Khmer-Islam and the threat posed by fundamentalist Middle Eastern influence

Reproduced

Know your niqab and hijab ... reproduced.

Cambodian Cham family - globalfundforwomen

Op-Ed by School of Vice

The adoption of Niqab-wearing among a minority of Cambodian Muslims is a trend that should be treated with some concern by policy-makers and religious leaders at all relevant levels of society. 'Religious freedom' just like any other forms of freedom should be exercised to the long term good and security for both the individuals in question, as well as the national community at large, and in harmony with the national historical context. 

When I raised a similar concern recently over inappropriate and opportunistic practices among some evangelical Christian groups, my note was greeted with ridicule for overlooking the great humanitarian contributions and efforts of the Christian charity movement at large, and chided for not giving due weight to the idea of 'religious freedom' or the rightful exercise thereof. Whilst it is true that a democratic and tolerant, pluralistic society has, or should have, the capacity for embracing differences among its various ethnic and religious colours, this capacity ought to ensure first and foremost that the differences absorbed and assimilated on the whole shall enhance, strengthen and unify the national mix, rather than implanting in it seeds for future communal strife, tension and violence. 

If the power of money in context of extreme poverty and want enables some Christian denominations to make inroads into a traditionally harmonious religious, multi-ethnic community, the same can also be said of the orthodox Islamic influence that has been taking roots within the ethnic Khmer-Islam community in recent years. Of this specific community, the conversion to this religious orthodoxy from within its youth will in time prove most concerning, particularly, in view of the present alarming rise of so-called ISIL [Islamic State] as a fanatical political force in the Middle East. If the converted youths have not been recruited to fight for the cause of their Islamic fraternity already, they could be called upon to do so when needed, and Cambodia, a predominantly Buddhist country will be just another of ISIL's recruiting ground. 

Note that Canberra's determination to "dump" its refugees or asylum-seekers on Cambodia also reveals its immediate and long-term national security concern vis a vis these refugees, and had the latter shared Australia's predominantly Anglo-Saxon roots, these refugees might have been treated some what more favourably?

Between 400,000 and 600,000 or so Cambodian-Muslims are believed to have perished under the KR regime. As a minority group [as I had noted previously] their collective loss is disproportionately the greatest out of the pool of the Cambodian tragedy. In contrast, [aside from the anti-Vietnamese pogroms under Marshall Lon Nol's US-backed Khmer Republic], the Vietnamese as an ethnic group had experienced the least sufferings and losses during the same period as most had been recalled back to Vietnam before or shortly after the KR take-over in April 1975.

On the other hand, and across the world, those countries still ruled in strict adherence to Sharia laws such as Saudi Arabia and Iran for example, personal and political freedoms, especially, for women are notoriously depressing. Indeed, it can be argued that the veil covering a woman's body from head to toe - except the eyes - literally imprisons her and highlights her day to day oppression in the name of Allah and Islam. And yes, the wearing of the niqab is ubiquitous in those societies.

Perhaps, the greatest threat transmitted surreptitiously through this religious influence is posed directly to the Khmer-Muslim community itself. Remember if Khmer Buddhists can be pitted against other Khmer Buddhists, it will be much easier to pit them against other ethnic groups, particularly, ones that go out of their way to be 'different' in values and appearance. 

The Cambodian imams should be given an earful, at the very least ...