein returned to Jordan after six months of illness in the United States, he wrote an open letter criticizing his younger brother, Crown Prince Hassan, for ruining the country and accusing him of abusing his constitutional authority as regent. Finally, on January 24, 1999, just two weeks before his death, he surprised the world by appointing his eldest son Abdullah as the new crown prince.[6] This was even more surprising because most people thought that Prince Abdullah would be devoted to the military for the rest of his life.

King Hussein I passed away on February 7, 1999, after 47 years of reign, due to complications from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Just a few hours after the news of his death was announced, Prince Abdullah appeared in the Jordanian parliament and announced his existence as the successor, and an official coronation ceremony was held on June 9, 1999. The 37-year-old King and 29-year-old Queen Rania, the world's youngest queen at the time , held a car parade through downtown Amman, followed by a grand celebration banquet attended by about 800 distinguished guests at Ragadan Palace.

Although Jordan is a constitutional monarchy , the King of Jordan actually has much more power. As head of state and commander-in-chief of the Jordanian military, King Abdullah II directly appoints the prime minister and heads of intelligence and security agencies. Jordan's parliament is composed of a bicameral system, with the Senate appointed by the King and the House of Representatives elected, and serves to keep the government in check. However, most of the seats in the House of Representatives are controlled by pro-monarchy independent members, and because the power of the royal family is so strong, it is virtually impossible for a specific party to take power solely through voting.

Because Abdullah was only 37 years old when he was crowned King of Jordan, there was much skepticism about whether he could properly revive Jordan's economy, which had been devastated by the 1990 Gulf War . However, he maintained his father's moderate pro-Western policy and supported the Israel-Jordan peace treaty signed in 1994, and the United States and Gulf Arab countries responded well by significantly increasing aid to Jordan.

In November 1999, during the peace talks between Israel and Palestine, a full-scale eradication operation was launched against Hamas in Jordan. The intention was to prevent the extremist armed group Hamas from pouring cold water on the peace talks, and four high-ranking Hamas executives were forcibly deported to Qatar , Hamas offices in Amman were completely closed, and Hamas' political activities were completely blocked. However, these Israeli-Palestinian peace talks eventually collapsed, and the Second Intifada, a violent and bloody uprising in Palestine , broke out in September 2000 . As the worst riots broke out in the neighboring town, Jordan suffered a fatal blow as its tourism industry, a key pillar of the national economy, was on the verge of collapse. King Abdullah II demonstrated excellent diplomatic skills by desperately mediating between Israel and Palestine and bringing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas to the negotiating table.

On June 23, 2000, while on vacation on a Greek island, he received an emergency intelligence call from Jordan's intelligence chief informing him that al-Qaeda was planning to blow up a luxury boat carrying the king's family with a bomb. Of course, no accident occurred due to proactive measures, but perhaps because the memory of this time remained in our minds for a long time, when the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks occurred, we strongly condemned it, enacted anti-terrorism legislation, and maintained the highest level of alertness. The following year, Jordan's intelligence agency showed off its power by uncovering al-Qaeda 's plans to terrorize the US and British embassies in Lebanon .

When President George W. Bush planned to attack Iraq, raising suspicions that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD), King Abdullah II directly opposed U.S. military intervention. When U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney visited the Middle East in 2002, he warned that an invasion of Iraq would be a disaster for the entire Middle East, and in March 2003, he met with President Bush at the White House and attempted to dissuade him from invading Iraq. Despite the bitter trauma of being completely shunned by Arab allies and the West and suffering a severe economic crisis 10 years ago due to the ambiguous attitude taken by his father, King Hussein I , during the Gulf War in 1990, Iraq was supplying cheap crude oil worth $500 million every year.[7] It was an insight that accurately predicted that when Saddam Hussein falls, the mainstream Shiites in Iraq will rise to power .[8] In the end, King Abdullah II allowed U.S. Patriot missile batteries to be stationed in the Jordanian desert bordering Iraq, but he did not allow the U.S.-led coalition to launch an invasion of Iraq using Jordanian territory as a stepping stone.

In 2003, general elections were held for the first time since King Abdullah II ascended to the throne. The election was originally supposed to be held in 2001, but the king postponed it in accordance with the constitution due to instability in the local situation. As fundamentalist forces rapidly rose, with the Islamic Action Front (political organization of the Muslim Brotherhood ) , the largest Islamic fundamentalist opposition force in the country, occupying 22 out of 80 seats in the National Assembly in 1989, the short-term non-transferable (SNTV) election system was maintained to prevent the expansion of their power. Just before the election, a royal decree was issued to pass an amendment to the election law that introduced a women's quota system that guaranteed at least six seats for women in the National Assembly.

Islamic extremists fiercely hate King Abdullah II because Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel and maintained friendly relations with the West. Because of this, on November 9, 2005, the worst serial suicide bombing in Jordan's history occurred in Amman. They targeted three hotels where a wedding banquet was being held, killing 60 people and leaving 115 dead. Immediately after the attack, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder of Al Qaeda 's Iraq branch, claimed responsibility for the attack. Immediately after the terrorist attack, security in Jordan was greatly strengthened, and thanks to decisive intelligence support from the Jordanian intelligence service, al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. airstrike in 2006. Since this incident, not a single major terrorist incident has been reported in Jordan.

In February 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin made the first official visit to Jordan by a Russian leader and was received by King Abdullah II. The two leaders discussed the prospects for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Iran's nuclear program, and measures to quell the bloodshed in Iraq.

In Jordan's general election held in November 2007, the secularist opposition strongly protested, saying, "The government is using the rapid rise of Islamism as an excuse to justify its absolutist dictatorship." The following year, in 2008, King Abdullah II made a surprise visit to Baghdad, Iraq, becoming the first head of an Arab country to do so since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. The visit was all the more meaningful as it took place at a time when Sunni Arab countries were extremely concerned about Iran's growing influence in Iraq.

The Tunisian revolution in December 2010 led to an unprecedented event called the Arab Spring , and even toppled Egypt's 30-year dictator Hosni Mubarak in 2011 . A series of protests spread in other Arab countries, and Jordan was no exception. The Muslim Brotherhood, left-wing forces, and retired generals took the lead in nationwide protests. As the unrest grew out of control, King Abdullah II suddenly dismissed Samir Rifai's cabinet in February 2011 and promised to take democratic reform measures.

The fundamental cause of Jordan's protests in 2011-2012 was its shattered economy, with soaring prices, widespread unemployment, and relatively low standards of living. Some protesters called for the abolition of the monarchy, but most called for eradicating corruption and improving living standards. The fact that the parliament, which opened in 2010 just three months ago, was filled with corrupt, pro-regime vested interests was also the reason Jordanians began violent protests. As the crisis grew, Jordan became the first Arab regime to make political concessions to the protesters. Ma'ruf Bahit was appointed as the new prime minister, but because he was too conservative, the protests did not end, and eventually Ma'ruf was dismissed and Aun Kassaune was appointed as the new prime minister. However, Prime Minister Kasaune resigned in April 2012 and was replaced by Fayez Taraune as interim Prime Minister, and the political world was so chaotic that the cabinet was reorganized three times in just 18 months.

In November 2012, oil prices soared as the government suddenly cut fuel subsidies. Although it was immediately withdrawn due to negative public opinion, large-scale violent protests broke out across the country. To prevent overthrow of the system, the monarchy appeased public sentiment by proposing major reforms, including amending about one-third of the constitution and establishing a codified Constitutional Court and an independent Election Commission. King Abdullah II declared early general elections and appointed Abdullah Ensour as prime minister, forming a transitional government. However, the general election held in January 2013 ended with a landslide victory for pro-government figures as the opposition parties maintained their stance of boycotting the election, and the Islamic Action Front strongly condemned it as a fake election held while the true opposition party was excluded.

In December 2012, he became the first foreign leader to make a surprise visit to the West Bank after the status of the Palestinian Authority was upgraded to a 'non-member observer state' through a vote in the UN General Assembly . Jordan supports the so-called two-state solution, the establishment of an independent Palestinian state based on borders before the 1967 war.[9]

When the Syrian civil war broke out in March 2011, a huge number of refugees, approximately 3,000 in just one day during the early days of the war, poured across the Jordanian border. In an interview with the BBC , he asserted that if he had been President Bashar al-Assad, he would have stepped down immediately.

Meanwhile, as the situation in Iraq and Syria became increasingly unstable, Jordan began building large-scale barriers along the 175km dry border with Iraq and the 379km border with Syria. In an interview with the BBC in January 2016, he said that Jordan was already at a critical point , about to explode, with more than 1 million Syrian refugees pouring in . Jordan has already accepted Palestinian refugees since 1948 and even accepted Iraqi refugees during the Iraq War. As Syrian refugees make up 20% of Jordan's total population of only 9.5 million , the country was in danger of being shaken if it accepted any more.

The general election was held in November 2016. It was the first election since 1989 to be held with a full proportional representation system , and the short-term, non-transferable election system used previously was so controversial that it was reorganized. Therefore, opposition parties, including the Islamic Action Front, which had previously boycotted the elections (boycotted the 2010 and 2013 general elections), participated in the elections in large numbers.

As soon as Donald Trump was inaugurated as the new US president on January 20, 2017, King Abdullah II himself went on an official visit to the US. As he was concerned that Trump would take a hard-line pro-Israel stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, especially the issue of Jewish settlement expansion, he had a brief private meeting with Trump at a prayer meeting on February 2, and was said to have succeeded in persuading Trump to change his existing hard-line stance on Jewish settlements. However, he later strongly criticized Trump when he declared that he would recognize Jerusalem as the official capital of Israel.

On June 4, 2018, Jordanian Prime Minister Hani al-Mulki resigned, taking responsibility for the nationwide mass protests against government corruption, occasional fiscal austerity, and tax increases. To calm public sentiment, King Abdullah II appointed Omar Razaz, a former education minister, as the new prime minister and ordered a complete review of the controversial tax system from the beginning.

In an interview with the German current affairs magazine Der Spiegel in May 2020, he strongly criticized U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan that allows Israel to annex part of the West Bank. “The only way forward is through a ‘two-state solution,’” he declared, warning that Israel’s unilateral attempt to annex the West Bank would lead to a huge conflict.

In October of the same year, Prime Minister Omar Razaz resigned after receiving strong criticism for his poor handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, King Abdullah II dissolved the National Assembly and appointed his chief policy advisor, Bisher al-Hasaune, as the new prime minister, ordering the formation of a new cabinet. Afterwards, when Joe Biden won the 2020 US presidential election , King Abdullah II became the first Arab world leader to congratulate Biden.

In April 2021, his half-brother, Prince Hamza bin Hussein, and about 20 politicians were arrested on suspicion of a coup . It seems that he harbored a grudge against King Abdullah II for depriving Hamza of his status as crown prince (successor). Eighteen other prominent figures were also arrested, including Bassem Awadallah, King Abdullah's former chief of staff and former Saudi Arabian envoy and royal finance minister. On April 7, when the suppression of the coup was somewhat completed, he appeared in front of the public for the first time since the coup plot was exposed, showing off his strength and announcing that the plot to incite had failed and that Prince Hamza was now under his protection. In the end, the conflict appears to have been resolved with Prince Hamza sending a letter pledging loyalty to the king and ending the conflict. # He gave up his position as prince in April 2022. #

On July 19, 2021, he made an official visit to the United States for two weeks, was welcomed by President Joe Biden at the White House, and discussed the Middle East conflict, COVID-19 quarantine cooperation, and strategic alliance relationships. With this, he became the first Middle Eastern leader to visit the White House since President Biden took office on January 20, 2021.

On October 3, 2021, King Abdullah II spoke by phone with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the first time since the Syrian civil war and discussed normalizing relations between the two countries.

On 10 April 2022, King Abdullah II was rushed to Germany and underwent surgery for a herniated thoracic disc in a special hospital in Frankfurt. # 2022 On December 15th , as the price of oil and inflation skyrocketed, citizens started a large-scale anti-government demonstration .

In October 2023, it strongly condemned Israel's complete blockade of the Gaza Strip and the cruelties committed against Palestinian civilians during the Gaza War. In February 2024, he called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza war and appealed that the United States should quickly resume financial support to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). He also strongly warned against the Rafah ground war predicted by Israel, saying, “It will lead to another humanitarian catastrophe.” King Abdullah II himself participated in the relief operation aboard a transport plane and carried out an operation to airdrop relief packages to the Gaza Strip.[10]

Meanwhile, it decisively rejected U.S. President Donald Trump's proposal that Jordan absorb all Palestinian refugees living in the Gaza Strip . Then, on February 26, 2025, after holding a historic summit in Amman with Syrian President Ahmed al-Shara, who took power after the change of the Syrian regime, he strongly condemned Israel's indiscriminate attack on Syria.

After his accession to the throne , he accelerated the full-scale modernization of the Jordanian military , which was already quite modern at the time . Originally, the Jordanian military had an elite strong military in the Middle East that was recognized by the West, and this tradition has become even stronger under the current king. The modern Jordanian army is truly the Arab elite. It was evaluated by the Israeli army , which was its opponent in the Middle East war, as "the only solid army among the ragtag Arab armies." However, the Arab army that the Israeli army is most wary of is the Egyptian army, which is the largest in size .

However, Jordan's strong military power is maintained by Jordan investing an unreasonable amount of its national budget in response to military support from the United States, so the side effects are severe. In 2018, Jordan's defense spending accounted for about 5.2% of GDP, ranking first in the Middle East in terms of defense spending relative to population, and sixth in military spending as a percentage of GDP, following Oman , Saudi Arabia , Iraq, Bahrain , and Israel . This is a very burdensome expenditure for a developing country that does not have a single drop of oil. The World Bank has pointed out that this is a major burden on the Jordanian economy, and has even recommended that the Jordanian government reduce its defense spending. The excellence of the Jordanian army is that it is better than other Arab armies in terms of education and training and practicality, but due to the poor economic situation, its equipment is far inferior to that of Saudi Arabia and of course, Turkiye .

The most excellent tank in the army is the Al Hussein tank, which is an improved version of the Challenger 1. In addition, the Khalid tank, which is an improved version of the Chieftain , and the Phoenix tank, which is an improved version of the M60A3, are operated. The main artillery is the old M109A2 self-propelled howitzer. The Air Force's main force is 79 F-16 Block 15/20 types (63 MLU improved models).

In April 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an al-Qaeda-affiliated extremist armed group , posted a video online threatening to invade Jordan and kill King Abdullah II. In the video, an IS member tears up a Jordanian passport and threatens, "This is a message to the tyrant of Jordan. We are coming to you with death and bomb belts." In August of the same year, thousands of Iraqi Christians fleeing persecution by IS took refuge in churches in Jordan.

Jordan soothed public sentiment by joining the international coalition to defeat IS in mid-September 2014, but in late December 2014, an F-16 fighter jet belonging to the Jordanian military during an operation crashed near Raqqa, Syria.

The following year, on February 3, 2015, a horrific video of captured Jordanian pilot Lieutenant Muat al-Kasasbeh being burned alive while locked in a cage was released online. The shock was even greater because the Jordanian government had been negotiating behind the scenes for the release of Lieutenant Al-Kasasbeh throughout January. IS was demanding the release of Sajida al-Rishawi, a female suicide bomber who was captured when her bomb vest failed to explode during the Amman hotel attack in 2005, in exchange for her life, but they simply burned her to death. The news of Lieutenant Alkasasbeh's tragic murder caused the entire Jordan to seethe with great anger.

As soon as King Abdullah II, who was on a state visit to the United States at the time, heard the sad news, he signed the execution papers for two major jihadists from Iraq, including Sajida al-Rishawi and Ziad al-Qarbouni, who were imprisoned in his country's prisons, and executed them even before dawn the next day. On the evening of the same day, King Abdullah II, who arrived in Amman, appeared wearing a flight suit and flight gear and declared immediate retaliation against IS, and was welcomed by cheering citizens who filled the airport road.

Because he was also the supreme commander of the military, King Abdullah II immediately declared Operation Martyr Mu'at and carried out massive air strikes targeting IS weapons warehouses, training camps, and oil refineries for a week. At the time, rumors circulated around the world that the king personally flew a fighter jet, but the Jordanian government officially denied this. Since they are not qualified to operate bombers in the first place, it appears to be a performance aimed at resolutely punishing IS.[11]

As announced, Jordanian airstrikes against IS weapons depots and other key facilities began on February 5. By the 10th, coalition fighter jets had been on 5,500 sorties, including 2,000 reconnaissance flights, since the start of the airstrikes. Of these, the Jordanian Air Force is known to have been on 946 sorties, killing approximately 7,000 IS members. #

In this regard, in 2018 , he became the second Muslim to win the Templeton Prize , which is called the religious Nobel Prize . However, he was not well known due to poor international recognition, as he was always criticized for awarding this award mainly to Christians .

In March 2013, an interview conducted by The Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg in which King Abdullah II poured out harsh and unfiltered criticism to domestic and foreign figures was published, creating a huge stir. King Abdullah II harshly criticized the Islamic opposition party, the Muslim Brotherhood , as a " freemason- like cult" and "wolves in sheep's clothing," disparaged former Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi as a "human being without any depth," and criticized Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Türkiye as someone who views democracy as nothing more than "getting off a bus at your desired destination." In addition, he criticized American diplomats, some tribal leaders, and even members of the royal family, criticizing all kinds of people, so it is natural that the country was turned upside down.

In the same year, The Atlantic warned King Abdullah II to immediately address corruption in the royal family, pointing out that "there is a widespread perception among the public that the shadow of corruption and decadence has already reached deep into the royal palace." According to the article, there are suspicions that King Abdullah II illegally appropriated the tribal community's property as royal property immediately after taking the throne.

In 2013, an unprecedented situation occurred when elders from 36 major tribes in Jordan issued a statement publicly condemning Queen Rania's 'overly public and extravagant' 43rd birthday party.

King Abdullah II owns extensive real estate worth more than $100 million overseas. Originally, it was completely hidden using a paper company set up in the British Virgin Islands, but with the Pandora Papers incident, it was exposed in detail. According to the Pandora Papers, he purchased three luxury coastal mansions in the Point Doom area of ​​Malibu , USA , and also owns numerous real estate properties in Washington DC, London, and Ascot. In response, the King's legal team completely denied any allegations of misappropriation of public funds or tax evasion, and explained that the properties in question were purchased with the King's personal assets and that an offshore company was merely appointed as an agent to protect security and privacy.

As the Credit Suisse account information leak occurred in 2022 , it was newly revealed that King Abdullah holds a total of six secret accounts, including one with a balance exceeding $224 million. In response to this, the Jordanian royal family immediately issued a statement, explaining that the funds in question were the legal difference incurred in the process of selling the Airbus A340 private plane owned by the late King Hussein for $212 million and replacing it with a Gulfstream aircraft that is smaller and cheaper to maintain .

Surprisingly, it is said that he likes Korean beef . March 2012, Republic of Korea When the Nuclear Security Summit was held in Seoul , he visited Korea and tasted Korean beef. He fell in love with the taste, so he ordered 40kg of Korean beef through the royal family's head chef and took it back to his home country. It is known that he often orders Korean beef when he visits Korea.

After visiting Korea, he even ordered 20 kg of Nonghyup Tenderloin Korean Beef beef ribs, 15 kg of sirloin, 5 kg of forelimbs for bulgogi , and the sauce needed for bulgogi, all graded 1++ through Shilla Hotel , and included them in the export items. The Korean beef exported to the Jordanian royal family was also planned to be used at royal banquets and official events.

In fact, beef is classified as halal and can be eaten by Muslims, so there is no problem as long as the cooking process is managed. In fact, there is no problem because there is more demand for halal food in Korea than expected and there is also a slaughterhouse in Korea that performs Tabiha slaughter to produce processed meat products for export.