Fundamentalists woo the small Cambodian Muslim community

Cambodia's small Muslim community is receiving funding, education and a more fundamentalist slant from Malaysian and Middle Eastern missionaries, some of whom are linked to the Wahabi sect made infamous by Osama bin Laden.

But this does not add up to the existence of any threat to Cambodia from orthodox Islam, nor to the region in the form of terrorist sympathies, agree diplomats, analysts and anthropologists.

The minority Cham community in Cambodia, thought to number around 700,000 after brutal purges by the former Khmer Rouge regime, traditionally adheres to a variant of Shafi'i Islam, which is mixed with local superstitions and cultural practices.

But since 1979, Muslim teachers have arrived in Cham villages from parts of Malaysia, southern Thailand and Pakistan. Aid money has also poured in from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia through groups such as the Revival of Islamic Heritage Society.

Ali Sari, vice-president of the Cambodian Islamic Development Council (CIDC), estimates that 10 to 15 per cent of Cambodia's Muslims follow the Saudi-based Wahabi sect, although other analysts put the figure at six per cent.

Some Islamic clerics in Cambodia claim that up to 60 per cent of Cambodia's Muslims follow the Malay orthodox Dakwah movement, and that madrasas (Islamic schools) in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia were transit points for Cambodian students to reach Afghanistan before the Taleban was ousted.