'Just been searching the academic archives to try to sort thru the Cambodian Cham jam
beleive me - it's not easy. there are a hundred different threads.
Anamist Cham, Hindu Cham, Buddhist Cham, Muslim Cham
Cham fight Cham. Cham heading North at the same time other Cham were heading South. Cham swirling everywhere for 2000 years all over the SEA seas.
Wahibi Cham, Boogie Men Cham (the fearsome Bajau sea tribe from whom the Boogie name stems). Dozens of pirate-Sultan Cham.
Good Cham Bad Cham Silly Cham - just like everyone else


Anyway... I found this gem of a doc. from DCCAM
CHAM Culture and History Story of Cambodia
https://reparations.qub.ac.uk/assets/up ... k_LV06.pdf

One aspect that is particularly relevant to our Koh Kong and other coastal Cham -

It should be noted that the Cham community in
Cambodia is often also viewed as encompassing
another Islamic ethnic group, who have a
different history. This group, known as the
Chvea, may have originated from Javanese and
Malaysian communities, and may be descended
from unions between Malaysian settlers and
Khmer people. They arrived in Cambodia
through trade, particularly maritime trade.
They have been in Cambodia for several
centuries; it is estimated that they may have
arrived before the 14th century.
Despite these differences, the ‘ethnic’ label of
Cham is often used to cover both group

This "new wave" (post 13thC) Malaysia/Philippines/Indonesian connection thru maritime trade have always been a stronger influence with Cambodia's coastal Cham.
This is the Muslim culture that swept over virtually all of coastal and island SEA and still "rules" so much of the region today. The older Champa-based Cham culture retreated.

The recent voyage of SEA's Islamic Terrorist most wanted No 1 - Hambali himself - proves this connection still exists today.
lol. ok, not a good example to use - but it's true anyway

Some good history research there SternAAlbifrons, but what of the Cham people of today's Cambodia. It's obvious there's been many changes throughout the history of the Cham settlers, who would like you say be that of boat people, just like today. But it would have been also accessable too travel here by land via trade routes. In the communities of the Cham people of today most will be found on, or near water, because they are fishers, and also within that community base there are marketplaces and shops, because they are traders too. Most important to the community too will be their place of worship being Muslim, Mosques will be a daily place for preyer. Because of those people and their religion they tend to be a close community, following there communal values, that is why it is so, they need each other to live this kind of lifestyle. Also today other Muslim nationalities also live in the Cham communities.
But what of today, and the attitude towards the Cham people, such has the title of the thread asked? Over a number of years now there has been movement of minority and ethnic groups, relocation of some due to new projects, such has the development of the hydro dams. Also the more observed ban on fishing in area's, one being riverside Phnom Penh, I am not talking about the Vietnamese houseboat people who where recently evicted, but many Cham live in the same areas. Also with the pandemic, the government had the Mosques closed, but the same rule did not go for the many temples and pagodas.
Would you also consider a question on the subject, due to the title of the thread. Would you think that there could be more of a concern of the Cham, but more so to do with their tight nit communities, would the majority see those has a possible threat too authority and government.

AndyKK wrote: ↑Fri Oct 29, 2021 6:30 am Would you think that there could be more of a concern of the Cham, but more so to do with their tight nit communities, would the majority see those has a possible threat too authority and government.

Hey Andy, Possibly/probably - a little.
I am not aware of any real issues tho. After all, there is no threat to the Gov, or to public order. They are the most law-abiding and respectful bunch in town.

I know for sure that some particular lenses were very closely focussed on the Cham communities after the Hambali incident - by all kinds of spooks from everywhere.
(lol. We had a big conference of "Mormons on holiday" down in Koh Kong shortly afterwards.
Nice smiles, a very polite if tight lipped bunch. Classic style government issue Hawaiian shirts.)

My understanding is that all of the Cambodian Cham communities came up clean from any meaningful penetration by terror-state Saudi Arabia's pernicious Wahhabism. - unlike in some places further to the South where they were allowed to run free for far too long.

Just a little snapshot by an Irish boat enthusiast from Upriver. Stung Treng
He was surprised that the people in this riverside boat-building scene were Muslim - but as a touring boatist he maybe should have realised that this is the same all over the The Land of Water.
Masters of the sea. everywhere.

Strung Treng
The Cambodian border town on the road to Laos is Strung Treng. It has the feel of a border town, perched on the high bank above an oddly narrower Mekong, but there are still several good hotels to choose from and delicious food in the restaurants and food stalls. At low water time there will be a barge or two building on the bank, big plates of steel welded together at a carefully calculated altitude, to float off and to be ready to float off when the river rises. I also met a tribe of river fishermen there, living on their small double ended boats and rebuilding a pair of them on the beach. Again, the working and living boats were dugout canoes, though quite beamy, and had added planks on each side and a stem and stern very similar to the racing canoes in Kratie. They also had several beautiful long slender canoes powered with air cooled longtail outboards.

These people puzzled me a good deal. The men, as do most men all through the region, wore ordinary western pants and shirts with a baseball cap, if anything on their heads. The women and girls wore long full skirts and the young girls covered their hair with scarves, all very unlike typical Khmer women. I’m quite certain the old man who was rebuilding the boats on the beach made a point of telling me they were Muslims. He said it several times, waving his arm to include the others and tapping himself lightly on the chest: “Muslim.” That would of course be extraordinary in Cambodia, a profoundly Buddhist country, but it would explain the women’s very different style of dress and the fact that several of their beautiful long canoes were painted a pretty green.

This is your excellent, concise, roadmap to the 3 different strands of Cambodian Cham.

Three separate groups may be distinguished within the Cham ethnic category.
The Cham proper trace their ancestry to the Champa kingdom, but emphasize their religion (Islam) rather than their historical origins as their main defining feature. Most still speak the Cham language, which belongs to the Austronesian family [and appears most closely related the language of Aceh, Indonesia], but all are bilingual in Khmer. They are found mainly in Kampong Cham, Kampot and north of Phnom Penh.

A second group is referred to as 'Chvea', which is the Khmer word for 'Java', suggesting a penultimate origin in the Malay-Indonesian area. Today they speak Khmer. They prefer to call themselves not 'Chvea' but 'Khmer Islam' - stressing both their linguistic and national belonging and their separate religion, rather than their 'foreign' origin.

The third group of Cham are the Jahed. Although Muslims, they identify themselves primarily in terms of their historical origins in the Champa kingdom. Their ancestors formed part of an exodus from a Champa principality after its ruler's defeat by the Vietnamese in 1692. Today they number about 23,000 people, all speaking Cham, but most being bilingual in Khmer. In terms of religion, the Jahed belong to a minority within the Muslim population. Their somewhat unorthodox version of Islam (superimposed on a basically Hindu type of cosmology and influenced by Sufi traditions) sets them apart from the other Muslims groups in Cambodia, the Chvea and the Cham. Their possession cult featuring the spirits of their royal ancestors in Champa still flourishes, another sign of their unorthodox approach to Islam.

NB, There is very little i can find written about the Koh Kong Cham community (my special interest), but i can say pretty confidently that they are almost certainly predominantly Chvea. "Khmer Islam" is their description of themselves.

My brother in law is quite insistent on the term - not "Cham". (he is a convert, he had a hot Muslim g/f with a local high ranking Navy dad and so he went all the way. Now fully part of the community. Still drinks beer like a Buddhist tho' - with all his Muslim fishermen mates.)

Their links to the South are quite apparent to anyone who has spent time with Indonesian muslims - they are more like them in a hundred small ways, than the Chams that i see inland in Cambodia.
(nb, just my assessment from observation, not from a scholar)

Anchor Moy wrote: ↑Thu Oct 07, 2021 1:54 am
I would have said "NO" to this question straight out, which is why I was a bit perplexed when I came across an article by David Scheffer*, who seems to be a pretty clued up guy, and is an expert on human rights.

The guy worked with the US government. According to Wikipedia he was a senior advisor to Madeleine Albright. The person who famously said that the death of 500 000 Iraqi children was a price worth paying. These people care as much for human rights as Adolf Hitler did.

Cambodia is a friendly nation to China. That's why you have pathetic attempts like this despicable person like David Scheffer, trying to play the feel bad for Muslim card. When they are the ones killing millions of them in the Middle East.

David Scheffer is NOT a despicable person. (ref; above post)
But he is a very naughty boy.

Selectively taking valid Human Rights concerns, amplifying them, and then weaponising them on behalf of his primary employer. With breathtaking blindspots.

Along with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, George Soros's Open Society Justice (OSJ), he engaged in a daily routine of trash talking the Khmer Rouge Tribunal - as a way of attacking HE and the Cambodian government.

Whatever you may think about the rights and wrongs of attacking HE "for the greater benefit of the Cambodian people" (as one OJS head blithely admitted to me over lunch one day - ps, she later ended up scathing of the OSJ agenda and sabotage) - it was right out of line and hypocrisy at the highest level to use the KR trials for this purpose.
They had a material impact in diminishing the beneficial impacts of the Tribunal - at least until David Schaffer and the others were shamed into backing off. a bit.

He has done some good work. Addressing human rights is a very valid occupation in my book (some here will disagree) but i would never describe our Mr Scheffer as a reliable friend of the downtrodden - only the ones his primary employer chooses to weaponise for its own agenda.