MUSLIMS LIVING AS MINORITIES
A Small Muslim Community Determined to Thrive Muslim Americans remain committed to helping Cambodia’s Muslims even as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to ravage their own country BY SLES NAZY A water well installed by the Zakat Foundation of America
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oreign donors have been most generous with those Muslims who survived the genocidal rule of the Khmer Rouge (1975-79). Most of the recently built religious facilities, such as mosques, musallas and madrassas, have been constructed for Cambodia’s estimated 1 million Muslims. Among those who have helped are Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and some Middle East countries. They even receive a small degree of help from Muslim Americans. Local Muslim nonprofit organizations cooperate with all of them to better the community’s current conditions. The country’s Muslims have really benefited from the Cambodian Muslim Media Center’s (CAMM; camm-media.org) relationship with the Zakat Foundation of America (ZFA; www.zakat.org/), a U.S.-based nonprofit. A mosque, built in memory of
Rawaa Aljassim with the financial support from goodwill donors through the ZFA, was officially inaugurated in the Muslim rural area of Oupii village, O’Kreang commune, Phnom Khiev district, Kratie province. The ceremony was presided over by Lep Ismail, the village
chief of Phnom Khieu, and members of the Communal Council, Mosque Committee, various authorities and many local people. Ismail stated that because of their living conditions, the 160 Muslim families could not afford to build a proper mosque by themselves. However, a local family donated a lot for the mosque and, fortunately, CAMM answered their appeal and made it happen, despite the ongoing Covid-19 crisis. Mrs. Yousof Aminah, 73, a congregant who came to pray at the new mosque, said that most of the villagers are farmers. When she came here for the first time in 1998, there was no proper mosque and not so many people. And so they used a wooden structure as a temporary mosque for their religious services and events. “Al hamdu lillah,” she remarked, “now we just have this new mosque. Even though it isn’t big enough to accommodate all our people, especially for the Friday congregational prayer, Eid al-Fitri and Eid al-Adha, at least we can enjoy these events with a new mosque and perform our daily prayers indoors.”
THE ZAKAT FOUNDATION OF AMERICA HAS PLACED SPECIAL FOCUS ON STRENGTHENING COMMUNITY INTEGRITY THROUGH BUILDING MOSQUES IN WHICH ONE CAN ALSO FIND SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES. THESE COMMUNITY CENTERS FORM A VITAL SOURCE OF COOPERATION, TOGETHERNESS AND LITERACY IN CAMBODIA’S SMALL MUSLIM COMMUNITY.
38 ISLAMIC HORIZONS MAY/JUNE 2021
