Bagian 20 : JIHAD vs Vietnam/Kamboja (abad 11 -1975)

Sejarah pedang jihad di Timur Tengah, Afrika, Eropa & Asia.
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Laurent
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Bagian 20 : JIHAD vs Vietnam/Kamboja (abad 11 -1975)

Post by Laurent »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Vietnam

History

Uthman ibn Affan, the third Caliph of Islam, the legends have it, sent the first official Muslim envoy to Vietnam and Tang Dynasty China in 650.[citation needed] Seafaring Muslim traders are known to have made stops at ports in the Champa Kingdom en route to China very early in the history of Islam; however, the earliest material evidence of the transmission of Islam consists of Song Dynasty-era documents from China which record that the Cham familiarised themselves with Islam in the late 10th and early 11th centuries.[4][5] The number of followers began to increase as contacts with Sultanate of Malacca broadened in the wake of the 1471 collapse of the Champa Kingdom, but Islam would not become widespread among the Cham until the mid-17th century.[6] In the mid-19th century, many Muslim Chams emigrated from Cambodia and settled in the Mekong River Delta region, further bolstering the presence of Islam in Vietnam. Malayan Islam began to have an increasing influence on the Chams in the early 20th century; religions publications were imported from Malaya, Malay clerics gave khutba (sermons) in mosques in the Malay language, and some Cham people went to Malayan madrasah to further their studies of Islam.[7][8]

After the 1976 establishment of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, some of the 55,000 Muslim Chams emigrated to Malaysia. 1,750 were also accepted as immigrants by Yemen; most settled in Ta'izz. Those who remained did not suffer violent persecution, although some writers claim that their mosques were closed by the government.[1] In 1981, foreign visitors to Vietnam were still permitted to speak to indigenous Muslims and pray alongside them, and a 1985 account described Ho Chi Minh City's Muslim community as being especially ethnically diverse: aside from Cham people, there were also Indonesians, Malays, Pakistanis, Yemenis, Omanis, and North Africans; their total numbers were roughly 10,000 at the time.[6] However, Vietnam's Muslims remained relatively isolated from the mainstream of world Islam, and their isolation, combined with the lack of religious schools, caused the practice of Islam in Vietnam to become increasingly syncretic. Command of Arabic is not widespread even among religious leaders, and some Muslims are reported to pray to Ali and refer to him as the "Son of God".[1]

Vietnam's largest mosque was opened in January 2006 in Xuan Loc, Dong Nai Province; its construction was partially funded by donations from Saudi Arabia.[9]

[edit] Demographics

Mosque in An GiangVietnam's April 1999 census showed 63,146 Muslims. Over 77% lived in the Southeast Region, with 34% in Ninh Thuan Province, 24% in Binh Thuan Province, and 9% in Ho Chi Minh City; another 22% lived in the Mekong River Delta region, primarily in An Giang Province. Only 1% of Muslims lived in other regions of the country. The number of believers is gender-balanced to within 2% in every area of major concentration except An Giang, where the population of Muslim women is 7.5% larger than the population of Muslim men.[10] This distribution is somewhat changed from that observed in earlier reports. Prior to 1975, almost half of the Muslims in the country lived in the Mekong River Delta, and as late as 1985, the Muslim community in Ho Chi Minh was reported to consist of nearly 10,000 individuals.[1][6] Of the 54,775 members of the Muslim population over age 5, 13,516, or 25%, were currently attending school, 26,134, or 48%, had attended school in the past, and the remaining 15,121, or 27%, had never attended school, compared to 10% of the general population. This gives Muslims the second-highest rate of school non-attendance out of all religious groups in Vietnam (the highest rate being that for Protestants, at 34%). The school non-attendance rate was 22% for males and 32% for females.[11] Muslims also had one of the lowest rate of university attendance, with less than 1% having attended any institution of higher learning, compared to just under 3% of the general population.[12]

[edit] Official representation
The Ho Chi Minh City Muslim Representative Committee was founded in 1991 with seven members; a similar body was formed in An Giang Province in 2004.[8]
menghayati
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Re: Bagian 20 : JIHAD vs Vietnam/Kamboja (abad 11 -1975)

Post by menghayati »

mumet saya bacanya... di artikan y klu bisa :-({|=
Laurent
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Joined: Mon Aug 14, 2006 9:57 am

Re: Bagian 20 : JIHAD vs Vietnam/Kamboja (abad 11 -1975)

Post by Laurent »

Perkembangan Islam di Indocina (Kamboja & Vietnam) versi bahasa Melayu

http://www.psychologymania.co.cc/2010/0 ... mboja.html
Last edited by Laurent on Fri Dec 24, 2010 10:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
Laurent
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Joined: Mon Aug 14, 2006 9:57 am

Re: Bagian 20 : JIHAD vs Vietnam/Kamboja (abad 11 -1975)

Post by Laurent »

menghayati wrote:mumet saya bacanya... di artikan y klu bisa :-({|=
nanti tolong ali5196 yang terjemahin aja. INi penting
Laurent
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Re: Bagian 20 : JIHAD vs Vietnam/Kamboja (abad 11 -1975)

Post by Laurent »

The People Persist



Written and photographed by Bill Strubbe


Hemmed in by popular nightclubs with names like Apocalypse Now and Hard Rock Cafe Saigon, and by a construction site heralding yet another hotel, the graceful minarets of the mosque rise unexpectedly above the trees, captivating the eye. Seemingly out of place amid the enormous Panasonic and Sony billboards presiding over teeming boulevards, the mosque beckons, an unlikely oasis in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City - former Saigon.

The visitor slips inside the gates of the compound and climbs the steps, brightened with fuchsia bougainvillea, to a veranda shimmering with reflections from the ablution pool. As the visitor steps into the mosque, and feels the welcome coolness of tiles underfoot, the bustle of the city recedes. This is the world of the Chams, descendants of an ancient people who built the powerful kingdom of Champa in what is now central Vietnam. Despite repeated conquest by invading armies and attempts at cultural - and even physical - obliteration, the Chams survive in Vietnam and Kampuchea (Cambodia) as a proud Muslim people, retaining a distinct linguistic, cultural and religious heritage.

Geographically, Vietnam has been likened to the peasant's traditional pair of carrying baskets balanced on a shoulder pole. The rich flood plains of the Red River in the north and the Mekong in the south are the rice baskets, while the mountainous backbone of the country serves as the sturdy pole. The dramatic drive from Hue to Da Nang, up the switchbacks of the Hai Van, or Pass of the Clouds, provides a breathtaking sight of the coastal mountains plunging into the sea and a view of what used to be the heart of the Champa kingdom, whose people once believed that the world lay divinely balanced between two elements: earth and water, masculine and feminine, mountains and sea.

While debate continues, many scholars consider the Cham people the original inhabitants of south-central Vietnam, rather than migrants from the Malaysian archipelago. People with "dark skin, deep-set eyes, turned-up noses and frizzy hair" are first mentioned in AD 192, in a Chinese description of Champa, then called Linyi, or "savage forest." The name Champa was not used until the seventh century; by then, a sophisticated civilization had developed, the most exclusive Hinduized culture outside of India. The Cham language, of Malayo-Polynesian origin and employing an Indian script, was the first written language in Southeast Asia. The Champa kingdom was preeminent in international trade; possessing a powerful commercial fleet, it exported enslaved prisoners of war and sandalwood - an important commodity for making incense used throughout Asia - in exchange for Chinese and Japanese silks.

At its peak, the kingdom of Champa occupied the territory of modern-day Vietnam from north of the 17th parallel - the old north-south dividing line - to Ho Chi Minh City in the south, embracing a number of tribes such as the Rhadé, Jarai and Roglai. As the splendid ruins of Mi Son and Dong Duong demonstrate, the sixth to ninth centuries were Champa's golden era, centered in the region of present-day Quang Nam province near Da Nang. The Cham people were outstanding builders, and the temples at Mi Son, 69 kilometers (43 miles) southwest of Da Nang, are among the oldest structures in Southeast Asia. Centuries before the Islamic faith made inroads into Champa, the religious practices were an amalgam of Hindu, Buddhist and animistic elements, and the Mi Son temples and towers were dedicated to kings and Brahman divinities.

The Champa towers were ingeniously constructed of dried brick mortared with resin from the cau day tree. When completed, the structure was enveloped in fire for"several weeks, fusing the bricks and resin together to create an edifice able to withstand the onslaught of time and elements - though not 20th-century warfare. Mi Son valley became a free-fire zone for American B-52 bombers during the Vietnam War; out of more than 70 ancient structures that stood before the war, fewer than 20 remain.

From Da Nang to Phan Ri, numerous Champa ruins dot the Vietnamese landscape, their red-brick towers vividly silhouetted against blue sky and spectacular cloud formations. In the coastal city of Nha Trang, the Cham temple of Po Nagar is now a Buddhist shrine and a tourist attraction. Mi Son is a destination for only the most determined, requiring several hours by car and on foot, while the tower near Cam Ranh is just a few meters from the main highway.

A stone stele inscribed in Arabic, found near Phan Rang and dating from the 10th or 11th century, is the earliest record of the Muslim presence in Champa. Islam arrived in Southeast Asia via India and Malaysia, spreading along the trade routes (See Aramco World, November-December 1991). Arab trading communities lived in contact with the Chams from the 11th century onward.

With the gradual conversion of the Cham people from Hinduism to Islam in the early to mid-1600's, tension rose between Hindus and Muslims. Infighting was brought to an end when the Hindu king Po Ramo, whose wife was Muslim, required subjects to attend each other's ceremonies and observe each other's holidays. The next king, Po Nraup, had two wives, one of each religion. It was Po Nraup's heir who embraced Islam. The religion of successive kings was a matter of personal choice until the kingdom of Champa disintegrated in the 18th century. As late as 1770, shipwrecked French sailors reported visiting a scaled-back Champa royal court, where the king's throne had been reduced to "a simple footstool."

I had traveled to Vietnam to learn more about the people whose ancestors had built the Champa kingdom. But on my fourth day in Hanoi, the authorities notified me that Cham villages were a "security problem" and off-limits to foreigners. Nonetheless, I moved on to Nha Trang, down the coast in former South Vietnam; through quiet inquiries there, I managed to find a car and driver willing to cover the 110 kilometers (68 miles) to the nearest Cham village. Following directions we had been given, we continued south from Phan Rang over two bridges, turned left on the dirt path past the pink pagoda on the right, then crossed another bridge and continued for two kilometers (about a mile) until we arrived at the village of Thuan Tu.

The youngsters there had probably never seen a Westerner before; scores of boisterous, curious children followed at my heels as I toured the village. Elderly women with red betel-stained teeth threshed rice without either baskets or winnowing mat by simply throwing handfuls into the breeze. The prickly-pear cactus hedges flourishing along the roadside give proof that Minh Thuan Province is the most arid part of Vietnam. Thuan Tu was one of the poorest villages I'd seen, and many of the children were visibly undernourished.

Interspersed among homes built of wattle and daub rose several newer homes of concrete and tile. We passed a schoolhouse undergoing renovations; half the crew was enjoying a midday snooze in the shade. Nearby, at the mosque, I exchanged Arabic greetings - al-salam 'alaykum (peace be upon you) - with the assembled Muslim leaders, dressed in white robes and turbans fringed with red tassels. These men, elected every few years, shave their heads and faces, dress in white and abide by special dietary and hygienic rules. After a brief visit, I reluctantly left the village and headed back to Nha Trang, mindful that the authorities might become suspicious if I did not return to the hotel by sunset.

In 1970, an estimated 80,000 Chams lived in their ancestral homeland, a third of whom - as well as all those in Kampuchea - are Sunni Muslims of the Shafi'i school. Hindu Chams call themselves Cham jat or Cham harat, meaning Chams of "pure race," while Muslim Chams call themselves Cham pak or Cham muk, meaning "southern" Chams or Chams "of the community."

The Muslim Chams are further divided into orthodox and traditional communities. The orthodox Chams, who live mainly in Ho Chi Minh City and in Tay Ninh and Chau Doc near the Kampuchean border, adhere to mainstream Islamic practices. In the coastal plains of Binh Thuan and Minh Thuan provinces, where Thuan Tu is located, live the traditional Chams, whose lifestyle blends Islam with indigenous cultural elements.

Long ago, Cham society was dominated by several powerful matrilineal clans, and until recent years, all property was inherited through women; when a woman marries, her husband comes to live in her parents' home. In these respects, Cham society resembles that of the Minangkabau, a Muslim people of Indonesia (See Aramco World, July-August 1991). Mixed marriages of Chams to Khmers, Vietnamese or Chinese almost always result in the non-Cham partner's conversion to Islam. Vietnamese - and in Kampuchea, Khmer - is the language of trade and commerce for the Chams, but at home Cham is spoken. Muslim Chams also attend Qur'anic schools to learn Arabic and Malay in Arabic script.

Rural Chams live at subsistence level, much like the poorest Vietnamese and Khmer peasants. Those who work as farmers tend to grow cash crops such as cotton, sesame, indigo or vegetables, rather than cultivating wet or paddy rice. A number of women supplement their incomes by weaving bright, multi-hued textiles and ribbons. Muslim Chams often control local cattle trading, lumbering, weaving and commercial fisheries, and serve as butchers of cattle for Buddhist Khmer and Vietnamese - many of whom will eat beef but refuse to slaughter it.

Braving the traffic of Ho Chi Minh City on a motor scooter, we wove in and out of the swarms of bicycles and trucks, headed for the Cholon district, home of the city's ethnic Chinese. In the 1930's, the Indian Muslim community erected a mosque in the district, called Jami-ul Masjid Cholon, which sits at a skewed angle to the street, oriented westward toward Makkah. By the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, many of the Indians had fled the country, and the mosque was taken over by Cham Muslims. The modest complex is maintained largely through donations from overseas relatives. On an average day, some 20 people attend prayers there, and on Fridays close to 100.

I was introduced to the imam; interpreting for us was a Cham businessman, whom we will call Rama. Because of his association with the Americans during the war, Rama spent a decade in reeducation camps; now he is involved in foreign trade. Over the years the government has worked to assimilate the Chams, bestowing on them family names such as Ong, Ma, Tra and Che. At the government's behest, Rama vietnamized his Cham-Arabic name.

Rama explained that animosities, often escalating into confrontation, have always existed between Vietnam's regimes and the religious and ethnic minorities - the Chams, the mountain tribes, and the Hoa Hao and Cao Dai sects. A group known as FULRO - United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Peoples - was organized by a Kampuchean Cham in 1964, and survives to this day. During the Vietnam War, most minority groups were sympathetic to, or actively supported, the Americans. When the United States withdrew and the Communist regime of North Vietnam swept to victory in the south, a futile Cham uprising was brutally suppressed.

Though the last 20 years have been untroubled, the Chams are still treated with suspicion by the current government. In Vietnamese society, Chams are often discriminated against on the basis of language. "Because Cham is spoken almost exclusively in their homes," Rama explained, "Cham children enter school with a language handicap that affects their education and later job opportunities, so the Chams tend to be poorer than their Vietnamese neighbors."

Up until the fall of Saigon, every year 100 Cham Muslims flew on chartered planes from South Vietnam to Saudi Arabia to make the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Makkah. But since the reunification of Vietnam under the Hanoi government, it has been impossible for Chams to make the Hajj, due to the government's anti-religious stance and the lack of funds. Rama added a hopeful note: "The political and religious climate is slowly changing for the better. Things are slowly opening up. Two years ago, I would not have dared to meet and talk with you."

But fear still lingers. Rama asked me not to photograph him or use his real name. Later, a Cham declined to take me to a Muslim wedding because he was afraid to be seen with an American riding pillion on his scooter.

The origin of the hostility between Vietnamese and Cham goes back some 14 centuries, to a time when the kingdom of Champa found itself in frequent conflict with the Dai Viets to the north, ancestors of the modern Vietnamese. The first Champa capital of Tra Kieu was destroyed by the Dai Viets in the sixth century and a new capital was built south of there at Indrapura. As warfare continued, the Cham people were forced to move their capital five more times - each time farther south. Trying to re-establish themselves, the beleaguered Chams then fell prey to their western Khmer neighbors. The intermittent fighting between these two peoples, spanning the 12th century, is well chronicled in the bas-reliefs at the famous Angkor Wat ruins in Kampuchea.

Beset by internal dissension and the ensuing Mongol invasions of Kublai Khan, Champa began to crumble. In 1471, the Vietnamese emperor Le Thanh Ton swept down from the north, vanquishing Champa and sending much of its population fleeing to Angkor, the predecessor state of Kampuchea, where the refugees were welcomed by the Khmer king. When the Vietnamese captured the Champa port of Phan Rang in 1693 and a massacre ensued, another 5000 Chams fled westward to Kampuchea.

It made sense for me to follow the route of the Chams to Kampuchea, where Cham villages are more accessible. From the air, Kampuchea looked like a vast swamp, with the Mekong River a great, brown swath slicing through it all.

Since the 13th century, a small community of Muslims of Malay origin existed in Kampuchea. By 1590, Muslim Arab and Malay traders had settled in Lovek, the former Kampuchean capital, engaging in brisk business up and down the Mekong and intermarrying with Chams fleeing the intermittent upheavals in Vietnam. Muslim influence gained ascendancy in Kampuchea when Prince Ponhea Chan, supported by the Malays, assassinated the reigning king. Ponhea Chan converted to Islam, adopted the name Ibrahim and shortly thereafter launched a jihad or holy war against the Dutch East India Company. In 1650, Ibrahim's Khmer enemies overthrew him and Kampuchea's only Muslim king was captured and killed. In 1790, another large wave of Chams migrated to Kampuchea following the collapse of the Tay Son revolution in Vietnam.

A census carried out in 1874 by French colonial authorities found 25,599 Chams in Kampuchea, about three percent of the total population. In 1936, the Chams' numbers there had grown to 88,000, and by 1975 swelled to 250,000, making the Cham Muslims the country's largest minority. By 1970, there were 132 mosques in Kampuchea, and 25 Cham scholars had graduated from various Islamic educational institutions outside Indochina, nine of them from Egypt's al-Azhar University. Eighty Kampuchean Chams annually made the Hajj to Makkah, and by 1975, when the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh, an estimated 1000 Chams in Kampuchea had completed the pilgrimage and thus were entitled to be called hajjis.

Today, most Kampuchean Chams live in 70 villages scattered along the banks of the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers in Kompong Cham and Kompong Chhnang provinces. Some also live in communities in Takeo Province near the Vietnamese border and in Kampot on the Gulf of Thailand. Just north of the capital Phnom Penh, in the Cham heartland, is the village of Chrang Chamres, wedged between a ribbon of asphalt called Highway 5 and the reddish-brown waters of the Tonle Sap. At the heart of village life is the river, providing food, transportation, water for bathing and cooking, and, for the giggling children splashing in the shallows, sheer fun as well. The wooden houses perch on tall pilings, allowing the waters to sweep just below the floor boards during the monsoons.

For centuries, fishing was the traditional means of support in Chrang Chamres, but now many people work in fish-processing, lumber or weaving factories. A fisherman might make $30 a month, a factory worker $25. With city life encroaching on the villages, a substantial number of villagers have become street vendors, selling drinks, foods, and small products of various kinds.

Many women in Chrang Chamres once labored over looms, weaving the brilliant silk fabrics found throughout Kampuchea, but now a lone woman preserves the craft locally. Sitting in the shade beneath a house, the heddle suspended from pilings, she passes the shuttle back and forth between the silk weft threads, patiently producing a black-and-purple checked cloth. "The silk thread is imported from Vietnam and is becoming too expensive," she said. "None of my daughters or other girls are interested in learning to weave. I'm the last one in this village." But in villages farther from the capital, the weaving continues.

Off in the distance, the insistent beating of a heavy skor drum accompanies the muezzin - here called a bilal, the name of Islam's first muezzin - as he calls the faithful to prayer. Plastic slippers line the steps of the mosque. Inside, men pray wearing white caps (kapeas) and colorful batik cloth skirts tied in a knot at the waist. Mosque An-Nur an-Na'im, built in 1901, was once the largest in the country; now, like many Muslim places of worship, it is being rebuilt after being destroyed by the Khmer Rouge. When the Khmer Rouge were finally ousted from power in 1979, only 20 of the 132 mosques in Kampuchea remained.

In 1972, amid growing unrest on the eve of all-out civil war, the Khmer Rouge revolutionaries launched a campaign to eradicate Cham culture. The distinct Cham communities, with their large villages, separate language and independent organizational networks, posed a threat to the Khmer leaders' vision of a homogeneous, highly regimented country. In areas under Khmer Rouge control, the Chams were accused of excessive religious devotion that detracted from work time, and their religious observances were gradually restricted. Cham women were compelled to shear their long hair and adopt the short Khmer style. The traditional Cham batik was forbidden and the people were forced to wear black "pajamas." Eventual suppression of the five daily prayers precipitated a general protest, and Khmer Rouge authorities began arresting religious leaders.

As the Khmer Rouge gained full control in Kampuchea, mosques and schools were closed and Cham villagers dispersed throughout the countryside, along with the rest of the urban population. When the massacres of the educated, the talented, the exceptional and the recalcitrant began in earnest, a Cham Muslim's simple refusal to eat pork was grounds for immediate execution.

By the time Vietnamese troops entered Kampuchea in 1979 and ousted the Khmer Rouge regime, only 30 out of 1000 Cham hajjis were still alive, 38 of 300 Qur'anic teachers, 45 of 350 community leaders and deputies and two of 25 foreign Islamic school graduates. All told, some 90,000 out of 200,000 Chams were killed in the dark years of the Khmer Rouge regime.

Every Cham has a devastating personal story to tell. "The Khmer Rouge killed over half of my family. I escaped to the Thai border, passing as Khmer," said the imam at the Chrang Chamres mosque. "There are still many Chams who live as Khmers because the situation is still so unsettled and they're afraid something could happen again." He lives in a house with some of his 30 grandchildren and does not take any of their lives for granted.

Thousands of Kampuchean Khmers and Chams were bludgeoned to death at the extermination camp of the Choeung Ek "Killing Fields" outside of Phnom Penh. Cows graze in the gaping mass-burial pits, the soil still visibly impregnated with bits of cloth and bones. Over 8000 disinterred skulls are stacked according to age behind the glass panels of a memorial erected in 1988. As we returned to the car, our guide said quietly: "One of those skulls is my father."

Later, we arrived for dinner at Abdullah Ben Yousef's house in Prek Kdam, not far north of Chrang Chamres. Security in the area was somewhat unsettled, but the sight of an AK-47 assault rifle beside the bed - and the presence of the local police chief - assured me I was in safe hands. Abdullah's spacious house and new car, the only one in the village, were evidence that his lumber business was prospering, making him among the wealthiest men in the village. Abdullah was fortunate enough to make the Hajj to Makkah in 1988 and his walls are covered with souvenirs and pictures of his pilgrimage. In the past two years, in an indication things are gradually returning to normal, a total of 55 Kampuchean Chams have made the Hajj.

Delicious smells wafted from the cookhouse on the far end of the veranda, where Abdullah's wife Fatima prepared dinner. Food was served on the floor: dishes of fish, one smothered in ginger, garlic and green onions, another with peppers. Rice and a salad of cucumber and green tomatoes - and Coca Cola - completed the meal. The men dined separately, while Fatima and the children watched. I chewed self-consciously, each swallow eliciting giggles from the children as my Adam's apple bobbed up and down.

To my surprise and disappointment, shortly after we'd finished eating, my host announced we would have to head back to Phnom Penh. I asked to stay longer, but the translator explained that "bad men are on the road" and "it's not safe to have foreigner in car." Several people had been killed recently at nearby Angkor Wat. As we drove back, the long stretches of dark, empty road seemed interminable. Several times, we were stopped at roadblocks manned by local militiamen, and the Marlboros I had given as a gift to my hosts were handed out the window to the soldiers. When I was dropped off at my hotel in Phnom Penh, I gave Abdullah my last pack of cigarettes and a few dollar bills in case they needed to pay a "toll" on the return trip home.

The next morning, we returned to Prek Kdam. From behind the village mosque, we could hear a chorus of children's voices reciting the Qur'an, in that melodious lilt that helps youngsters remember. The children squirmed on wooden benches, laboring over pages of Arabic script. My appearance in the classroom doorway caused an instant uproar, and the teacher beckoned me in.

Mohammed Abdul Hamid has lived in Malaysia for 15 years and visits here periodically to teach the children English, Malay and Arabic. He pointed to the bare bricks and said, "The school has been undergoing construction for four years. Sometimes the UNTAC [United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia] soldiers from Muslim countries come and help us. But as you can see, we have a way to go."

I asked the children what they wanted to do when they grew up. They responded with enthusiastic flurries of hands when I suggested a doctor or a teacher; being a fisherman also seemed desirable, while a few wanted to be movie stars. Three boys and one girl - who looked around and then lowered her hand - wanted to drive a truck. Interestingly, the notion of a government job produced much giggling and few hands.

Through the translator, I urged them to listen to their teacher and study hard, so they could one day contribute to the rebuilding of their country. I asked if they had any questions for me - expecting some to be curious about where I was from and what I was doing in their country. One girl, about 12, timidly raised her hand and asked, "Would you like to contribute some money for the construction of our school?" She was practical and to the point; how could I refuse? I advised the teacher to keep an eye on that one; with such children, the future of the Chams would be assured.

Boston writer-photographer Bill Strubbe has a long-standing interest in Islamic culture and history, and writes articles dealing with the world's cultural and environmental diversity.




This article appeared on pages 10-15 of the March/April 1993 print edition of Saudi Aramco World.

See Also: CHAM, ISLAM—SOUTHEAST ASIA, KAMPUCHEA, MUSEUMS, MUSLIMS—SOUTHEAST ASIA, VIETNAM

Check the Public Affairs Digital Image Archive for March/April 1993 images.

http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/1 ... ersist.htm
Laurent
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Re: Bagian 20 : JIHAD vs Vietnam/Kamboja (abad 11 -1975)

Post by Laurent »

History of Islam in Vietnam
The exact dates of Islam's spread in Indo-China is not known for certain. However, generally speaking, Islam arrived in Indo-China before it reached China during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). It was introduced by merchants from the Muslim world who sailed along the coastal cities. The following is a map and a quote from "Arab Seafaring" by George F. Hourani:




"After the passage through the Malacca Strait, known to the Arabs by its Malay name of Salaht ("Strait"), a call was made at Tiuman Island. Next cutting across to Indo-China, they stopped at ports in Sanf, the Champa kingdom in the eastern coastal, then at an island off the coast, known as Sanf Fulaw (corrupted in our texts to "Sandar Fulat"). From there vessels might coast round the Gulf of Tongking to Hanoi, known as Luqin, before they made for their final destination, Canton, which was called Khanfu."



What is known for sure is that by the 11th century, Islam was already in Vietnam due to recent discovery of two gravestones belonging to the Champa Muslims, dated from the early 11th century.



Before we proceed further, we need to understand the historical background of the Champa people. The kingdom of Champa was found in the 2nd century and lasted until the 17th century. Their land stretched along the Central coast of what is now modern Vietnam from Hoành S½n massif (Müi Ròn) in the north to Phan Thiªt (Müi Kê Gà) in the south. The people is of Malayo-Polynesian stock with indianised culture.


When Islam came, few Champa people adopted it. However, some time between 1607 and 1676, the king of Champa became Muslim thus precipitating most of his people to enter Islam also.


Throughout the century, the Champa provinces were slowly annexed one by one until finally, by the 17th century they were completely absorbed by the ÐÕi Vi®t (vietnamese). During the reign of the Vietnamese king, Minh MÕng, the Champa were severly persecuted. As a consequence, the last Champa Muslim king, Pô Ch½n, decided to gather his people (those on the mainland) and migrated south to Cambodia. Whereas those on the coastline, they migrated to Trengganu (Malaysia). The area where the king and the mainlanders settled is still known to this day as Kompong Cham. They were not concentrated in one area but were scattered along the Mekong river in Vietnam, forming 13 villages along it. Throughout the years, their children were sent to Kelantan (Malaysia) to learn Qur'an and Islamic studies. Once studies were completed, these children then return home to teach others in these 13 villages. Also, another factor which helps them to preserve the true teaching of Islam was the interaction between them and the Malaysian Muslim traders who sailed through the Mekong river.


Not all the Champa Muslims migrated with the king. A group stayed behind in Nha Trang, Phan Rang, Phan Rí, and Phan Thiªt provinces (Central Vietnam). With their increasing isolation with other Muslims, they began to mix Islam with Buddhism, Hindism and Bà La Môn . Hence, their descendents became lost to the true teachings of Islam. In 1959, these descendents came into contact with the Champa Muslims in Châu Яc (one of the 13 villages in South Vietnam) and also with the Muslims community in Saigon (H Chí Minh city). The Muslim community in Saigon, mainly consisted of Indians, Pakistanis, Malaysians, Indonesians and Arabs. (See "Who are the Vietnamese Muslims?") As a result of this interaction, the descendents who had lost Islam began to return to true Islam. Furthermore, with the help of the Muslims community in Saigon, mosques were built in Vån Lâm, An Nh½n, and Phѽc Nh½n (Central Vietnam).


Apart from the Champa Muslims, there are also two groups of Vietnamese Muslims which will be discussed in the article "Who are the Vietnamese Muslims?" After April 30th 1975, while the majority of Vietnamese Muslims remain in Vietnam under the communist regime, a sizable number of them managed to escape to other countries. The majority of them settled in America, France, Malaysia, India, Canada and a handful in Australia.



References:
1.D± Häi Minh (1965) "Dân Tµc Chàm Lßþc sØ" Saigon.
2.Hourani, George F. (1979) "Arab Seafaring" Princeton University Press, New Jersey.
3.Tarling, Nicholas (1992) "The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia" vol.1 Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

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Re: Bagian 20 : JIHAD vs Vietnam/Kamboja (abad 11 -1975)

Post by Laurent »

Who are the Vietnamese Muslims?


There are three types of Vietnamese Muslims in Vietnam:
1. The Champa Muslims
These are one of the indigenous people of Vietnam and they form the majority of Muslims.
For more details see "The History of Islam in Vietnam".

2. The Inter-Racial Muslims
These are descendents of mixed marriages between local Vietnameses and Muslim traders such
as the Arabs, Indians, Indonesians, Malaysians and Pakistanis. Throughout the ages, these
descendents also either married local Vietnameses who converted to Islam or Muslims from other
countries. They make up the second largest group of Vietnamese Muslims.
3. The Vietnamese Converts
Throughout the ages, the local Vietnameses interacted with Muslim traders who lived in Vietnam. They
were drawn to the teaching of Islam and therefore they embraced Islam.
For example, there is an entire Tân BØu village in Tân An province which converted to Islam.

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Re: Bagian 20 : JIHAD vs Vietnam/Kamboja (abad 11 -1975)

Post by Laurent »

Tragedi 600 Tahun Muslim Indocina

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, Meski telah sekian lama mengenal Islam, dan selama 700 tahun menjalin kontak dengan pedagang-pedagang Muslim, orang-orang Champa relatif terlambat mengadopsi Islam sebagai sistem kepercayaan komunitasnya. Terdapat spekulasi, konversi besar-besaran ke dalam Islam merupakan cara paling memungkinkan bagi etnis Champa untuk memelihara hubungannya dengan nenek moyangnya di Malaysia. Terutama setelah mereka kehilangan kontrol atas nasib mereka akibat kekalahan dalam perang Annam-Champa.

Teks-teks sejarah Cina menginformasikan Kerajaan Champa berdiri tahun 192 SM. Saat itu sejumlah elite lokal dalam masyarakat Champa mulai memobilisasi massa, dan mengambil alih tanah-tanah kekuasaan Cina. Sebagai negara baru, Champa juga memperluas wilayah kekuasannya dengan kekuatan senjata. Mereka menganeksasi sejumlah wilayah kerajaan-kerajaan kecil, mengintegrasi paksa masyarakat di dalamnya, dan menciptakan ruang yang cukup untuk berkembangnya masyarakat mereka.

Pada saat bersamaa mereka membentuk identitas komunitasnya dari dua unsur yang berbeda. Di level elite, mereka mengadopso sistem monarkhi absolut gaya Hindu. Tapi di level massa, tidak banyak etnis Champa yang tersentuh produk budaya Hindu, dan lebih banyak mempraktekkan tradisi leluhur mereka.

Teks-teks sejarah Cina pertengahan abad X menyebutkan terdapat sejumlah bukti Islam telah hadir di tengah komunitas masyarakat. Salah satunya, terdapat catatan Kerajaan Champa tahun 951 dan 960 mengirim Pu Ho San (transliterasi Cina untuk Abu al Hasan) sebagai dubes untuk Cina. Pu Lo E, atau Abu Ah yang disebut-sebut memimpin 100 orang asing keluar dari Champa pada saat terjadinya kerusuhan internal. Serta cerita tentang Hu Xuan, atau Hussain, yang memimpin ekspedisi beranggotakan 300 orang ke utara Champa.

Catatan Simkin, pelajar dan petualang, menyebutkan kontak Champa-dunia Islam terjadi lebih awal dari yang disebut dalam teks-teks Cina. Menurutnya, setelah menaklukkan Kekaisaran Bizantium dan Persia, Kerajaan Arab-Muslim meningkatkan aktivitas perdagangannya ke Asia. Kesaksian ini diperkuat I-Ching, petualang Cina, ketika bepergian ke Sumatera dengan kapal Persia. Pada tahun 727, menurut I-Ching, sejumlah besar kapal-kapal Muslim merapat di pelabuhan Kwangchou (Kanton).

Tahun-tahun berikutnya, Muslim Cina menjadi komunitas yang paling aktif berdagang di kawasan Asia Tengara. Simkin mengatakan hampir di seluruh rute perdagangan terdapat pemukiman komunitas-komunitas Muslim, kecil maupun besar. Champa, yang termasuk rute perdagangan Muslim Arab, secara langsung bersentuhan dengan pengaruh Islam. Sejumlah artefak yang ditemukan para arkelolog membenarkan catatan Simkin. Bahkan, terdapa inskripsi Arabik bertahun 1039 di makam Abu Kamil yang makin memperkuat dugaan ini.

Tanpa harus memperdebatkan siapa yang pertama kali memperkenalkan Islam di Champa, banyak sarjana mengatakan Islam tidak pernah membuat kemajuan berarti di sini. Tidak ada Islamisasi di Champa selama periode 700 tahun sejak etnis ini berkenalan dengan sistem kepercayaan yang diajarkan Nabi Muhammad saw. Serta tidak ada bukti misi-misi Islam ke tanah suci Mekah selama waktu itu.

Islamisasi baru terjadi sekian tahun setelah kekalahan memilukan Champa atas bangsa Annam pada tahun 1471. Padahal, di kawasan Asia Tenggara saat itu sedang terjadi Islamisasi besar-besaran. Mulai dari Semenanjung Malaysia sampai ke Mindanao. Kapal-kapal saudagar Muslim juga secara reguler mengunjungi pelabuhan-pelabuhan di perairan Cina dan Timur Tengah.

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Re: Bagian 20 : JIHAD vs Vietnam/Kamboja (abad 11 -1975)

Post by Laurent »

Tragedi 600 Tahun Muslim Indocina (II)


REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, Islamisasi masyarakat Champa terjadi serempak, mulai dari level atas sampai ke yang paling bawah. Tapi saat itu mereka tidak lagi memiliki negara. Mereka menjadi bangsa paria, papa, terlunta-lunta di tanah sendiri, dan terisolasi, setelah Kekaisaran Annam menganeksasi seluruh wilayah mereka. Untuk kali pertama dalam sejarah mereka, Champa menjadi bangsa diaspora. Banyak yang memutuskan meninggalkan kampung halaman mereka dan pindah ke Kamboja. Hanya sedikit saja yang memutuskan tetap bertahan di tanah leluhurnya.

Dari Kamboja, sebagian lainnya melanjutkan perjananan ke Thailand dan Malaysia. Mereka yang singgah di Kamboja selamanya relatif mampu beradaptasi dengan masyarakat setempat, dan memperoleh akses ke istana kerajaan. Sedangkan mereka yang tinggal di Vietnam semakin tertindas, terisolasi, dan bangsa Annam melarang mereka menggunakan bahasa dan menjalankan ibadahnya.

Sejarah mencatat selama lebih 600 tahun etnis Champa di Vietnam tidak pernah mampu keluar dari nasib buruknya sendiri; miskin dan ****. Namun dari sekian lama periode itu, masa 100 tahun terakhir mungkin yang paling menghancurkan etnis ini. Selama 50 tahun perang kemerdekaan Vietnam-Prancis mereka menjadi target kedua serangan kedua pihak karena posisinya yang tidak menguntungkan. Ketika AS masuk dan meramaikan Perang Indocina II, orang-orang Champa menjadi target asimilisasi pemerintahan Ngo Dien Diem dan Nguyen Van Thiew.

Rejim komunis di Hanoi bersimpati terhadap penderitaan mereka. Namun setelah komunis memenangkan perang, Hanoi kembali menjalankan politik isolasinya. Tapi Champa hanya satu dari 54 etnis minoritas di Vietnam lainnya. Di Kamboja, selama Perang Indocina II, masyarakat Champa sempat mengorganisir dirinya untuk kembali membangkitkan kejayaan masa lalunya. Tapi upaya ini gagal, dan mereka menjadi target pembantaian Khmer Merah.

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Re: Bagian 20 : JIHAD vs Vietnam/Kamboja (abad 11 -1975)

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Vietnam-Champa Relations and the Malay-Islam Regional Network in the 17th–19th Centuries

Danny Wong Tze Ken


Historical relations between Vietnam and the kingdom of Champa was a very long- standing affair characterized by the gradual rise of the Vietnamese and the decline of the Chams. The relationship began as early as the second century CE, when the Chams started a kingdom called Lin-yi, covering the area between the land of the Viet people in the north and Nanchao in the south. The historical consciousness of both peoples includes wars and conflicts between the two over a period of fifteen centuries before the kingdom of Champa was incorporated under Vietnamese rule in 1693. Thereafter, the lands of the Chams were settled by Vietnamese through a series of land settlement programs introduced by the Vietnamese ruling houses.


Subjugation of the former land of Champa was incomplete, however, as Cham resistance – often armed – became the central theme of the relationship after 1693. Resistance was based on the desire to be free of Vietnamese rule and to reinstate the kingdom of Champa. Contributing to this desire was the friction that existed between Vietnamese and Chams, often at the expense of Cham rights and well being. It was not until 1835 that Cham resistance was finally broken.


This essay traces the history of Vietnam-Champa relations between 1693 and 1835, with emphasis on the Vietnamization process and the existence of a Malay-Islam regional network in Southeast Asia, based mainly in the Malay Peninsula, that contributed to Cham resistance. The last part of the essay discusses the correlation between historical and present-day Cham-Malay relations.


The Vietnamese Victory over Champa in 1693


Before 1692, Champa was trying to strengthen its position against the Vietnamese through dealings with other regional powers. The Vietnamese were represented by the Nguyen family, which had ruled southern Vietnam since 1558. Although Champa was then still an independent state, Nguyen sources such as the Tien Bien had used the term “rebellion” for all Champa military action against them since 1629 – revealing that the Nguyen perceived Champa as a tributary vassal.


In 1682, the French priest at the court of Ayudhya reported that the king of Champa had submitted voluntarily to the king of Siam.[1] While no other information is available, the event suggests an attempt by the Chams to forge an alliance with Siam with the ultimate aim of resisting the Nguyen. During a stop at Pulo Ubi near the Gulf of Siam on 13 May 1687, William Dampier, the English traveller, met a vessel of Champa origin anchored on the eastern side of the island. The vessel carried rice and lacquer and was on its way to Malacca. All forty crew members were Chams. They carried broad swords, lances, and some guns. Dampier wrote that the Chams were actively involved in trade with the Dutch at Malacca.[2]


In 1692, the Chams were feeling confident enough to challenge the Vietnamese. In September, Po Saut, the king of Champa[3] at Panduranga (Pho Hai-Phan Rang-Phan Ri region), began building fortifications and had his men attack the region of Dien Khanh (Dien Ninh prefecture and Binh Khang garrison).[4] The campaign ended with the defeat of the Chams in the first month of 1693. Po Saut and his followers were captured seven months later; meanwhile, the Cham court was renamed Thuan Thanh Tran and occupied by Nguyen garrisons whose mission was to prevent attacks from the remnants of Cham forces.[5]


The conquest of Champa should be understood in the context of Nam Tien (southward movement). Chinese scholar Yang Baoyun considers Champa a victim of the Nguyen’s deliberate policy of subjugation, which stemmed from the principle of “maintaining good relations with countries of distance, and attacking the neighboring countries.”[6] Title-inscriptions found on a cannon cast in 1670 by Joao da Cruz (Jean de la Croix), the Portuguese gun founder in the service of the Nguyen, sheds light on the matter. The title-inscription on the cannon reads, “for the King and grand Lord of Cochinchina, Champa and of Cambodia.”[7]


A series of battles between the Chams and the Vietnamese in 1693-94 left the area in severe famine and led to the outbreak of plague.[8] Apart from the difficulties caused by military clashes, the new Vietnamese administration was ill-prepared to govern the Chams. The main problem was its inability to establish an effective military presence. This was partly resolved when the Nguyen ruler Nguyen Phuc Chu (r. 1691-1725) appointed Po Saut’s lieutenant, Po Saktiraydaputih (or Ke-ba-tu),[9] as the ta do doc (governor) to administer the region on behalf of the Nguyen.


Po Saktiraydaputih was given the rank of a kham-ly (civil official) in the Nguyen bureaucracy. His three sons were given the military appointments of de-doc, de-lanh, and cai-phu. The Chams were also ordered to change their costumes to those of the Han tradition, which meant the costumes of the Vietnamese.[10] Thus began a process of Vietnamization in the Cham territories that was to continue through the eighteenth century.


The Vietnamization Process


In 1694, Nguyen Phuc Chu made Po Saktiraydaputih the native king (phien vuong) of Thuan Thanh Tran, and the latter was obliged to pay tribute to the Nguyen. Thus the tributary relationship was resumed. Nguyen Phuc Chu also returned the royal seal of Champa together with captured weapons, horses, and population. Thirty Vietnamese soldiers or Kinh Binh (soldiers of the Imperial City) were sent to protect the new Cham ruler.[11] At this point the kingdom of Champa no longer existed as an independent entity, but had been integrated into the Nguyen domains. The Cham people continued to live in small pockets from the region of Quang Nam down to the Pho Hai-Phan Rang-Phan Ri region, where the seat of the Cham court under Po Saktiraydaputih was situated. The ruler’s palace was situated at Bal Chanar, not far from Phan Ri.[12]


Even though the Chams continued to refer to their kingdom in the Pho Hai-Phan Rang-Phan Ri region as Panduranga, it was actually occupied territory. Vietnamese-Cham relations after 1697 under Nguyen Phuc Chu were based on central-regional relations; the role of the Cham ruler was more of a cultural and economic leader than a political one. But it was probably due to such a relationship that the Cham people were able to co-exist with the Vietnamese during the southward expansion of the Nguyen up to the early nineteenth century.


The Nguyen-Champa tributary relationship provides an insight into the attitude of the Nguyen with regard to its new status as a suzerain. On the one hand, the tribute had great economic and practical value to the Nguyen. More significantly, this self-created tributary relationship was a manifestation of the Nguyen’s achievement of an independent state ruling over its newly acquired tributary state, Champa. The Nguyen court was now the center of a system of tributary states made up of weaker states and uplanders.


However, the relationship between Po Saktiraydaputih and Nguyen Phuc Chu did not prevent friction from taking place in day-to-day affairs between the Cham people and Vietnamese settlers. Chams were also dissatisfied with the Vietnamese administration of the newly created Binh Khanh prefecture, whose jurisdiction covered the Cham territories in the Pho Hai-Phan Rang-Phan Ri (Panduranga) region. Such friction involved the jurisdiction of law enforcement, trade, trade taxes, slaves and labor contracts, and administrative boundaries.[13] The Chams were at a disadvantage when dealing with the Vietnamese in these matters.


An agreement made in 1712 between Nguyen Phuc Chu and Po Saktiraydaputih included five provisions to regulate or govern Vietnamese-Cham relations in Binh Khang. Nguyen records mentioned that the agreement was made at the request of Po Saktiraydaputih and that Nguyen Phuc Chu “granted” a list of rules (not an agreement).[14] It is difficult to ascertain if Po Saktiraydaputih really requested such an agreement, but clearly it was important in safeguarding the interests of the Chams, even though some of the articles were biased against them:

Anyone who petitioned at the Royal palace (of Po Saktiraydaputih) has to pay 20 string of cash (quan) to each of the Left-Right Tra (court official), and 10 string of cash to each of the Left-Right Phan Dung; Whereas those who petitioned at Dinh Binh Khanh have to pay 10 string of cash to the Left-Right Tra, and 2 string of cash to each of the Left-Right Phan Dung.

All disputes among Han people (Vietnamese) or between Vietnamese and a resident of Thuan Thanh shall be judged by the Phien Vuong (Cham King) together with a Cai ba (treasurer) and a Ky Luc (judicial official) (both Vietnamese officials); Disputes among the people of Thuan Thanh shall be judged by the Cham King.

The two stations of Kien-kien and O-cam shall be defended more carefully against spies. The authorities shall have no power to arrest residents of the two stations.

All traders who wish to enter the land of the registered barbarians (Man de) must obtain a pass from the various relevant stations.

All Chams from Thuan Thanh who drifted to Phien Tran (borders with Cambodia) must be well treated.


From the agreement it is apparent that the Cham territories were well penetrated by Vietnamese settlers and that there was no distinctive demarcation between a Cham and a Vietnamese area in the Binh Khang Garrison (Thuan Thanh area). The terms of the agreement also suggest that the Nguyen had conceded a great deal of administrative authority to their sponsored Cham king. However, the great influx of foreign culture and people inevitably forced the Chams to accept the presence of the Viet people and adopt some of their ways, including wearing Vietnamese costumes and using the Vietnamese language.


Nguyen-Champa relations between 1697 and 1728 were described by Vietnamese sources as amicable. In the seventh month of 1714, for instance, after the completion of the renovation of the Thien Mu Temple in Phu Xuan, Po Saktiraydaputih brought his three sons to attend a religious celebration hosted by Nguyen Phuc Chu. Chu, a devout Buddhist, was “very pleased” with their presence. He appointed each of Po Saktiraydaputih’s sons as hau (noble in charge of a village).[15]


Three months later, Po Saktiraydaputih requested assistance from the Nguyen for the establishment of an official court. The Tien Bien recorded how Nguyen Phuc Chu ordered a plan drawn up for the Cham ruler in which the respective positions of military and civil officials in the court were specified.[16] Given the nature of the Nguyen chronicles, it is difficult to be sure if Po Saktiraydaputih had actually made such a request, or whether the whole system was imposed upon the Chams. Nevertheless, it represented another step towards the Vietnamization of the Chams.


Under Po Saktiraydaputih, the Cham people remained subordinate to Nguyen authority between 1700 and 1728, a period when the Nguyen were expanding into Cambodian territories. Even when the Nguyen were preoccupied with the situation in Cambodia, the Chams did not take the opportunity to free themselves. After the death of Po Saktiraydaputih in 1728, Nguyen-Champa relations underwent a shift. In that year, the Chams rose against the Vietnamese, but were swiftly defeated.[17] This led to further Vietnamization as Vietnam-Champa relations were downgraded to those of a prefecture and subsequent Cham rulers adopted the Vietnamese family name of Nguyen.[18]


No Cham ruler after Po Saktiraydaputih developed a close relationship with an individual Nguyen ruler such as that between Po Saktiraydaputih and Nguyen Phuc Chu. The Cham rulers continued to come from the line of Po Saktiraydaputih (of the Po Rome line), but they conducted their affairs with the prefects of Binh Khanh and Binh Thuan prefectures and rarely had direct contact with the Nguyen capital at Phu Xuan. A survey of the Cham Archives of Panduranga provides the information that post-1728 Nguyen-Champa relations were still governed by the regulations set by Nguyen Phuc Chu and Po Saktiraydaputih. This represented continuity with the pre-1728 period, but the process of Vietnamization also continued. The autonomous Champa ruler as envisaged by Nguyen Phuc Chu became little more than a local chieftain under the jurisdiction of prefecture administrators, and the position of the Chams became more and more vulnerable.


Beyond state-level relations, Champa’s own cultural identity was threatened by the large number of Vietnamese in its territories. Po Dharma describes the remnant areas of Champa as spots on a leopard skin.[19] Not only did the Vietnamese swamp Champa, but they also began to break into the traditional economic positions of the Chams, taking over their role in the collection of jungle produce from the highlands. This included the direct collection of calambac (gaharu) and eaglewood and dealing directly with the uplanders for jungle produce.[20] According to Po Dharma, many Chams became indebted to the Vietnamese by borrowing money at the exorbitant interest rate of 150%. This resulted in Chams losing land, rice fields, slaves, even their children and parents.[21]


In this state of losing their homeland and inevitable Vietnamization, the Chams began to turn towards the Malays of the peninsula for assistance.


The Chams and the Malays


Like the Malays, the Chams are categorized as Malayo-Polynesian (Austronesian).[22] They came under Indian cultural and religious influence around the middle of the fourth century CE. The fusion between local dynamics and this foreign influence is evident even today in Cham architecture and relics found in the region between Hue and Quang Nam. The cities of Tra-kieu, Dong Duong, and My-son are fine examples.


Contrary to the findings of earlier scholars, the people of Champa were not ethnically homogenous.[23] In fact, over the centuries, interaction took place between the Cham and uplanders from the Truong Son (Annamite mountain chain) range. Former Cham centers in the highlands such as My-son lend support to such an argument. There are new findings that suggest an incorporation of other Austronesian tribes such as the Jarai, the Chru, the Ronglais, and the Rhade into Champa. Po Rome (1627–1651), one of the most popular kings in the history of Champa, was actually of Chru descent. Po Rome’s son, Po Saut, was of Chru and Rhade parentage.[24] There is also evidence suggesting the incorporation of non-Austronesian groups – the Stieng and the Hmong – into the Champa kingdom.[25]


The Sejarah Melayu (Malay Annals) mentions the presence of Chams in Malacca during the reigns of the Malay sultans. They were known to be political refugees who had arrived in Malacca after 1471. They were well received by the rulers of Malacca, who appointed some Cham noblemen to official positions in the court. In highlighting the Cham presence in Malacca, Marrison draws attention to the fact that the Chams probably contributed to the racial admixture of the Malays of the Peninsula and hence some Cham influences may have survived in Malay cultural tradition.[26]


It is more important for our purposes to note that Malacca was a destination in the post-1471 Cham diaspora. The year 1471 marked the sack of Vijaya by the Vietnamese, the year Henri Maspero suggested as the end of Champa. Was the Cham decision to go to Malacca prompted by ethno-cultural considerations or by religion?


It was probably based more on ethno-cultural factors – as evidenced by the record of Champa-Malay relations – than on religion While the rulers of Malacca had converted to Islam in 1414, Islam had not yet made major inroads into Champa. Islam would later become important, however, in the strong connection between the Chams and the Malays. By the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, it would be the main factor in rallying Malay help for the Chams in resisting Vietnamese domination.


French scholar Pierre Yves Manguin suggests that the Chams only converted to Islam in the seventeenth century, almost three centuries after the Malays. But Islam was introduced into Champa at an earlier, undetermined date. Maspero stated that some Chams may have converted to Islam as early as the era of Sung dynasty China. Two Kufic inscriptions found in what was southern Champa are dated around 1030 CE and there is some indication of a Muslim community in Champa in the tenth century.[27]


Existing literature and the present situation in Indochina have probably given rise to the impression that the Chams were Muslims during the life of Po Rome, who stayed in Kelantan for several years in the seventeenth century. And many Chams who had fled the Champa heartlands (central Vietnam) since 1471 and lived in Cambodia and on the Vietnam-Cambodian border had converted to Islam. The existence of this group, commonly known as Cham Baruw, also reinforced the Islamic image of the Cham people.


Po Rome’s stay in Kelantan, however, should be seen from another angle. While Kelantan has been known as the serambi Mekah (gateway to Mecca) since the fall of Malacca in 1511, this title does not necessarily mean that religious practice was like that of the present day, when religion is paramount in the lives of the Kelantanese. Po Rome’s presence in Kelantan a few years prior to his ascension to the throne of Champa was likely an attempt to learn broadly about Malay culture, including the powerful Malay magic and the new Islamic religion. Instead of being the main concern of Po Rome, Islam was part of the wider Malay culture that he and other Chams were hoping to learn about in order to rekindle their ethnic and cultural links with the Malay world.


People-to-people relations between the Chams and the Malays were not confined to religious activities. It is likely that the Chams had been frequenting Kelantan for many centuries. Several place names there, such as Pengkalan Chepa and Kampung Chepa, suggest close ties between the two peoples and wide acceptance on the part of the Malays. There were costume and textile names associated with Champa, for example, tanjak Chepa (headdress), sutra Chepa (silk), and kain Chepa (cloth). Chepa is used to describe one type of keris (dagger). There was padi Chepa (Champa paddy) and sanggul Chepa (a hair decoration). It is believed that a mosque in Kampung Laut was built by Cham sailors who frequented Kelantan.[28] And according to the Hikayat Kelantan (Kelantan Annals), the ancestors of Long Yunus, the founder of the present-day Kelantan sultanate, originated in a state known as Kebayat Negara or Kembayat Negara, which is believed to be Champa.[29]


Cham movement to the Malay Peninsula seemed to be frequent and even lasting. As early as the late fifteenth century, a Cham colony was established at Malacca.[30] While most of the colony’s inhabitants were merchants, it began as a sanctuary for Cham refugees. In 1594, the king of Champa sent a military force to assist the Sultan of Johore to fight against the Portuguese in Malacca.[31] While no explanation was given for the Cham king’s action, it is likely that it was influenced by the common Malay identity and possibly common Islamic faith of the rulers of Champa and their Malay counterparts.


According to the Babad Kelantan (Kelantan Annals), a Cham prince arrived in Kelantan in the mid-seventeenth century who was known as Nik Mustafa. After residing in Kelantan for many years, he returned to Champa and was made king, reigning with the title of Sultan Abdul Hamid.[32] Another Cham ruler who is believed to have been Muslim was Po Rome’s son, Po Saut (1660–1692), the last ruler of independent Champa. He used the Malay title “Paduka Seri Sultan” in a letter he sent to the Dutch governor at Batavia in 1680. In 1685, he requested a copy of the Quran from Father Ferret, a French missionary serving in Champa.[33]


The Cham classic entitled Nai Mai Mang Makah (The Princess from Kelantan) tells the story of a princess from Kelantan who was trying to convert the Cham king to Islam. The event was not dated. Po Dharma and Gerard Moussay are of the opinion that the event took place between the 1693 fall of Champa and the 1771 Tayson rebellion.[34] Manguin suggests that Malay migration into Champa played its part in influencing the people to convert to Islam. Accordingly, the Chams were also influenced by the Malays to adhere to the Sunni Shafie sect and, like the Malays, they also kept traces of Shi’ite devotion.[35] However, Manguin also believed that Malay migration to Champa was much more restricted, especially after Champa was absorbed by Vietnam.


Cham Resistance and the Malay-Islamic Regional Network


French missionary sources mention that during the thirty years prior to the fall of Champa to the Nguyen in 1693, there were many Malay scribes and missionaries in the court of Champa. Their main task was to propagate the Islam faith to the Chams. It is likely that these Malays became involved in the Cham struggle against Vietnamese encroachment into Cham territories, resulting in several anti-Vietnamese movements.[36] In this regard, the Chams clearly invoked their Malay-Islamic identity in trying to enlist help against the Vietnamese.


Between the establishment of Nguyen rule over Champa in 1693 and the final annihilation of the Cham political entity in 1835, the Chams made many attempts to break away from Vietnamese rule. These normally took the form of armed revolts. Among the major Cham revolts were those of 1693, 1728, 1796, and 1832-34.


In the case of the 1728 revolt, Po Dharma suggests that the main cause was Cham dissatisfaction with their socio-economic situation.[37] It was through these revolts that the Chams began to rekindle their ties with the Malays and seek their help in resisting the Vietnamese.


The Cham resistance of 1796 control was led by a Malay nobleman named Tuan Phaow. He is believed to have been from Kelantan, as he told his Cham followers that he was from Mecca (Kelantan). His followers consisted mainly of Chams from Binh Thuan and from Cambodia (giving rise to the suggestion that he was from Cambodia), as well as Malays.[38] Tuan Phaow’s resistance had a religious dimension. In order to legitimize his actions, Tuan Phaow claimed to have been sent by God to help the Chams resist the Vietnamese. Tuan Phaow’s forces were up against Nguyen Anh (Gia Long, founder of the Nguyen Dynasty). Despite putting up strong resistance for almost two years, Tuan Phaow’s forces were cornered and defeated by the Nguyen army working in league with a pro-Nguyen Cham ruler. Tuan Phaow reportedly escaped to Mecca. This resistance movement was the first clear indication that Cham resistance had a strong Malay connection. It also shows the Islamic religious dimension becoming a common rallying call.


The 1832 Cham revolt took place as a reaction against Emperor Ming Mang’s harsh oppression of the Chams in reprisal for their support of Ming Mang’s viceroys in Gia Dinh in the south. Viceroy Le Van Duyet had refused to accept orders from Hue since 1728. After Duyet passed away in 1832, he was succeeded by his adopted son, Le Van Khoi, who continued to resist the Nguyen court. Ming Mang’s army carried out a series of oppressive activities against the Cham population in Binh Thuan to punish them for supporting Le Van Duyet and Le Van Khoi. In this conflict, the Malay-Cham connection is again evident in the form of Malay leadership. The Chams were led by a Islamic clergyman from Cambodia named Katip (Khatib) Sumat, who had spent many years studying Islam in Kelantan. Apparently, upon hearing that Champa was under attack by the Nguyen army, Katip Sumat immediately returned. Arriving in Binh Thuan in 1833, he was accompanied by a large force of Malays and Chams from Kelantan. Katip Sumat led the Chams in a series of guerrilla attacks against the Nguyen army. Apart from fighting for the survival of Champa, Katip Sumat invoked the Islamic bond in rallying Malay and Cham support for the cause. In some ways this turned the Cham struggle against the Vietnamese into a form of religious war.[39] The Katip Sumat-led resistance, however, was defeated by the Nguyen army.


Katip Sumat’s Malay contingent did not consist only of volunteers. It is believed that they were sent by Sultan Muhamad I of Kelantan (1800-1837), who raised an army to accompany Katip Sumat to Champa. According to Po Dharma, the underlying factors were the Sultan’s acknowledgement that he and the ruler of Champa shared the same lineage (descendants of Po Rome) and of the need to preserve Islamic unity.[40]


The defeat of Katip Sumat and other Malay-Cham resistance against the Vietnamese in 1835 marked the end of Champa as an independent or autonomous political entity. However, resistance up to that time demonstrates that the Malay-Cham relationship was very old and based first on their common Malay identity and, increasingly since the sixteenth century, on their common adherence to the Islamic faith. Malay-Cham relations continued after 1835 as well, mainly culturally and religiously.


The Twentieth-Century Legacy of Cham-Malay Linkages


The final annihilation of Champa by the Vietnamese Emperor’s troops in 1835 effectively marked the end of almost two millennia of continuous Champa existence. Since then, the last strips of Champa territories, known as Panduranga to the Chams, were fully incorporated into the Vietnamese realm. The end of the Cham royal house also effectively ended the little protection afforded the Cham population between 1693 and 1835. Unlike the previous arrangement, wherein the Chams were subjects of the Cham rulers and governed by Cham regulations and laws, the post-1835 Cham population came under direct Vietnamese rule. The provincial administrators were the highest authority, and Cham notables served as middlemen between the population and the Vietnamese rulers.

With the end of 1835 revolt, Cham links with the external world were also considerably reduced. This situation persisted until the second half of the nineteenth century, when Binh Thuan and five other provinces in the south were ceded to the French by the Nguyen at the end of the Franco-Vietnamese War of 1858-1861. The advent of French colonization of Vietnam actually ended Nguyen attempts to wipe out the Chams. The breakdown of the Nguyen administrative apparatus in the face of greater French control over the provinces saw the rekindling of ancient Cham aspirations to exert Cham identity. Efforts to re-establish traditional external linkages, including those with the Malay states, played an important role. This is evident from reports of religious teachers (ulama) from the Malay Peninsula who frequented the former land of Champa during the final years of the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth. Like their predecessors, many of these visitors stayed for long durations in the former Champa as well as among the Chams in Cambodia. They married local Cham women and had children. Several of these families remained in the former Champa and in Cambodia, cementing relationships established in earlier centuries.


During the twentieth century, exchanges of visits between the Chams and the Malays became more frequent and were often family visits, though the religious factor remained strong. Until recently, Malay missionaries visited southern Vietnam to spread the Islamic faith among the Chams.[41] In the annual international Quranic recital competition in Kuala Lumpur, representatives from Vietnam (Binh Thuan) continued to take part until the escalated Vietnam War made it impossible for them to attend.


From the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 until 1993, the Malaysian government took in no fewer than 7,000 Muslim Cham refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia, making them the only group out of the tens of thousands of Vietnamese refugees who passed through Malaysia to be accepted and settled.[42] Though the official explanation was based on humanitarian considerations, the truth lies with Malay-Cham connections based on common Malay and Islamic identity.



Danny Wong Tze Ken is associate professor in the Department of History, University of Malaya. This project was funded by a SEASREP-Toyota Foundation Regional Collaboration Grant.

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Laurent
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Re: Bagian 20 : JIHAD vs Vietnam/Kamboja (abad 11 -1975)

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Cambodia: Muslim acceptance in Laos stark contrast to Myanmar intolerance

Published in Interfaith News - South East Asia News 03 Sep 2012

The imams of two mosques in Vientiane tell of fair treatment from the communist authorities, while expressing sadness and frustration at the treatment of Rohingya in the country next door.

PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE: Muhammad Vina bin Ahmad Imam of the Azhar Mosque says his congregation has good relations with the Lao government.

Just over a decade ago the tiny Islamic population of Laos, like Muslims everywhere, watched on in horror as al-Qaeda carried out its suicide attacks on New York and Washington. They were then flabbergasted as a tide of Western opinion turned on them.

But as time passed the imams of Vientiane's two mosques thought those days had been consigned to history, particularly in Southeast Asia, where al-Qaeda affiliates were dealt with and mostly dismantled.

But now both men are again looking on in horror at the treatment of Muslims, this time right next door in Myanmar, where close to 80 people have died in unrest between religions set off by the rape and murder in June of a Buddhist woman in Rakhine State in the west of the country. In retaliation, 10 Rohingya Muslims were lynched at the hands of an angry mob, and further attacks on Rohingya became widespread.

Muhammad Rafi, of the Jamia Mosque is an outspoken native Myanmar Rohingya, while Muhammad Vina bin Ahmad, a Cambodian Cham, is the imam of the Azhar Mosque and a little more reserved. But both are at a loss to comprehend why Muslims in Myanmar are bullied and bloodied by their countrymen and threatened with expulsion from their own country by a government that prefers not to grant them their sovereign rights and would like to see them leave.

"It's a big, big problem," said Mr Rafi with the help of a translator. "It's no good and we're not happy. We feel this because they are killing a lot of Muslims. No Muslim will be happy with this."

He sits inside his mosque, flanked by two ultra-conservative Muslim Wahabis who are traditionally dressed in white. They are visitors from Saudi Arabia and declined to give their names, saying only that they are tourists visiting regional countries. But they did say that Myanmar is ripe for international help.

A state of emergency was imposed in June across the state of Rakhine following the violence. The New York-based Human Rights Watch has accused Myanmar authorities of shooting Muslims, committing rape and doing little more than standing by as mob attacks escalated.

Myanmar President Thein Sein made an already bad situation much worse by insisting the Rohingya in Myanmar are not his compatriots and, despite centuries of carrying out their Islamic traditions in Myanmar, they should be placed under the auspices of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and shipped to a third country.

This notion was rejected immediately by the United Nations and Washington.

It was decided at an Extraordinary Summit of the Organisation of Islamic Conference in Mecca to take the Rohingya issue before the UN because of the continued "recourse to violence by the Myanmar authorities against the members of this minorityand their refusal to recognise their right to citizenship".

Saudi Arabia has pledged US$50 million (1.57 billion baht) to aid the miserably impoverished Rohingya in Myanmar.

The 67-year-old Rafi still has family in Myanmar caught up in the trouble and he dismisses vague attempts by some Buddhist historians inside his native land who are attempting to rewrite history with claims the Rohingya never lived in Myanmar before the 1950s, a contrived argument used to deny them citizenship.

His family, mainly nieces and nephews, live in Palao in Rakhine state and have for generations. He says some have been forced to convert to Buddhism. Asked if a resolution can be found that would allow for a peaceful co-existence between Myanmar's Muslims and Buddhists, he shakes his head and says: "No."

That opinion was shared by the Wahabis and members of the Jamia congregation who had gathered around him. HARMONIOUS FAITHS

Anti-Islamic hostilities in Myanmar stand in sharp contrast to the treatment of Muslims in Laos, who have citizenship and have found cultural acceptance in an overwhelmingly Buddhist country.

Myanmar has about 800,000 Muslim Rohingya, while Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand also have significant Muslim populations. Muslims in Laos are much smaller in number.

Mr Rafi's congregation of 500-odd souls is an ethnic mix from North Africa and the Indian sub-continent whose ancestry for centuries made their living in Laos by trading in textiles or butchering meatfor local restaurants.

Across town another 200 Muslim Chams thrive in a small industrial suburb. They began arriving here as refugees after April 1975, when the communist revolutions which had convulsed Indo-China for the previous decade entered into their final phase.

Religion of all types was an anathema for the incoming communists, however, and some were less tolerant than others. The Cham fled as Cambodia was annexed by the Khmer Rouge, who initiated a fierce pogrom that annihilated perhaps 200,000 Muslim Chams.

Their extermination is currently being examined as part of an international tribunal which has put Pol Pot's surviving henchmen in the dock for crimes against humanity.

Upon arrival in Vientiane the Cham also found Laos in the final throes of a communist takeover by the Pathet Lao, and anxiety over the situation had forced many local Muslims to leave. But unlike the Khmer Rouge, Lao communists were relatively generous and fears inside the Islamic community

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Re: Bagian 20 : JIHAD vs Vietnam/Kamboja (abad 11 -1975)

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Post 9/11, Vietnamese Catholics promote dialogue with Islam

Published in Interfaith News - South East Asia News 10 Sep 2011 Written by AdministratorThe 2001 attack on the U.S. affected the followers of all religions, with a part of the country marginalizing Muslims. The archdiocese of Saigon initiated moments of interreligious encounter and created a special commission. Vietnamese priest: contact with other religions "makes our faith stronger."

Ho Chi Minh City (AsiaNews)- The terrorist attack of September 11 and the dramatic images transmitted by television hit - albeit in a different way - the faithful of all religions in Vietnam. For this, the archdiocese of Saigon wanted to organize a group for interreligious dialogue, which to date, it has grown to become a Pastoral Commission for Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue. The day after the American tragedy, the Vietnamese began discriminating against Muslims, which is why the Catholic leaders created moments of encounter, dialogue and integration.

The Archdiocese of Ho Chi Minh City was the first to begin interfaith dialogue with Muslims: meetings, visits of courtesy, moments of cultural exchange, under the auspices of the Catholic Commission. A project that aims to develop the Church in every diocese in Vietnam, contributing to the growth of the country. So much so that in the pastoral letter of 2010 to the faithful, the People's Assembly of God, Christian leaders explained that " dialogue is at the service of God's salvation, anattempt at mutual understanding and serving the true happiness of man."

A priest of Saigon explains that "through contact and dialogue with Buddhists, Muslims, Protestants, CaoÐàiand Bahai'ifaithful,people can benefit" in their lives and relationships with others in the community. Although some of the faithful, he adds, fear that interreligious dialogue can deviate from Catholic teaching,onthe contrary contact with other religions "is an invitation to make our faith stronger."

In Vietnam there are two different orders of Muslims, old and new, for a total of 64 thousand faithful throughout the country. In Ho Chi Minh City there are 4,850, divided into 16 communities and led by 69 local representatives. After the tragedy of 11 September 2001, they were victims of ostracism and discrimination by the majority of the population.

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Re: Bagian 20 : JIHAD vs Vietnam/Kamboja (abad 11 -1975)

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http://www.onislam.net/english/politics ... riate.html

Along with their Rohingya Counterparts

Cham Muslims: Liberate Not Expatriate

(3 votes, average 5.00 out of 5)

By Islam Mitsraym

Saturday, 15 September 2012 00:00

After the June 2012 bloody incidents in the Rakhine State of Burma (Myanmar), millions of Muslims from all over the world paid attention to their prosecuted fellows, the Rohingya. But, have you ever heard about the Cham Muslims? It might be a surprise to know that they are not located far away from the Rohingyas, actually they also live in Southeast Asia just to the east of Burma. But they are more neglected than their Rohingya counterparts and their story is sadly harsher.

In the

farthest southeast of mainland Asia lies the native motherland of an indigenous ethnic group of Muslims called Cham. Islam was first introduced to Chams by Muslim sailors and merchants through trade from South Asia. According to archaeologists, the first Islamic graveyards in the Kingdom of Champa date back to the 11th century, while Cham kings, royals, and monarchs started to embrace Islam between 1400s and the 17th century. Unlike Rohingya, Chams are not an ethnic Muslim minority, but they have their own country that is occupied by Vietnam and Cambodia, and they are subjected to systematic displacement from their homeland just like Palestinians.

Both Rohingya and Cham used to suffer a number of bloody massacres and genocides, yet the condition of the Cham people is different from the Rohingyas and much closer to the Palestinians in several senses.

Just Like Palestine

Chams, who are an Austronesian ethnic group, got occupied by the Austroasiatic Vietnamese and the Austroasiatic Cambodian Khmers and were expelled from their own lands and their native country which is called "Champa" —currently lies in the central and southern region of modern-day Vietnam.

The Kingdom of Champa is just like Palestine, it has an old history of independent and indigenous existence. It initially originated in Southeast Asia since the 2nd century AD and more specifically in 192 AD according to Chinese historical documents. Besides, anthropologists, geographers, and historians agree upon the fact that Chams are natives to this land since 1000 BC when their ancestors, the Sa Huỳnh, immigrated to mainland Asia from Borneo Island.

Champa stretched from the current province of Quang Binh in central modern-day Vietnam to the southern tip of this occupier country, including some highlands and plateaus in the eastern regions of Cambodia and the southernmost provinces of Laos.

Champa Kingdom remained since then under continuous Chinese threats and aggression till the 10th century when conflicts erupted between Chams and the newly-independent Vietnam just to its north, which was also occupied by China.

Century after the other, the power of the Kingdom of Champa eased down and Vietnamese occupation began to sack its north regions. Prosecution of Cham people has increased as well at the hands of the foreign occupation leading to a significant decline in the number of Cham population.

As a result, Chams were obliged to concentrate further and further in the southern principalities of their native kingdom.

Unfortunately, by the beginning of the 12th century, an additional threat arose from the west as the Khmer attacks from Cambodia took place leading to additional displacement and forced migration to neighboring countries like Malaysia, China, and Thailand. The Kingdom of Champa did not totally fall except in the modern ages in 1832.

Nowadays, Chams only settle in a very few scattered regions. According to governmental Vietnamese and Cambodian censuses, they can be found in central Vietnam in the provinces of Phan Rang-Thap Cham and Phan Thiết, in addition to the south province of An Giang and around Ho Chi Minh, the largest city in Vietnam. While in Cambodia Chams live in Kampong Cham Province at the central east of the country, beside some scattered villages along the shores of Mekong River basin.

Silent Screams and Deaf World

Both Rohingya and Cham face ethnic and religious cleansing alongside other ethnic and religious minorities in Southeast Asia. The population of the Cham got decreased severally because of the Vietnamese occupation of their homelands, yet even more harshly at the hands of the communist military rule of Khmer Rouge of Cambodia.

The Communist mentality, which supports extreme and unrealistic equality that erupted from Marxism, viewed the Chams not as civilians but as people with different language, costumes, traditions, culture, norms, habits, and religion. This led the Khmer Rouge communist regime to consider them as the main enemies of Cambodia’s unity and equality among its citizens. Genocides and massacres against them and other linguistic and ethnic minorities were the main tools of the regime.

Just like Palestinians who are majorly Muslims with a sizable Christian minority, Chams are Sunni Muslim in majority but a big minority of them believes in Hinduism.

According to an official estimate in 2009, all Chams number between 400,000 and 500,000. 352,000 of whom live in the Cambodian-occupied regions where 88 percent are Sunni Muslim, followed by ten percent Hindus, while almost two percent non-religious. On the Vietnamese-occupied Cham provinces there are 162,000 Chams, 55 percent of those occupied by Vietnam believe in Hinduism and 40 percent are Muslims.

Another serious threat facing Chams unlike Rohingya is that through the total negligence from the Muslims of the world, except for Malaysia, old French Christian missionaries during the French occupation of Southeast Asia and modern missionaries like “PrayWay: Global Prayer Community,” “The Joshua Project” found a fertile soil for their work. Currently, five percent of the Chams living in the Vietnamese-occupied provinces are Christians according to the official reports of the mentioned missionary websites.

Malaysia which shares Austronesian ethnic ties with Chams is the sole Muslim country which helps them and provides services for their community. According to the Malaysian constitution, Chams have the right to Malaysian citizenship and national recognition by the country. Furthermore, Malaysia’s Islamic institutions accept Cham students from Cambodia and Vietnam to learn Islamic studies. In several cases, the courses fees get paid by the Malaysian government.

Linguistic brotherhood between the Malays and the Chams as being both Austronesian languages eased the life of the few thousands of Chams living in Malaysia.

Calls for Liberation, Expatriation

After the dissolution of Champa in 1832, Chams did not stop calling and fighting for their just indigenous rights. With the withdrawal of the French occupation from Southeast Asia and during the Vietnamese Civil War in the 1960s, Chams felt a glimpse of hope in regaining their independence. Various movements emerged calling for the creation of a separate Cham state in Vietnam.

The most famous among these movements was “Le Front pour la Libération de Cham.” Unfortunately, all these rightful calls failed in facing Vietnamese and Cambodian brutality and no single independence movement succeeded in bringing the Cham dream to ground.

There are some voices which try to make use of the good relations and ties between Muslim Malays and Muslim Chams to claim that the perfect solution for the Cham problem is by encouraging Chams to live in Malaysia and fully integrate in the nation which gladly supports them.

This is actually outstandingly similar to the same Israeli aims of finishing and ending the Palestinian cause by forcing Palestinian Arabs to evacuate their lands in Palestine and accept nationalities of other neighboring Arab nations. Such calls aim at emptying the historic land and diluting the Palestinian cause from its inner core which is people and demographic existence.

Chams shall not leave their native land of Champa in the southeastern tip of mainland Asia; they must remain in their historic motherland. But the question remains: Will Cham be paid any attention or will they continue to suffer negligence from their Muslim brothers and the UN?

The cause of the Chams will probably remain buried since their blood is not being shed in the meantime although their native land is still occupied by two countries. But when Muslims find their blood flowing in streams and ponds they will at last catch a glimpse of their conditions and situation. Always late reactions, but not actions!

Bagian 20 : JIHAD vs Vietnam/Kamboja (abad 11 -1975)
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Re: Bagian 20 : JIHAD vs Vietnam/Kamboja (abad 11 -1975)

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The long tragedy of Cham history
27 Mardi mar 2012
Posted by Jean-Michel Filippi in Ethnic minorities, Uncategorized ≈ Un commentaire
Mots-clésAgnès De Feo, Amaravati, Ang Duong, Austro-asiatic, austronesian, Aymonier, Bayon, Bellwood, Cabaton, Cham, Cham sot, Champa Liberation Front, Dai Viet, Democratic Kampuchea, French protectorate, FULRO, Iman San, Indrapura, Islam in Cambodia, Jarai, Jayavarman VII, Jean-Michel Filippi, Kauthera, Khmer empire, Khmer republic, kingdom of Champa, Les Kosem, Lin Yi, Mahayana buddhism in Cambodia, malayo-polynesian, Montagnards, Nam Tien, Panduranga, People's republic of Kampuchea, Po Dharma, Po Klaung Garai, Po Nagar, Rhade, Salafism, Tabligh, Thurgood, Udong Mosque, Vijaya
The Khmer empire, from the ninth to the 15th century, obviously didn’t develop in isolation. But, looking at the map of Southeast Asia from a historical point of view, it’s nevertheless clear that this political construction benefited from an unprecedented geopolitical quietness, at least until the 13th century. The Vietnamese hadn’t even begun their march to the south, and the Thai state was made up of embryonic chieftainships.

Yet the exception that proved the rule occurred. In the year 1177, guided by a Chinese deserter, the Cham fleet sailed the Mekong river upstream and from Phnom Penh, the Tonle Sap. They took Angkor by surprise, plundering and destroying the town. They quickly withdrew and, from 1181, under the leadership of the future Jayavarman VII, the Khmers won the war against the kingdom of Champa, which was soon reduced to a vassal state of the Khmer empire.



For the Khmer empire, military recovery was one thing; spiritual recovery was something else. If the very heart of the empire could be so easily struck, there were spiritual causes that couldn’t be ignored. Under the rule of Jayavarman VII, the Khmer empire was the theater of the most dramatic religious shift in Khmer history as the new religion became Mahayana Buddhism. It replaced the Hindu religion, which had proved unable to protect the empire. Hindu gods still existed, but were submitted to the Mahayana Buddha. The temple of Angkor Wat was still there, but was no longer the axis of the world; that was now the Bayon. Who were those Cham who were able to disrupt a mighty empire?

The beginning of a long history
If we look at a current map of peninsular and insular Southeast Asia, we notice no fewer than nine countries. But the borders between these countries don’t tell us anything about the region’s ethno-linguistic components. The situation has become more and more complicated over the centuries.

Let’s get back to the first centuries of the Common Era. Knowing that Chinese, Burmese, Lao and Thai are relatively new in the Southeast Asian landscape, the biggest part of the peninsula was peopled by Austro-Asiatic (or Mon Khmer) ethnic groups. This means that Khmer and related groups (Mon, Kui, Bahnar) were certainly the oldest inhabitants of the peninsula.

There is, however, an exception: a large blot in what is now central Vietnam where another ethno-linguistic group dominates. This group, named Austronesian or Malayo-Polynesian, is composed of a number of peoples such as Jarai, Rhade, Koho and Cham who speak closely related languages that have nothing to do with the Austro-Asiatic group. This presence seems paradoxical. Austro-Asiatic languages are spoken on the mainland with the recent exception of Malay. As concerns Austronesian languages, they are spoken in the Pacific from Easter Island to Madagascar and from Borneo to Papua. So, another Cham exception? Yes and no, because we now know, thanks to the works of Bellwood and Thurgood that: “The Austronesian speaking group settled on the coast of Vietnam from an earlier homeland in perhaps Malaya or, more likely, Borneo, some time before 600 BC. »

From tribes to kingdom
As for the presumably Khmer kingdom of Funan (1st – 7th century), our knowledge of Champa comes from Chinese sources that gave us an account of Lin Yi.

Lin Yi, also known by its Cham name Indrapura, was a Cham principality together with Amaravati, Vijaya, Kauthera and Panduranga, which stretched from the northern part of Annam (in central Vietnam) to northern Cochinchina (South Vietnam). All these principalities were Indianised states, and as such inherited from India state conception, art, religion (Hinduism and later Buddhism) and script. Cham script has the same origins as Khmer and Mon scripts.

By the fifth century, Champa (Lin Yi) was developed enough to raid Vietnamese settlements in what is now northern Vietnam with war fleet of more than 100 ships. Ancient Champa can be best understood through its artistic remnants from the fifth to the 15th century. We can still admire the temple of Po Nagar, near Nha Trang, or the site of Po Klaung Garai, near Phan Rang. As the coast was heavily bombed during the Vietnam war, we often have to content ourselves with drawings and old photographs taken by early French scholars who were the first to study Cham civilisation. Cham sandstone statuary can still be admired in the museum of Cham sculpture in Da Nang or in the Guimet museum in Paris. Beautiful sculptures in the round, bas-relief and the most remarkable haut-relief of Southeast Asia are still here to show the greatness of Cham civilization. From an artistic point of view, in Southeast Asia these Cham masterpieces can only be compared to Khmer statues in the National museum of Phnom Penh.


12th century Shiva high-relief

The loss of a kingdom
Nowadays, more than 80,000 Cham people still live in central Vietnam. Many of them still speak the Cham language and still worship Hindu gods, but the land inhabited by their ancestors is now but a ghost kingdom. They are what remain of a once-mighty kingdom that over 1000 years has faced the tenacity of the Vietnamese conquest. The history of Champa can be read in parallel with the Vietnamese march to the south (Nam Tien).

In the early century of the Common Era, the first Vietnamese state (Dai Viet, which roughly corresponds to current Tonkin) had already reached prosperity through the dyking-up of the banks of the Red River. The Vietnamese defeated the Chinese army in 938 AD, marking the end of 1000 years of Chinese domination; from then, a new independent Vietnamese state could launch its Nam Tien, which was soon to become the nightmare of Cham history.

The traditional warfare pattern in Southeast Asia generally aimed at conquering and dominating sparse populations, using their skills in irrigated rice fields, arts and crafts. Nothing of the kind happened in the Vietnamese Nam Tien. This Vietnamese expansion down south was intended as a populating colonisation. The process was well defined by Léopold Cadière in 1911: “As soon as they feel themselves able, they drive off the first inhabitants, whether in a peaceful manner, by taking over the land, clearing it and « planting the bamboo » – the hedges that to this day still surround Annamese gardens and villages – or by violence, then they fight with the Chams, destroying their temples and mutilating their statues. » In short, there was no room left for the Chams. In 1471, Vijaya, the Cham capital was stormed by the Vietnamese. Therefore, it was not the end of Champa which was much more a confederation of principalities than a unified state. According to the Cham scholar Po Dharma, a lively Cham state existed in the south till 1835. In parallel with the Vietnamese progression down south, the Cham fled overseas, to the isle of Hainan, to the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra and to Cambodia.

The early history of the Cham in Cambodia is far from being clear. To begin with, were the Cham Muslims at the time of their emigration to Cambodia? Scholars have pointed out evidence that Champa had contacts with the Muslim world as early as the 9th century. A group of Muslim Chams are still living in Central Vietnam although they are a minority; there the majority still goes on worshipping Hindu religion. It is then plausible that prior to take refuge in Cambodia a part of the Cham population had already converted to Islam. The fact that today all the Cambodian Chams are Muslims led most of scholars to the conclusion that the conversion of the majority of Chams actually took place in Cambodia. The Chvea (literally Javanese), a large Muslim population, were already living in Cambodia in the 15th century; their origin is unclear as nowadays they all speak Khmer and don’t have a language of their own. It is probably to their contact that the Chams converted to Islam.

The Cham were given by the Udong Monarchy (1601 – 1865) titles and land to settle. After the fall of Vijaya, no less than 3 big migrations to Cambodia occurred: in 1692, 1796 and 1830 – 1835, each of them corresponding to a major Vietnamese push down south. The Chams then deprived of their country were, as they often say, living in someone else’s house. This doesn’t mean that they had renounced having their own state, as their history in Cambodia was punctuated with several attempts to build a Cham state. The last of these short-lived attempts took place during the reign of King Ang Duong (1847-1860) and was severely repressed.

Modern times
It was at the time of the French protectorate (1863-1953) that modern Cham studies were pioneered in Vietnam and in Cambodia by scholars such as Aymonier and Cabaton who were also administrators. French protectorate also marks the beginning of a marginalisation of Cambodian Chams, who were not enthusiastic about sending their children to French schools. French schooling was broadly viewed as a threat to Muslim identity. Without the adequate degrees, the Chams could not take part in political and administrative life.


a group of Cham at the turn of the century

Sihanouk’s years (1955-1970) defined a new attitude towards the Chams who were named “Khmer Islam”. The implications of this have been well perceived by William Collins when he wrote that: “Anyone using the term « Khmer Islam » is aware that the Cham-Malay community is ethnically different from the Khmers. They speak languages related to Malay, they look abroad for their ancestral homeland. They vigorously maintain their distinctive identity, separate from Khmers, by professing Islam, which prohibits intermarriage with non-Muslims. This separation is reinforced by numerous ritual practices that contrast sharply with those of the Khmer majority community. Again, the indelible difference implied by Islam makes assimilation to Khmer ethnicity an impossibility, which suggests that the term « Khmer Islam » points to a feature of the Cambodian nation, that it includes Muslims among its diverse peoples.”

The Khmer republic (1970-1975) was the theatre for the emergence of new geopolitical conception in which the Chams happened to have an interesting part to play. In the 1940s, the French authorities had promised to grant autonomy to the “Montagnards”, ethnic groups living in the highlands of Vietnam. There was even a secret project of independence. In such a case, what is today Vietnam would have been split into at least two parts: coastal Vietnam and highlands. Due to the first Indochinese conflict, which ended with the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu, these projects went unheeded.

The very idea was revived by the United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races (FULRO). Born in 1964, certainly with the support of the American Special Forces, FULRO has been playing for 10 years the part of a real army at the service of the South Vietnamese minorities. FULRO is a real ideological hodgepodge with demands for autonomy or independence, new borders… Republican Cambodia displayed a real interest in the FULRO through his high ranking Cham officers and particularly General Les Kosem. Also known by his war name Po Nagar, this outstanding character had already become famous through the creation of the Champa Liberation Front (CLF) in 1950s. He had also been a key figure in the setting of the FULRO and in establishing official links between the Khmer Republic and Cham nationalists. For him the second Indochinese conflict was an ideal opportunity to recreate a Cham state and in 1971 a Cham delegation representing the newly proclaimed Cham state was welcome in Phnom Penh in great pomp. At that time a new Khmer republican map was drawn with a new frontier between Cambodia (including Cochinchina) and Champa.

This last attempt to revive Champa was but short-lived. In April 17 1975, Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh and the 3 years 9 months and 20 days which were going to follow (Democratic Kampuchea) are amongst the most terrifying episodes the 20th century can offer. More than two million Cambodians lost their lives because of starvation, lack of medicines and executions. According to Craig Etcheson, execution is believed to have accounted for 30 to 50 per cent of the death toll. The Khmer Rouge killed about 125,000 Chams, which amounts to half of the Cambodian Cham population. Most of scholars agree on these facts. What is subject to disagreement lies in the analysis of the perpetrators’ motives. Were the Chams peculiarly targeted as a religious or ethnic group to create an ethnic uniformity? In such a case, Democratic Kampuchea (DK) could be accused of having implemented genocide. A second interpretation is that DK implemented a typical communist mass terror and that the Cham didn’t suffer more than the other Cambodians. Cham lifestyle was targeted because it was seen as counter-revolutionary; Islam entered the category of reactionary religions and the links of solidarity within Cham communities were perceived by DK as early as 1973 as a threat for the new order it wanted to implement.

The People’s Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) which followed DK after the Vietnamese armed intervention in 1978-1979 treated the Cham community with special tolerance. The emphasis on the sufferings of the Cham during DK was used by the PRK to stress the differences between the new “true” socialist regime from the radical DK approach to socialism. According to the text “L’Islam au Kampuchéa” published in 1987, the Chams would have entirely disappeared if DK had not been overthrown. There is now a population of 300.000 Chams in Cambodia which roughly accounts for 70% of the total Cambodian Muslim population.

Cham identity in Cambodia today
Although there are Cham groups and cultural associations abroad which go on claiming the ancestral Cham territory in Vietnam, there are nowadays in Cambodia no more hopes about Champa as a geographical entity or a Cham state anymore.

Cham identity is nevertheless matter of controversy in Cambodia. The way Cham people practice Islam is a very interesting example. The Islam of the Cham population can be roughly divided into 2 groups. On the one side, the Cham Sot who account for 10% of the Cham population (30.000 people) live in Kompong Chhnang, Pursat and Badtambang provinces.


In Udong in September, celebrating on the same day the anniversary of the prophet (mawlid) and the Iman San, leader of the Cham sot Community. A very unorthodox approach to Islam

Cham Sot or “pure Cham” is the way they call themselves as they are accused by the other groups to practice very heterodox traditions. They only pray on Friday as opposed to the normal 5 times a day prayer. They still go on writing with the former Cham script as opposed to Jawi which is Arabic script originally adapted to write Malay.


A manuscript written with the ancient Cham script

Other infringements have been noticed by the researcher Agnès De Feo: only initiated people can pray in the Mosque, the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) is not compulsory and can be dreamt up. They organize once a year in September a festival in their Udong Mosque to celebrate on the same day the Imam San they venerate like a saint and the birth of the Prophet; they consider themselves as the followers of Imam san. The celebration of the birth of the prophet and saints is considered as heretic by wahhabism and Tabligh which have exerted a growing influence on Cambodian Cham’s Islam.

On the other side, there are the Chams who practice a more orthodox approach to Islam. This approach can’t be easily structured and must be considered as a continuum. There is of course a clear cut phenomenon which is the growing influence of Salafism with its Wahhabit variant and Tabligh. These two approaches do not differ on the essentials: the cause of the decadence of Islam is mainly due to the fact that the “true Islamic message” has been forgotten. This “true Islamic message” is restricted to the religious practices of the time of the prophet and the famous pious followers (Salaf Salîh) and implies de facto to choose to overlook 14 centuries of Muslim history. In such a conception, there is no possibility of an approach to Islam which would tolerate the integration of local cultural practices; in clear, the frontier which separates the true religion from impiety goes through the Muslim community.

There is nevertheless another extremely interesting border line which hasn’t been given yet the attention it deserves. Before the war (1970), many Cham people had built their identity on a combination of Islam, Cham language and Cultural inheritance from Champa. In such an approach Islam is but a part of Cham Cultural identity. Nowadays, there are still Cham people who define their identity through Cham culture even if this concept is often ill defined. But more and more Cham people tend now to rely only on Islam as the main source of identity. An ethno-linguistic survey conducted in 3 Kampot region villages along the road from Kep to Kampot illustrates very well this fact. The first village centred on the Les Kosem Mosque doesn’t really differ from the others from point of view of religious practices. The difference lies somewhere else: precisely in the fact that Cham language is still practiced in the first village and a number of families still teach it to their children. People talk proudly about their difference. In the 2 other villages, the trend is else as almost no one can speak the language.


A Cham mosque in Kampot region

In many cases, the only remnant of Cham language is curiously the use in a Khmer sentence of the Cham first person pronoun “lun” meaning “I, me”. In these villages, to be Cham will simply means in the end to be a Muslim. No one can predict what is going to happen even in the near future.

We have some reasons to be pessimistic about the survival of Cham language in Cambodia, not to talk about Cham culture which, as we have seen, can’t be easily defined in the present Cambodian situation. Language will of course survive in a number of islets but maybe not as an active component of Cham identity. We can only hope that this exceptional linguistic, historical and cultural patrimony will remain alive and won’t be only reduced to a museum-like display of a dead civilization.

Jean-Michel Filippi
https://kampotmuseum.wordpress.com/tag/agnes-de-feo/
Mirror 1: Bagian 20 : JIHAD vs Vietnam/Kamboja (abad 11 -1975)
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