US Initiative Helps Chams Retain Language and Culutre

Say Mony, VOA Khmer
Thursday, 27 December 2012

A US-funded cultural preservation project among Cambodia's Cham Muslims has helped students learn to read and write in their traditional language and script. Some Cham are increasingly looking toward Arabic countries and organizations for support. And while this has caused some worry that the culture and some of its half a million people could fall under the influence of extremist groups, US Embassy officials say the project is not directly a counter-terrorism effort.

In Preah Sihanouk, a Tale of Two Mosques

Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Wednesday, 19 May 2010

Din Nos lives just a few steps from a newly built mosque in his home village of Banteay Prey in Preah Sihanouk province. But he refuses to pray there.

Instead, the 76-year-old travels a kilometer down the road, to neighboring O’trav village. That’s because the new mosque has brought new ways with it, and Din Nos, who is almost bald and was lying on a long wooden bed facing the new mosque, prefers the old traditions.

“In this new mosque, they do not pray the way we do,” he said. “We don’t just follow the new way after having seen it, because we have our traditional ways left behind by our ancestors.”

Tribunal Prosecutor Allays Cham Concerns

Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Thursday, 13 May 2010

White-haired and toothless, Leb Sarem was riding his bicycle from his home to pray at a nearby mosque in Preah Sihanouk province. Along the way, he stopped at a neighbor’s housing compound where last month he and other residents here in the village of Prek Torl met with an international prosecutor from the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal.

The visit, from UN prosecutor Andrew Cayley, set his mind at ease, Leb Sarem told VOA Khmer at the compound last week.

“Before he came here, I felt very tense,” the 67-year-old Muslim said. “But now I feel more relieved, because I hope that he will find justice for me by taking the Khmer Rouge leaders to trial sooner.”

Cham Son Seeks Tribunal ‘Justice’ for Father

Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Thursday, 29 April 2010

Ly Sukei’s father was a well-educated Cambodian Muslim who died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge in 1975.

Now Ly Sukei is one of 228 Chams filing as civil parties at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, as the UN-backed court prepares to try at least four jailed leaders of the regime for genocide and other atrocity crimes.

“I filed a complaint to find justice for my father,” Ly Sukei told VOA Khmer at his home in Kampong Cham province, where many Chams lived and died under the Khmer Rouge.

On Island of Massacre, Chams Remember

Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Tuesday, 27 April 2010 

On an island in the Mekong River in Krouch Chhmar district, about 50 km from Kampong Cham provincial town, lies a Cham village that is little more than a few bamboo, thatched-roof houses.

The village is on Koh Phal, or “Island of Harvest,” where Cham Muslims resisted the Khmer Rouge in an uprising in September 1975, just five months after the radical Maoists took power in Cambodia.

“The reason for the rebellion was that there was no more Islam,” Chet Sman, a 75-year-old widower and the head of one of the four families living here, told VOA Khmer in an interview recently. “The Khmer Rouge collected our Quran for burning and cut women’s hair, including my mother’s. This is the reason.”

At Islamic School, a Separation of the Sexes

Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Friday, 09 October 2009

Classes are underway at the Cambodian Islamic Center in Kandal province, and at the nearby Al Rahmani mosque, a group of female students waited for their instructor on a recent day.

It is not by chance that the classroom was empty of men. Here, young women and girls are separated from their male classmates, in a bid to help them study, officials say.

“It is common that female and male students have love relationships, and this makes it difficult for us to control,” said Pich Solin, director of the Islamic Center’s secular studies.

At Islamic Center, Students Prepare for Class

Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Saturday, 03 October 2009

In white clothes and Muslim caps, more than 700 students were set to begin classes at the Cambodian Islamic Center on Thursday, with the Ramadan festival coming to an end.

The center, in Kandal province, is the largest Islamic school in the country and registers students from seven different provinces, though most come from Kampong Cham.

Students stood in long lines outside the center, waiting for classes to begin.

Ari Fin, 15, said he was looking forward to studying at the center, as it provided both general knowledge and Islamic subjects.