Muslims story in Cambodia
"The armies with black uniform with a piece of black cloth tied on their head rushing into the city of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia in April 17th, 1975. They are those who were called as Khmer Rouge or Red Khmer by the king Sihanouk of Cambodia. Khmer Rouge or Anggar Padevat (Revolutioner Organization) had chase out the inhabitants of Phnom Penh and emptied the city 3 months before it was subdued. At that time Cambodia was under the rule of Lon Nol.
Among the brutal chiefs of Khmer Rouge is Pol Pot and his followers. Now they are still alive and in trials in the court for what they had done. It is estimated that almost 3 million Cambodians were murdered by Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot had executed ethnic cleansing campaign where the religious teachers and intellects were seized and shooting dead Buddhist monks and Muslim realigious leaders together with their family. They were also prohibited from keeping religious kitaab and Quran in their houses. Other than that, Muslims were prohibited from praying, fasting, and the execution of Hajj too had stopped between 1975 - 1979.
In the beginning, Muslims in Cambodia were about 400, 000, but in 1975, the total Muslims population had decreased to 350, 000 because some of them had died in the Khmer Rouge rebellion. Half of them survived and migrated to the border without returning back.
“I with my 50 other helpless family members sneaked out to Thailand border to seek refuge. Many of us too had been victims of hidden bombs, died, or losing their feet. Some were detained and brought back to Cambodia before being slained. We are among those who survived and managed to get through the border and it is just 15 of us. Upon passing the border we feel like we are alive from the death..." said Mad Li who had also migrated to other country. I had resently met him in his own house in Cambodian Village in Selangor.
"We just walked till we reached Bangkok. When some Muslim Thais know that we are Muslims, we suddenly received helps. We were given shelters and sufficient food every day. I want to pay them back for what their kindness but they refused to accept it! They advised us to move further South for our safety where there are many Muslims there. We agreed and they provided us Bus ticket to reach there. I really insist to pay them but they still refuse it..."
Mat Li further said, "Once we reached Southern Thai, we met many Muslim brothers. Some of them suggested us to cross the border to Malaysia as the country had majority Muslim population. There, Muhajirins are welcomed and that's true. Finally we reached Kelantan state in Malaysia's East Coast and Cambodian Muslim Villages were established in few states in the country. Among the first groups migrated like myself is Ismail Sasakul, a Cambodian who had once been Hong Kong film star."
After 1970, Cambodia received the visits of Russian and Vietnamese advisors who replaced the administration through Hun Sen. However at that time, the war is still running. Fire arms being brought into Cambodia from China, Russia, and the US supplied to Cambodians and the citizens are killing each other. The misunderstanding only stops when a peace treaty was signed in 1991 among the fighting groups.
The UN too had monitored the security of Cambodia till the first election was organized in 1993. At that time, the citizens including Muslims had gained back their freedom to live their life. Through Cambodian Muslim Organization, Cambodian government had executed few programs for Cambodian Muslims' welfare aborad. Cambodian Muslim community too had the opportunity to develop Cambodia beside contributing good ideas for their country. In 1997, three parliament members from among Muslims were chosen and there is about 200 masjids in Cambodia.
Majority of Muslims in Cambodia are from ethnic Champa or Chams which is about 95% of Muslim population. The state of Kompong Cham is among the biggest area with Muslim population comprising 35% of Cambodians since 1975 and 30, 000 of the Muslims can be seen in Phnom Penh. Other than that, the villages with Muslim majority population is Cambodia are the village Cheram Chemerai, the village Pok Bahau near Phnom Penh, the village Pok Serah, the village Pok An, and the village Pok Cerah.
I had been there around the year 2000 where I delivered my speech in Malay in Perik Aji (Parit Haji) in Kompong Cham. After that, I met few elders and I heard many interesting stories. Among them are about the courage of Cham Muslims who live in the village Koh Pohl in defending their Islamic Creed.
The village was said as the first village arise in defending their faith from the brutality of Khmer Rouge. The village Koh Pohl means the island burnt to the ground. It was named like that due to that the houses of the villagers were burnt down during the war. The story was told by the assistant of Imam, Muhammad Doth Arif.
“In the evening of 12 Ramadhan 1975, a group of 20 Khmer Rouge soldiers with a chief called the villagers to assemble in the Masjid. In the assembly the people were forced to abide to 5 rules.
1. Colllecting Quranic texts in a place and burning them to ashes.
2. Women were forced to cut their long usually tied hair short.
3. They should only marrying non-Muslim Khmers.
4. No fasting.
5. They must rear swines and consume the swine for themselves.
After the chief soldeir finished his speech, a kid around 6 years old rushed to the front and slapped the face of the Khmer Rouge chief due to his sensitivity toward swine issue. The matter had raised the spirit of villagers to leave the assembly. After that, they rose to fight the Khmer Rouge soldiers with solely sharp bamboos and parangs.
In the 9th day of the riot, Khmer Rouge attacked the village and shooting them but nobody was injured. After two days holding in their village, the villagers return back the attack. The shooting then happened and 48 villagers died. Finally the village was subdued and some of them managed to seek refuge in Vietnam. Later, Khmer Rouge had followed up with the brutality to the whole Cambodian Muslims.
Many of them died defending their faith toward G-d and martyred.
translated from
http://satuumat.blogspot.com
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