Islam in Cambodia

After Vietnam invaded and conquered Champa, Cambodia granted refuge to Cham Muslims escaping from Vietnamese conquest.

At the end of the nineteenth century, the Muslims in Cambodia formed a unified community under the authority of four religious dignitaries — mupti (mufti), tuk kalih, raja kalik, and tvan pake.

A council of notables in Cham villages consisted of one hakem (judge) and several katip (preacher), bilal (rinse), and labi.

The four high dignitaries and the hakem were exempt from personal taxes, and they were invited to take part in major national ceremonies at the royal court.

The peninsula of Chrouy Changvar near Phnom Penh is considered the spiritual center of the Cham, and several high Muslim officials reside there.

According to figures from the late 1950s, about 7 percent of the Cham had completed the pilgrimage and could wear the fez or turban as a sign of their accomplishment.

[citation needed] Although they show little interest in the pilgrimage to Mecca and in the five daily prayers, the traditional Cham do celebrate many Muslim festivals and rituals.

[citation needed] The orthodox Cham have adopted a more conformist religion largely because of their close contacts with, and intermarriages with, the Malay community.

The Chvea (literally "Java") arrived in Cambodia in the 14th century from the Malay Peninsula and Indonesian Archipelago, and traditionally occupied the coastal part of the country.

[9] This resulted in the massive relocation of the masses from urban areas to the countryside where they were forced to work in the fields every day with little food and rest.

Buddhism, which was then the dominant faith group in Cambodian society, was repressed; the monks were made to be defrocked and sent to work in the fields.

Kiernan writes: "In the twentieth century, Chams have suffered from two myths: the glory of their "empire" has been exaggerated, and so has their present plight.

They were called "Malays" by the French, and after Cambodia's independence, received a new, equally inaccurate label: "Islamic Khmers."

Scholars also compare the denial of the Khmer Rouge's racist motivation for its genocide against the Cham to the denial of the Holocaust, both forms of genocide denial are analogous narrational canards that seek to use victims' religions to justify the actions of genocide perpetrators but they ignore wider race and ethnic hatreds and discriminatory backgrounds Islam is an officially recognised religion in the country, and Muslims practice their religion normally and out in the open.