The Birth of Kan Imam San: On the Recent Establishment of a New Islamic Congregation in Cambodia

Abstract

The Cambodian state is unique in Southeast Asia, due to its official recognition of two distinct Islamic religious communities, whose separate existence is entirely unrelated to the Sunni-Shia divide characterizing Muslim sectarian relations in many countries of the Middle East. Whereas the great majority of Cambodian Muslims, which primarily consist of ethnic Chams, is represented by the Mufti of Cambodia, a second officially recognized Islamic community has been placed under the authority of the Oknha Khnour, as leader of the so-called Islamic Community of Imam San (Kan Imam San), since 1998. The Kan Imam San regard themselves as practicing a distinctively Cambodian Cham form of Islam, and account for roughly 10 percent of the country’s Muslim population. The present contribution will shed light on the genesis of the community by elucidating its distinguishing features, defining practices, cultural icons, self-perception, self-representation and selective approaches to history as well as the internal and external mechanisms behind its formation. Specific attention will be paid to the way in which the Kan Imam San relies on vernacular manuscript culture and local traditions of saint and ancestor worship to make its case for cultural and religious authenticity in the face of an overall espousal of Malay and other models of Islamic religiosity and scholarship by the majority of Cambodian Muslims since the mid-nineteeth century.