Cambodia: Kuwait Pledges US$5 Million For Cambodian Muslims

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA: Kuwait has pledged US$5 million to help support religious activity and education for Cambodia's Muslims, a government official said Friday (8 Aug).

Prime Minister Sheik Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah made the pledge during his visit here earlier this week, said Ahmad Yahya, a government adviser who heads the Cambodian Muslim Community Development.

He said the fund was in response to a request Cambodian Muslim leaders brought to Kuwaiti officials during the visit.

The money will be used for renovating a mosque in the capital Phnom Penh and building a 2-hectare (5-acre) Islamic center near the mosque, in addition to several schools and mosques in a northeastern Cambodian province, Ahmad Yahya said.

Kuwait and other Gulf states, especially Saudi Arabia, have long funded schools and mosques in Cambodia and neighboring Thailand, both of which have small and generally poor Muslim populations.

Ahmad Yahya said the Kuwaiti prime minister announced the new pledge to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen during their dinner meeting on Monday.

"Prime Minister Hun Sen very much welcomed the pledge," he said. "The money is not here yet, but when its comes the Cambodian government will manage it accordingly."

Cambodia has an estimated 700,000 Muslims, representing about 5% of the country's 14 million people, according the U.S. State Department's annual report on religious freedom.

Most of them live in the rural areas and, in the past decade, have been experiencing a revival of their religious freedom that was abolished, just like all religious practices, when the Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.

With the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the past decade, there have been concerns that some projects funded by Middle Eastern money may become breeding grounds for extremists.

In May 2003, Cambodian authorities closed down a Saudi-funded Islamic religious school outside Phnom Penh and arrested three of its members on charges of alleged links to Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian Islamic extremist group connected to al-Qaida.

During his visit, the Kuwaiti leader also expressed his country's interest in investing in Cambodian farmland to produce food for the oil-rich Gulf state.

The two countries also signed agreements to foster economic cooperation, protect investments, and establish direct flights between them.

Cambodia also asked Kuwait for assistance in training its workers in offshore oil exploration and production. (AP)