VIETNAM'S ISLAMIC COMMUNITY

UNCLAS HO CHI MINH CITY 000082

SIPDIS


SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM KISL KIRF PGOV SOCI PREL SA CB LY EG VM ETMIN RELFREE
SUBJECT: VIETNAM'S ISLAMIC COMMUNITY


1. (SBU) Summary: Southern and central Vietnam's 30,000- to
50,000-member Sunni Muslim community does not appear to face
significant restrictions in its ability to worship. Unlike
Vietnam's five other recognized religious organizations, the
Muslim community does not have a national leadership to manage
relations with the GVN or address overseas cooperation; Ho Chi
Minh City's (HCMC) representatives take on such a role on an
informal, ad hoc, and sometimes conflicting basis. Vietnamese
Sunni Muslims receive financial, material and educational
support from overseas Cham Muslims, Persian Gulf states, Egypt
and Libya, although reports of the scale of assistance are
inconsistent. Vietnam also is home to 40,000 Bani Muslims -
practitioners of an indigenous form of Islam - who are seeking
independent recognition from the GVN under the country's new
legal framework on religion. End Summary.

Islam in Southern Vietnam
--------------


2. (U) Over the course of 2005, ConGenOffs held a series of
meetings with representatives of the Muslim community in
southern and central Vietnam. ConGen officials met with Musa
Haji, Chief Representative of the Cham community in An Giang
Province, in May and December. PolOffs called on the
Representative Board of the Islamic Community of HCMC, led by
Machdares Samael, Vice President and spokesperson for the HCMC
Islamic Community Board, in October and December 2005, as well
as with Nao Du, Vice-Hakim of Mosque 104, Imam Chau Van Ken of
Mosque 101 and Cham Bani Muslim cleric Tu Cong Du in Ninh Thuan
Province in December 2005 (protect all).


3. (U) According to Samael, Sunni Islam has roughly 50,000
followers in Vietnam, clustered primarily in the southern and
central provinces of An Giang, Ninh Thuan, Tay Ninh, Dong Nai,
Binh Phuoc, Binh Duong, Tra Vinh and HCMC. The two largest
communities are in HCMC and An Giang, with 8,000 and 13,000
members, respectively. The vast majority of Sunni Muslims are
of the Cham ethnic minority, although in HCMC, ethnic
Indonesians, Malaysians and Indians make up a quarter of the
Muslim population. Islam is one of Vietnam's six
officially-recognized religions.


4. (SBU) HCMC and An Giang also are the only two provinces to
have GVN-recognized Muslim representative boards; as a result,
these two boards, especially HCMC's, recognized since 1992, have
become the de facto national representatives of the Muslim
community in Vietnam. Creating a national Islamic organization
is a top priority for Vietnamese Muslims. According to HCMC
Islamic representatives, the GVN will not recognize a formal
national organization of Sunni Muslims until Sunni communities
in other provinces gain provincial recognition first.


5. (SBU) All the Muslim leaders we spoke with said that they
enjoyed positive relationships with their respective local
governments. They had no complaints of GVN attempts to limit
religious practice or the teaching of Islam. HCMC
representative board member Samael praised the HCMC government
for providing USD 25,000 to rebuild his mosque in addition to
the USD 75,000 compensation to his mosque for land lost in a
road-widening project. Muslim leaders also responded positively
to questions about the impact of the new legal framework on
religion, noting, for example, that they no longer have to ask
permission for, but only to notify provincial authorities of,
students studying overseas or community members traveling to
Mecca for the Hajj.

Conflicting Accounts of Overseas Support
--------------


6. (SBU) According to Samael, funding for community projects,
such as rebuilding of mosques, typically comes from the local
Muslim community and overseas Cham in the U.S., France and
Australia. For example, the 3,000-strong Cham community in the
U.S. helped fund the rebuilding of one of HCMC's mosques through
their donations of USD 7,000. Another mosque in An Giang was
rebuilt in 2000 largely through donations from the Cham
communities in Indonesia and Malaysia. Other mosques appeared
to have less lucrative connections; Islamic representatives in
Ninh Thuan, who are seeking to build a new mosque, complained
that Cham relatives in the U.S. had difficulties raising or
sending money back to Ninh Thuan, and attributed problems to
post-9/11 restrictions. Samael, however, said he had never
heard of any such fundraising problems.


7. (SBU) In our meetings, Samael failed to mention foreign
contributions towards the building of Vietnam's largest mosque
in Dong Nai Province (near HCMC). In a series of phone
conversations in January 2006, Mohamed Yousof (strictly
protect),the HCMC Representative Board Member responsible for
finances, told us that the Red Crescent Society of Abu Dhabi
provided USD 95,000 of the USD 176,000 cost needed to build the
Dong Nai mosque, which just celebrated its opening in January

2006. When asked about the mosque in an earlier phone
conversation, Samael claimed that Yousof was a "maverick" who
had independently found financing for the new mosque. Samael
implied that the funds may have come from "bad sources." Yousof
countered that although he had worked independently to secure
the financing, Samael and GVN authorities knew about the
project's funding, which was legitimate. According to Yousof,
members of the United Arab Emirates Red Crescent Society visited
Vietnam as tourists in 2001 and offered Yousof assistance.
Actual funding comes from individual donors via the Red Crescent
Society, which solicits donations for charitable causes. Yousof
added that the Red Crescent Society also had provided USD
100,000 to fund the construction of an Islamic kindergarten in
An Giang Province as well as for another mosque to be built in
HCMC, information that neither Samael nor An Giang
representatives shared with us.


8. (SBU) Community leaders also noted that other countries
provide financial and material support to Vietnamese Muslims.
Malaysia provides funding for textbooks and training in Vietnam
and in Malaysia for Vietnamese clergy. The Saudi royal family
has financed the publication in Vietnam of 3,000 Korans, which
have been distributed by the HCMC Board to various Muslim groups
around the country. Since 2001, the Saudi royal family also has
sponsored the travel of 30 Vietnamese Muslims per year to attend
the Hajj. At USD 3,000 per Vietnamese, the 12-day pilgrimage
would otherwise be impossible for most Vietnamese.
Additionally, the Saudi-based Islamic World League has sponsored
the travel of five Vietnamese Muslims to Mecca every year since

1995. Samael noted that the United Arab Emirates sponsored
approximately 30 Vietnamese Muslims to attend the Hajj in 2005,
although he said he was not certain whether the funding was
official or from private business sources in Dubai. Samael said
that although the HCMC Board theoretically has responsibility
for only the city's community, in practice, the board has been
responsible for distributing the Hajj travel slots throughout
Vietnam.


9. (SBU) An Giang Muslim leaders told the Consul General in
December 2005 that nearly 100 Vietnamese Muslims make the Hajj
annually, and that Saudi Arabia funds a substantial portion of
that travel. In an earlier meeting, An Giang Muslim leader Musa
Haji said that 49 individuals had traveled on the Hajj in 2004,
30 at the invitation of the Saudi royal family. He had no
information on how the remaining 19 had paid for the trip.

Overseas Study
--------------


10. (SBU) Muslim community representatives also gave varying
accounts of Vietnamese Muslims studying overseas. Samael said
that prior to 2000, the Saudi Government had sponsored 18
students to study in Saudi Arabia, but that none had been
sponsored since 2000. He initially said they had gone to study
theology, but later stated that their major was science and
technology, with a minor in theology. He added that some of
these students had emigrated to the U.S. or France after
finishing their studies; only four had returned to Vietnam.
However, the Imam from Ninh Thuan Mosque 101 reported that one
student from his community began studying in Saudi Arabia in
either 2001 or 2002. He noted that the HCMC Board always
notified Ninh Thuan mosques of overseas study opportunities and
that Saudi Arabia and Libya send representatives every year to
HCMC to recruit students.


11. (SBU) Samael added that, since 2000, Egypt has provided
three scholarships and Libya five scholarships for Vietnamese
Muslims to study science and technology in those countries.
Additionally, the Saudi Arabia-based Islamic Development Bank
has provided loans for 20 students to study technology and
telecommunications in Indonesia and Malaysia since 1995. Samael
said that in theory, after the five or six year course of study
in Indonesia or Malaysia, the students should return to Vietnam
and repay their loans so that the HCMC Board can repay the Bank
and sponsor new students. In practice, the eight graduates to
date have not repaid the loans. Samael added that he hoped for
more opportunities for Vietnamese Muslims to study economics,
science and technology in the U.S. and other Western countries.
Ninh Thuan representatives told us that three students from the
community were studying religion, Islamic culture, and economics
in Malaysia. Another two students from the province were
studying in Libya.


12. (SBU) In a subsequent conversation, Samael said the Libyan
and Egyptian Embassies notify the HCMC Representative Board
regarding scholarships via GVN channels. No recruiters are
involved. He could not explain how a student from Ninh Thuan
received a Saudi scholarship after 2000. He then added that
during his Hajj pilgrimage in 2004, he had met five or six
Vietnamese Muslim students from Ninh Thuan. According to
Samael, these Vietnamese students had studied Arabic in Cambodia
for a few years then obtained Cambodian passports to travel to
Saudi Arabia for further studies. He had no information about
how these students had obtained Cambodian passports or funded
their travel and studies.


13. (SBU) Samael added that the HCMC Board had refused
scholarship offers in 1992 from Iraq, Iran and Algeria for fears
of "bad" consequences. In An Giang, Musa Haji told us that he
works closely with officials to ensure that "bad people" do not
corrupt the community. He noted that radical Islamist
propaganda had been spread via radio from abroad. Musa Haji
emphasized his hope that Vietnam's Muslim community could
maintain and improve its relationship with the United States.


The Bani Muslim Community
--------------


14. (SBU) Another 40,000 ethnic Cham in Binh Thuan and Ninh
Thuan provinces practice Bani Islam, an indigenous form of
Islam. According to the Ninh Thuan and HCMC Sunni Muslims, the
Bani observe only one of the five basic principles of Islam,
namely accepting Mohammed as God's messenger. Sunni Muslim
leaders told us that they do not consider the Bani "real
Muslims," although the GVN frequently groups the Bani with the
Sunnis. Bani cleric Tu Cong Du told us that the Bani would like
the opportunity to travel to Mecca for the Hajj - another of the
five principles - but that they receive no assistance. HCMC
Sunni leaders said that once the Bani Muslims practiced all five
principles, specifically fasting during Ramadan and praying five
times daily, they would be eligible for aid to make the Hajj.
Meanwhile, Du has organized the leaders of the seven Bani
mosques in Ninh Thuan into a Representative Board and a
16-member Council of Clergy. In September, he applied for
formal GVN recognition under Vietnam's new legal framework on
religion. The application remains pending. He has not yet
received any updates, despite meeting monthly with the
provincial Committee for Religious Affairs.


15. (SBU) Comment: Vietnam's Muslim communities appear to be
able to practice their faith with little overt government
interference. Many details about Muslims' activities remain
unclear and contradictory, in part reflecting the independence
of, and lack of communication among, the various communities and
their leaders scattered across southern and central Vietnam.
(Even the size of the overall Muslim community is in doubt, with
the HCMC board claiming 50,000 Sunni Muslims in 2005, but only
30,000 in 2002.) We will continue to seek clarification from
contacts in the community on how overseas funding is managed and
how students from Ninh Thuan Province might have obtained
Cambodian passports. That said, GVN officials, including from
the Ministry of Public Security, have told us repeatedly that
they are keeping close tabs on the Muslim community and its
outside links. End Comment.


16. (U) Minimize considered.
CHERN


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