| RENCONTRER
DIEU |
DIEU
- VS - BOUDDHA
summary of older texts |
MEET
WITH GOD |
By Vong Sokheng and Mandy Smith : Religion
was not the cause of a 300-strong Buddhist mob's attack on an unfinished
Christian church, a government official said on Wednesday. "The dispute
between the Buddhist villagers and the Christians was not a religious war,"
said Khon Dara, deputy director of the Ministry of Cults and Religious
Affairs.
The destruction of the Wesleyan-owned building in Boeng Krum Commune, Lvea
Em District in Kandal Province by a "Buddhist mob" on April 28 should not
be considered a result of religious tensions; it was merely a violent eruption
of internal village politics, Dara said. "A verbal dispute had been
going on for many years between the villagers," he said. "This was
what led to violence." Religious persecution is rare in Cambodia, said
David Manfred, Christian and Missionary Alliance country director, as "in
most parts of Cambodia there is religious freedom and people are able to
practice their faith." But Christianity is "new and unfamiliar to
Cambodian culture and traditions," he explained, which could cause
"misunderstandings"
within multi-faith communities. This could create "isolated locations
and situations where, for a variety of reasons, Christians suffer persecution,"
he said.
About 95 percent of Cambodians are Buddhist, but Catholic, Protestant,
and other Christian sects also exist, Dara said, but "generally there
is no tension between them." In the case of the April 28 attack, local
Christians argued that village dwellers' religious affiliations were manipulated
by secular locals to suit their own ends. "Several laymen, who were
not happy with the Christians, bought wine for teenagers in the village
to drink" said Pa Sami, a member of the village's Christian community.
"They incited those teenagers to lead the protest and encouraged them to
burn down our house."
Van Sotha, clerk for the commune chief, told the Post on May 3 that the
attack was unprecedented in the commune. The villagers had always been
tolerant of other faiths, she said, but construction
of a second church just 700 meters from the commune's only Buddhist pagoda,
and the disregard of local opposition to the building, caused simmering
village tensions to erupt along religious faultlines. "The villagers
warned the Christians not to construct the building near the Buddhist pagoda,"
she said. "There is one Buddhist pagoda in the commune. Locals questioned
why the Christian religion should have more than one place of worship."
(The Post understands the other place of worship in the village is
used by a different Christian sect.) The construction of the new church
building polarized tension in the village into faith-based camps. But the
swift resolution of the dispute - without any recourse to legal wrangling
- demonstrates that for both the Buddhist and Christian members of the
community, it was always a local argument, not the beginning of a religious
crusade, Sotha said.
"Both sides made a mistake," she said. "The Christians decided
not to file a complaint against the protesters and did not ask for compensation
for their property." Some villagers swiftly repented their hot-tempered
actions, said Sami, and came to the Christian community to apologize and
seek forgiveness. The two sides were able to resolve the problem amicably.
"They said they had misunderstood the situation and agreed we should
stop arguing," she said. "We agreed not to ask for compensation,
nor to punish them." Moreover, many Buddhists in the village had no
sympathy for the mob's actions. A village man, who declined to be named
for fear of reprisals, said he refused to participate in the protest as
it was contrary to Buddhist philosophy. "Some mob members were drunk;
Buddhists are not allowed to drink," he said. "It is a bad deed
to tear down and set fire to any house. Many Buddhist people in our commune
are not happy with the actions of those people."
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