In Cambodia, a threatened tribe of Islam
By Brendan B Brady
UDONG - Imam San was perhaps once Cambodia's most privileged Muslim. Legend has
it that in the 19th century, former King Ang Duong encountered him meditating
in the forest and was so captivated by the stranger's spirituality that he
offered him land in the royal capital. A more cynical account relates that the
Khmer royal family, at a time when its power was dwindling, found a ready and
willing ally in the Muslim leader.
On the occasion of Imam San's birthday each October, the sect that emerged from
his early followers gathers in the former royal city of Udong, about 30
kilometers outside of the present capital
of Phnom Penh, to honor his memory through prayer and offerings. The colorful mawlut
ceremony reaffirms the sect's privileged heritage and its continued isolation
from the rest of the country's Islamic community, which is dominated by a group
known as the Cham.
The Imam San followers are the only group to remain outside the domain of the
Mufti, the government-sanctioned leader of Islam in Cambodia - a status that
was renewed by the government in 1988. Successive Imam San leaders, or Ong
Khnuur, have held the prestigious title of Okhna, originally
bestowed by the palace.
Cambodia's estimated 37,000 Imam San followers live in only a few dozen
villages spread throughout the country. Geography has reinforced the sect's
isolation, and the mawlut has become an increasingly important
opportunity to forge friendships and - more essential to the survival of the
community - marriages.
At the annual ceremony, parents search for eligible suitors for their children,
who otherwise would not come in contact with teenagers and young adults from
other Imam San communities. The day's use for matchmaking may have new
importance as the sect's long-standing isolation is challenged by pressures
from Cambodia's larger Islamic community as well as from abroad.
Many Imam San followers see their sect's relationship with other Muslims as the
biggest threat to their way of life, as their most vehement critics come from
within their faith. For Ek Bourt, an elder member of the Imam San community, it
is discrimination from other Muslims that he fears most.
"Other Muslims look down on us since we practice our religion in a different
way," he said. "I'm afraid the next generation might lose our unique culture
and customs."
The pilgrimage to Udong's Phnom Katera - a site of great importance for Khmers'
Buddhist and royal traditions - highlights what some other Muslims see as the
Imam San community's unholy cultural proximity to mainstream Khmer society.
Conspicuously, the mosque on Phnom Katera is adjacent to the tombs of former
Khmer kings and its name, "The Islam Cham Temple of Imam San", is written in
Khmer, Cham and English, but not Arabic.
Purity perceptions
Descendants of the Cham Bani from Vietnam, who converted to Islam in the 17th
century, Imam San followers view themselves as devoted adherents of the Muslim
faith even as they maintain religious and cultural practices that are viewed by
some as at odds with Islamic teachings. Because they blend faith in the Koran
with other religious customs, including animist-like ceremonies, the Imam San
followers are seen by many other Muslims as impure.
Perhaps no tradition of the Imam San community is more offensive to critics
than praying only once a week, while praying five times a day is standard
practice for most Muslims. And none is more bizarre than the chai ceremony,
in which they dance in a possessed state, sometimes carrying prop weapons.
In fact, about 85% of Muslims consider the Imam San followers to be so
heterodox as not to qualify as Muslims, according to a study by Norwegian Bjorn
Blengsli, who has studied Muslims in Cambodia for nearly a decade.
"They're not true followers of Mohammed," said Hussein Bin Ibrahim, a Salafi
Muslim who lives in Phnom Penh. "They don't really count as Muslims. For
Muslims like us in Cambodia, our Islam is now becoming more like the Islam in
Arab countries. We have grown closer to Mecca." Hussein prays in the outskirts
of Phnom Penh at the Norul Ehsan mosque, which was recently renovated with
funds from Kuwait.
Most of Cambodia's Muslims are ethnically Cham, whose practices have
traditionally been moderate. But the last several years have seen a rise of
fundamentalism in the Cham community, most notably of Wahhabism, an austere
form of Islam originating from Saudi Arabia.
Growing economic ties between Cambodia and Arab countries suggest the trend
will only strengthen.
Last year, after making high-level state visits, Kuwait and Qatar pledged
hundreds of millions of dollars in soft loans to Cambodia for agricultural
development. The aid sparked concerns among some Western officials that the
money could be used not just to invigorate Cambodia's farming, but also to
radicalize its Muslims.
"There are some organizations here from the Middle East that are very radical
and that are very intolerant, and they are trying very hard to change the
attitude and the atmosphere of the Muslim population here in Cambodia," said
then-outgoing American Ambassador Joseph Mussomeli in his farewell speech to
reporters in August 2008.
The primary focus of the most recent state visits has been trade. Yet cultural
ties are also at stake: Kuwait pledged some $5 million for Cambodian Islamic
institutions, including renovating the dilapidated International Dubai Mosque
in Phnom Penh.
Economic ties with Arab countries will reverberate in Islamic practices in
Cambodia, according to Blengsli. "Economic ties between Cambodia and Arab
countries will lead to more funding for Islamic organisations in Cambodia and,
since they are often unhappy with the purity of Islam as its practiced here,
there will be increasing Arab influence on local Muslim practices," he said.
Islamic revivalism
The penetration of Islamic missionaries, as well as development and educational
organizations into Cambodia, is problematic because of the separation from
other cultures these groups encourage, according to Alberto Perez, a Spanish
anthropologist who is writing his PhD dissertation on the Cham.
The Imam San community has been further estranged amid a wave of Islamic
revivalism embraced by the majority of Cambodia's nearly 350,000 Muslims. In
the past, Imam San followers have rejected donations from wealthy Middle
East-based Islamic groups and resisted pressure from foreign preachers, whose
requests that they convert to orthodox Islam are frequently backed by offers to
finance the construction of new mosques.
But this long-maintained separation is weakening under the same foreign
influences that, according to Blengsli, have made Cambodia's mainstream Muslims
one of the fastest-changing Islamic communities in the world.
The Imam San community is losing numbers to other Muslim sects, including the
Salafi, Jamaat Tabligh and Ahmadiyya, which have international standing and
deeper pockets, he said. In particular, young Imam San followers who are sent
to Phnom Penh to continue their studies face pressure from other Muslim
communities to convert to orthodox Islam.
"We're especially afraid that the young will be tempted to join other groups
that are well-funded," said Kai Tam, the Imam San's current Ong Khnuur. But
such concerns would not have him change his group's practices.
"Our people are strong because we believe in our ancestors and we believe in
their culture and the way they practiced Islam - to change would be an insult
to our ancestors. We have the same goal as other Muslims, but we get there a
different way."
Ahmad Yahya, president of the Cambodian Islamic Development Association and an
advisor to the government on Cham issues, has said that Imam San followers
should break their isolation and reform their observance. Yahya has
aggressively solicited foreign funding for Cambodian Muslims to continue their
studies locally and abroad, and he believes Iman San followers should make the
changes necessary to avail themselves of such opportunities.
Indeed, some Imam San villages have begun praying five times a day as a
compromise to foreign donors who have financed new mosques for them. But for
19-year-old Keu Sarath, whose home is in the same village as the Ong Khnuur's,
her faith in the way of her ancestors has not wavered.
"We love God just the same as others," she said. "But we don't tell others how
to practice and they should show us the same respect."
Brendan B Brady is a freelance journalist based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
(Copyright 2009 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us about
sales, syndication and
republishing.)
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road,
Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
