Draft:Cham Muslim Genocide



The Champa Muslims Genocide in Cambodia during the Cambodian genocide was the systematic targeting and persecution of the Cham Muslim minority group by the Khmer Rouge regime under the leadership of Pol Pot from 1975 to 1979. The genocide, part of the broader Cambodian genocide, resulted in the deaths of a significant portion of the Cham Muslim population, alongside other minority groups and perceived enemies of the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge targeted ethnic minorities like Chinese, Thai, Lao, Vietnamese and the Cham people, though the Cham suffered the largest death toll in proportion to their population. Around 80,000 to 100,000 Cham out of a total Cham population of 250,000 people in 1975, died in the genocide.

Background
The Cham or Champa are an Austronesian ethnic group in Southeast Asia as well as an indigenous people of central Vietnam. They are the original inhabitants of coastal areas in Vietnam and Cambodia, along the South China Sea, since before the arrival of the Cambodians and Vietnamese, during the expansion of the Khmer Empire (802–1431 CE) and the Vietnamese conquest of Champa (11th–19th century CE).

The Cham Muslims are an ethnic minority in Cambodia, primarily adherents of Islam. They trace their origins to the ancient Champa Kingdom, which once thrived in present-day central and southern Vietnam and parts of Cambodia. Despite their historical presence in the region, the Cham Muslims faced discrimination and marginalization, particularly during periods of political instability.

The Cambodian genocide
The Cambodian Genocide, carried out by the Khmer Rouge regime, aimed to establish an agrarian utopia by eradicating perceived threats to the revolutionary ideology. Under the leadership of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge sought to create a classless society by targeting intellectuals, professionals, religious groups, and ethnic minorities. The Khmer Rouge regime frequently arrested and executed anyone whom it suspected of having connections with the former Cambodian government along with anyone whom it suspected of having connections with foreign governments, as well as professionals, intellectuals, the Buddhist monkhood, and ethnic minorities. Even those people who were stereotypically thought of as having intellectual qualities, such as wearing glasses or speaking multiple languages, were executed out of fear that they would rebel against the Khmer Rouge.

Persecution of Champa Muslims
During the Cambodian Genocide, the Cham Muslim minority faced severe persecution due to their religious beliefs and ethnic identity. The Khmer Rouge viewed religion as a threat to their vision of a communist state and sought to eliminate all religious practices. As a result, mosques were destroyed, Qurans were burned, and religious leaders were targeted for execution.

Between 1972 and 1974, the Khmer Rouge intensified the enforcement of the restrictions which they imposed on the Cham because they believed that the Cham were a threat to their communist agenda due to the existence of their unique language, their culture, their beliefs, and their independent communal system. Additionally, the Cham were renamed "Islamic Khmers" in an attempt to disassociate them from their ancestral heritage and ethnicity and force them to assimilate into the larger and Khmer-dominated Democratic Kampuchea. The Khmer Rouge believed that the Cham would jeopardize their attempts to establish close-knit communities where everyone could be easily monitored. As a result, the regime decided to disperse the Cham by deporting them from their respective localities and forcing them to work as peasants across Cambodia, hence forcing them to directly contribute to the creation and maintenance of the new Cambodian economy. This move was undertaken in an attempt to ensure that the Cham would not congregate in an attempt to form their own community again, which would have undermined the regime's plan to establish centralized economic cooperatives. Slowly, those Cham who defied the restrictions which the Khmer Rouge imposed on them were arrested by the regime. Hence, in October 1973, Cham Muslims in the Eastern Zone demonstrated their displeasure with the Khmer Rouge's restrictions by beating their drums—they traditionally beat their drums in order to inform locals that it is time to recite the daily prayers—at local mosques. This act of communal defiance prompted the blanket arrest of many Cham Muslim leaders and religious teachers.

Mass killings and atrocities
According to Ben Kiernan, the "fiercest extermination campaign was directed against the ethnic Chams, Cambodia's Muslim minority." Islam was seen as an "alien" and "foreign" culture that did not belong in the new Communist system. Initially, the Khmer Rouge aimed for the "forced assimilation" of Chams through population dispersal. Pol Pot then began using intimidation efforts against the Chams that included the assassination of village elders, but he ultimately ordered the full-scale mass killing of the Cham people. American professor Samuel Totten and Australian professor Paul R. Bartrop estimate that these efforts would have completely wiped out the Cham population were it not for the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge in 1979.

In 1975, upon the victory of the Khmer Rouge over the Khmer Republic's forces, two brothers of Cham descent who had joined the Khmer Rouge as soldiers returned home to Region 21 within the Kampong Cham Province, where the largest Cham Muslim community could be found. The brothers then told their father about the adventures which they had experienced as participants in the revolution, adventures which included the killing of Khmers and the consumption of pork, in the hope that they would be able to convince their father to join the communist cause. The father, who had remained silent, was clearly not impressed by the accounts which were given by his sons. Instead, he grabbed a cleaver, killed his sons, and told his fellow villagers that he had killed the enemy. When the villagers pointed out that he had murdered his own sons, he recounted the stories which his sons had previously told to him, citing the Khmer Rouge's hatred for Islam and the Cham people. This event prompted the villagers to make a unanimous agreement, that night, they would kill all Khmer Rouge soldiers who were stationed in the area. The next morning, more Khmer Rouge soldiers descended upon the area with heavy weapons, and they surrounded the village, killing every single villager in it.

Similarly, in June or July 1975, the Khmer Rouge authorities in Region 21 of the Eastern Zone tried to confiscate all copies of the Qur'an from the people, and at the same time, they tried to impose a mandatory short haircut on Cham women. The authorities encountered a mass demonstration which was staged by members of the local Cham community who were shot at by the regime's soldiers. The Cham forcefully retaliated with swords and blades, killing a few soldiers, only to be retaliated against by the regime's military reinforcements, which annihilated the villagers and their property. In another account which was given by Cham refugees in Malaysia, thirteen leading figures within the Cham Muslim community were killed by the regime in June 1975. The supposed reason for the killings was because some of them were "leading prayers instead of attending a CPK meeting", while the others were purportedly "petitioning for the permission on marriage ceremonies."

The events went from bad to worse in mid-1976 due to the rebellion, when the ethnic minorities were only allowed to pledge allegiance to the Khmer nationality and religion: there were to be no other identities besides the Khmer identity. Consequently, the Cham language was not spoken, communal eating in which everyone eats the same food became mandatory, forcing Cham Muslims to violate their religious beliefs by raising pigs and consuming pork. One reason for the occurrence of such rebellions which has been offered by locals is the fact that some of the Cham who were involved in the Khmer Rouge as soldiers were anticipating the acquisition of positions of power once Pol Pot consolidated his power. In 1975, these soldiers were dismissed from the Khmer Rouge's forces, deprived of their Islamic practices and robbed of their ethnic identity.

The patterns were consistent throughout the killings of the Cham people: first, the communal structures were dismantled as a result of the murder of Cham Muslim leaders, including muftis, imams, and other learned men of influence. Second, the Cham's Islamic and ethnic identities were both dismantled when the practices that distinguished the Cham from the Khmers were restricted. Third, the Cham were dispersed from their communities, they were either forced to perform labour in the fields or they were accused of plotting to incite acts of resistance or rebellions against the Khmer Rouge and arrested.[citation needed] During the Khmer Rouge's rule of Cambodia, all religions, including Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam, were banned and adherents of them were persecuted. According to Cham sources, 132 mosques were destroyed during the Khmer Rouge's rule, many other mosques were desecrated, and Muslims were not allowed to practice their faith. Muslims were forced to eat pork and they were murdered when they refused to eat it. Whole Cham villages were exterminated. Chams were not permitted to speak their language. Cham children were separated from their parents and raised as Khmers. Orders which were given by the Khmer Rouge government in 1979 stated: "The Cham nation no longer exists on Kampuchean soil belonging to the Khmer. Accordingly, Cham nationality, language, customs and religious beliefs must be immediately abolished. Those who fail to obey this order will suffer all the consequences for their acts of opposition to Angkar."

After the end of the Khmer Rouge's rule, all religions were restored. Vickery believes that about 185,000 Cham lived in Cambodia in the mid-1980s and he also believes that the number of mosques was about the same then as it was before 1975. In early 1988, there were six mosques in the Phnom Penh area and a "good number" of mosques also existed in the provinces, but Muslim dignitaries were thinly stretched; only 20 of the previous 113 most prominent Cham clergy in Cambodia survived the rule of the Khmer Rouge period. It is thought that there were some over 100 mosques at the time aswell Quranic Schools Madrassas, The Champa Muslims were the largest minority of Cambodia at the time.

Resistance
In 1975, upon the victory of the Khmer Rouge over the Khmer Republic's forces, two brothers of Cham descent who had joined the Khmer Rouge as soldiers returned home to Region 21 within the Kampong Cham Province, where the largest Cham Muslim community could be found. The brothers then told their father about the adventures which they had experienced as participants in the revolution, adventures which included the killing of Khmers and the consumption of pork, in the hope that they would be able to convince their father to join the communist cause. The father, who had remained silent, was clearly not impressed by the accounts which were given by his sons. Instead, he grabbed a cleaver, killed his sons, and told his fellow villagers that he had killed the enemy. When the villagers pointed out that he had murdered his own sons, he recounted the stories which his sons had previously told to him, citing the Khmer Rouge's hatred for Islam and the Cham people. This event prompted the villagers to make a unanimous agreement, that night, they would kill all Khmer Rouge soldiers who were stationed in the area. The next morning, more Khmer Rouge soldiers descended upon the area with heavy weapons, and they surrounded the village, killing every single villager in it.

Similarly, in June or July 1975, the Khmer Rouge authorities in Region 21 of the Eastern Zone tried to confiscate all copies of the Qur'an from the people, and at the same time, they tried to impose a mandatory short haircut on Cham women. The authorities encountered a mass demonstration which was staged by members of the local Cham community who were shot at by the regime's soldiers. The Cham forcefully retaliated with swords and blades, killing a few soldiers, only to be retaliated against by the regime's military reinforcements, which annihilated the villagers and their property.

End of Genocide
The Genocide was put to the end by the Invasion of Cambodia by the Vietnam People's Armed Forces, The Invasion by the Vietnamese was due to border clashes and mass murder of Vietnamese by the Khmer Rouge During Eastern Zone Massacres and Ba Chúc Massacre. The Vietnamese deposed Khmer Rouge Goverment and Created the People's Republic of Kampuchea.

Legacy and remembrance
The genocide of Champa Muslims during the Cambodian Genocide remains a tragic chapter in Cambodia's history. While the Khmer Rouge regime was overthrown in 1979, the scars of the genocide continue to affect survivors and their descendants. Efforts to seek justice, preserve cultural heritage, and honor the memory of those lost are ongoing.

In recent years, there has been growing recognition of the need to document and memorialize the experiences of Cham Muslims and other minority groups targeted during the Cambodian Genocide. Through education, advocacy, and commemorative initiatives, efforts are being made to ensure that the victims are not forgotten and that their stories are told to future generations.