RELIGION IN CAMBODIA

RELIGION IN CAMBODIA

About 95 percent of the population are Theravada Buddhists, which is also the dominate form of Buddhism in Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. The Khmer Rouge destroyed many religious buildings and tried to stamp out religion itself. Buddhism and other organized religions have not yet recovered from this period. The Cham minority is mostly Muslim. Many of the hill tribe minorities are animists. Daoism and Confuism are also commonly practiced among the Chinese people.

Cambodians have traditionally been devotedly Buddhist and incorporated elements of animism, Hinduism and Chinese religion and beliefs about heaven and hell and ghost and spirits in a uniquely Khmer way.

The Khmer Rouge tried to eliminate religion Buddhism. Religion and prayer were banned. Monks were killed or disrobed, or sent to the fields to work as slave laborers, and temples were destroyed, desecrated and even used as death camps. Almost all the Muslims that lived in Cambodia were killed.

See Separate Articles on Buddhism and Folk Religions in Cambodia

Religion and the Khmer Rouge

The Khmer Rouge tried to eliminate religion Buddhism. Religion and prayer were banned. Monks were killed or disrobed, or sent to the fields to work as slave laborers, and temples were destroyed, desecrated and even used as death camps. Almost all the Muslims that lived in Cambodia were killed.

Article 20 of the 1976 Constitution of Democratic Kampuchea guaranteed religious freedom, but it also declared that "all reactionary religions that are detrimental to Democratic Kampuchea and the Kampuchean People are strictly forbidden." About 85 percent of the population follows the Theravada school of Buddhism. Before 1975 the Khmer Rouge tolerated the activities of the community of Buddhist monks, or sangha, in the liberated areas in order to win popular support. This changed abruptly after the fall of Phnom Penh. The country's 40,000 to 60,000 Buddhist monks, regarded by the regime as social parasites, were defrocked and forced into labor brigades. Many monks were executed; temples and pagodas were destroyed or turned into storehouses or jails. Images of the Buddha were defaced and dumped into rivers and lakes. People who were discovered praying or expressing religious sentiments in other ways were often killed. The Christian and Muslim communities also were persecuted. The Roman Catholic cathedral of Phnom Penh was completely razed. The Khmer Rouge forced Muslims to eat pork, which they regard as an abomination. Many of those who refused were killed. Christian clergy and Muslim leaders were executed. [Source: Library of Congress, December 1987]

Under the Khmer Rouge regime, monks were expelled forcibly from the wats and were compelled to do manual labor. Article 20 of the 1976 Constitution of Democratic Kampuchea permitted freedom of religion but banned all reactionary religions, that were "detrimental to the country." The minister of culture stated that Buddhism was incompatible with the revolution and was an instrument of exploitation. Under this regime, to quote the Finnish Inquiry Commission, "The practice of religion was forbidden and the pagodas were systematically destroyed." Observers estimated that 50,000 monks died during the Khmer Rouge regime. The status of Buddhism and of religion in general after the Vietnamese invasion was at least partially similar to its status in pre-Khmer Rouge times. [Source: Library of Congress, December 1987 *]

Religious affairs are overseen by the PRK's Kampuchean (or Khmer) United Front for National Construction and Defense (KUFNCD), the mass organization that supports the state by organizing women, youths, workers, and religious groups. In 1987 there was only a single Buddhist order because the Thommayut order had not been revived. The organization of the clergy also had been simplified. The sangharaja (primate of the Buddhist clergy) had been replaced by a prathean (chairman). Communities that wanted a wats had to apply to a local front committee for permission. The wat were administered by a committee of the local laity. Private funds paid for the restoration of the wats damaged during the war and the Khmer Rouge era, and they supported the restored wats. Monks were ordained by a hierarchy that has been reconstituted since an initial ordination in September 1979 by a delegation from the Buddhist community in Vietnam. The validity of this ordination continues to be questioned. In general, there are only two to four monks per wat, which is fewer than before 1975. In 1981 about 4,930 monks served in 740 wats in Cambodia. The Buddhist General Assembly reported 7,000 monks in 1,821 active wats a year later. In 1969 by contrast, observers estimated that 53,400 monks and 40,000 novice monks served in more than 3,000 wats. Vickery sums up his observations on the subject by noting that, "The government has kept its promise to allow freedom for traditional Buddhism, but does not actively encourage it." *

Islam is the religion of the Cham (also called Khmer Islam) and Malay minorities. According to Po Dharma, there were 150,000 to 200,000 Muslims in Cambodia as late as 1975. Persecution under the Khmer Rouge eroded their numbers, however, and by the late 1980s they probably had not regained their former strength. According to Cham sources, 132 mosques were destroyed during the Khmer Rouge era, many others were desecrated, and Muslims were not allowed to worship.

See the Chams Under Khmer Rouge

See Separate Article on Buddhism in Cambodia

Chinese Religion and Mahayana Buddhism in Cambodia

Mahayana Buddhism is the religion of the majority of Chinese and Vietnamese in Cambodia. Elements of other religious practices, such as veneration of folk heros and ancestors, Confucianism, and Taoism mix with Chinese and Vietnamese Buddhism. [Source: Library of Congress, December 1987 *]

In the Chinese home, ancestors and household gods are honored during prescribed times to help unite the extended family and to gain help from the dead, who can intercede for the living. Taoism teaches meditation and the use of magic to gain happiness, wealth, health, and immortality. Confucianism, part social philosophy and part religion, stresses religious ritual and pays great attention to the veneration of ancestors and of great figures of the past. *

Chinese Mahayana Buddhism has become intertwined with Taoist and with Confucian beliefs. Adherents honor many buddhas, including the Gautama Buddha, and they believe in a paradise after death. They also believe in bodhisattvas — people who have nearly attained nirvana, but who stay back to help save others.

Animism in Cambodia

Animism is particularly alive among the hill tribes in northeast Cambodia and to a lesser extent among ordinary Cambodians. People guard against ghosts by placing effigies on their doorways and fence posts. Sometimes barking dogs and strange noises by livestock are believed to alert people of the presence of ghosts.

Animism is manifested mostly in the lingering belief in supernatural beings. These include spirts that inhabits mountains, forest, rivers and other natural objects; guardian spirits of houses and animals and fields; ancestral spirits; and malevolent beings, hosts and demons. Some spirits are regarded as helpful but most are regarded as troublemakers who can cause sickness or bad luck especially to those who have engaged in improper behavior.

Among tribes in northeast Cambodia Arak Chantoo, the mountain spirt, is regarded as the chief god. He presides over other gods. When he is angry he causes chest pains, headaches, dizziness, high fever and sometimes death. Arak Bree, the forest spirits, presides over cultivation. Arak Ghree, the tree spirit, must be appeased before cutting down a tree. Arak Gow protects sacred stones and can cause headaches and insanity. Washing stones with the blood of sacrificed animals is one cure for problems caused by troublesome spirits..

Greg McCann told Mongabey.com: “The Brao, Tampuan, Kreung, Bunong and other highlander groups of northeast Cambodia believe that malevolent spirits inhabit the local ecological milieu. We are forever in danger of offending these angry, invisible celestial beings if certain etiquette is broken –if, for instance, land is cleared in a spirit forest, or if the wrong type of animal is hunted, or if signs in nature are ignored and we do things that we shouldn’t’ do. The punishment is usually injury, illness, or death. In any case, the village "magic man" or shaman is consulted, he or she communicates with the spirits to find out what is wrong, and he will tell the victim and family what is needed to remedy the situation—usually a chicken or a pig and several vases of rice wine. [Source: Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com, May 3, 2012 ^]

“Some highlanders—usually the older ones—still believe that certain mountains—such as Haling-Halang deep inside Virachey, or Krang Mountain on Veal Thom—or certain areas of forests, are off-limits to hunting and logging. If this etiquette can be maintained, then animistic beliefs in "spirit places" can act as conservation tools. In that sense, animism is the oldest form of environmental conservation: certain places are off limits to human activity because they have been deemed sacred. ^

“It is believed that the God of Haling-Halang is so powerful that airplanes cannot fly over it, and fires cannot burn it. Brao elders maintain that even when the Americans were dropping thousands of bombs on the area during the war that Haling-Halang never burned. Favors of Haling-Halang require a human sacrifice, and for that reason, villagers don’t seek its help. A combination of its remoteness and its sacredness has resulted in it being a relatively undisturbed massif ecosystem to date. But there are other, smaller places, such as a spirit forest outside of Kroala Village in O-Chum district outside of Ban Lung. The spirits of this little 300 square meter forest are so strong that five men recently died simply from standing in its shadow. Another man died after he tried to clear some of the woods to establish a small farm there. Villagers are now so afraid of it that even the Christians won’t go near it. The result is that barking deer, wild boar, civet cats, Giant Asian squirrels and birds find refuge there amidst a sea of cashew nut plantations. ^

Muslims in Cambodia

Islam is the religion of the Cham (also called Khmer Islam) and Malay minorities. According to Po Dharma, there were 150,000 to 200,000 Muslims in Cambodia as late as 1975. Persecution under the Khmer Rouge eroded their numbers, however, and by the late 1980s they probably had not regained their former strength. All of the Cham Muslims are Sunnis of the Shafii school. Po Dharma divides the Muslim Cham in Cambodia into a traditionalist branch and an orthodox branch. [Source: Library of Congress, December 1987 *]

The Cham have their own mosques. In 1962 there were about 100 mosques in the country. At the end of the nineteenth century, the Muslims in Cambodia formed a unified community under the authority of four religious dignitaries — mupti, tuk kalih, raja kalik, and tvan pake. A council of notables in Cham villages consisted of one hakem and several katip, bilal, and labi. The four high dignitaries and the hakem were exempt from personal taxes, and they were invited to take part in major national ceremonies at the royal court. When Cambodia became independent, the Islamic community was placed under the control of a five-member council that represented the community in official functions and in contacts with other Islamic communities. Each Muslim community has a hakem who leads the community and the mosque, an imam who leads the prayers, and a bilal who calls the faithful to the daily prayers. The peninsula of Chrouy Changvar near Phnom Penh is considered the spiritual center of the Cham, and several high Muslim officials reside there. Each year some of the Cham go to study the Quran at Kelantan in Malaysia, and some go on to study in, or make a pilgrimage to, Mecca. According to figures from the late 1950s, about 7 percent of the Cham had completed the pilgrimage and could wear the fez or turban as a sign of their accomplishment. *

The traditional Cham retain many ancient Muslim or pre-Muslim traditions and rites. They consider Allah as the all-powerful God, but they also recognize other non-Islamic deities. Their are closer, in many respects, to the Cham of coastal Vietnam than they are to other Muslims. The religious dignitaries of the traditional Cham (and of the Cham in Vietnam) dress completely in white, and they shave their heads and faces. These Cham believe in the power of magic and sorcery, and they attach great importance to magical practices in order to avoid sickness or slow or violent death. They believe in many supernatural powers. Although they show little interest in the pilgrimage to Mecca and in the five daily prayers, the traditional Cham do celebrate many Muslim festivals and rituals. *

The orthodox Cham have adopted a more conformist religion largely because of their close contacts with, and intermarriages with, the Malay community. In fact, the orthodox Cham have adopted Malay customs and family organization, and many speak the Malay language. They send pilgrims to Mecca, and they attend international Islamic conferences. Conflicts between the traditional and the orthodox Cham increased between 1954 and 1975. For example, the two groups polarized the population of one village, and each group eventually had its own mosque and separate religious organization. *

Under the Khmer Rouge the Cham were forced to adopt the Khmer language and customs. Their communities, which traditionally had existed apart from Khmer villages, were broken up. Forty thousand Cham were killed in two districts of Kampong Cham Province alone. [Source: Library of Congress, December 1987 *]

According to Cham sources, 132 mosques were destroyed during the Khmer Rouge era, many others were desecrated, and Muslims were not allowed to worship. In the PRK, Islam has been given the same freedom as Buddhism. Vickery believes that about 185,000 Cham lived in Cambodia in the mid-1980s and that the number of mosques was about the same then as it was before 1975. In early 1988, there were six mosques in the Phnom Penh area and a "good number" in the provinces, but Muslim dignitaries were thinly stretched; only 20 of the previous 113 most prominent Cham clergy in Cambodia survived the Khmer Rouge period. *

The Cambodian Islamic Development Council, a Muslim nongovernmental organization, has estimated that at least 10 percent of local Muslims follow the Wahhabi sect due to Saudi Arabian proselytizing.

Imam-Sam Sect of Islam

Imam-San is a small Islamic sect that incorporates Buddhism, Hinduism and animism. The Imam-San makes up about 3 percent of Cambodia's 700,000 Muslims. Besides mixing in elements of other religions, Imam-San followers pray only once a week, not the traditional five times a day. "In the view of the real teaching of Islam, they are not pure," said Tin Faizine, a 24-year-old Muslim student who was interpreting for the Lightmans. [Source: Associated Press, May 18, 2008]

Elyse Lightman, who is writing a book about Imam-San culture and traditions, said the community is not fully embraced by either mainstream Muslims or Buddhists. "You can see why Muslims don't consider them to be their own," she said. "And then Buddhists say, 'Well, you pray to Allah.' So, they're caught in the middle." She noted that the Imam-San, like the Jews, have faced persecution over the centuries, most recently when the Khmer Rouge seized power in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 and abolished all religion. "I think there is part of me that felt some sort of kinship in this," she said.

Jewish family Builds Mosque in Cambodia

From Tramoung Chrum, 44 miles northwest of capital Phnom Penh, Associated Press reported: “When residents of this poor, Cambodian village need something built, they call on the Lightmans. The Jewish-American family's latest gift: a mosque. "We never had such a beautiful mosque in our village," said 81-year-old Leb Sen, a toothless, village elder with a wrinkled face. "The young people said to me that I am very lucky to live long enough to see one now." Flashing a broad grin, Leb Sen brought his palms together and bowed repeatedly in gratitude toward his American donors - Alan Lightman; his wife, Jean Greenblatt Lightman, and their daughter, Elyse. [Source: Associated Press, May 18, 2008]

Alan Lightman, a 59-year-old humanities professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said building the mosque was not part of his family's original plan to improve education in the village, about 70 kilometers (44 miles) northwest of the capital, Phnom Penh. "It's too much to comprehend. We never imagined that we would build a mosque in a remote village in Cambodia," said Lightman, author of the best-selling novel "Einstein's Dreams." "It was so strange for us to be there," he added, " ... Halfway across the planet, and it's a religion that's far from our religion."

The Lightmans first learned about the village in 2003, when a friend introduced them to various rural education projects. Two years later, the Harpswell Foundation, an organization founded by Lightman to help children and young women in developing countries, built a four-room concrete school, the village's first. Some of the 600 villagers came to Lightman in 2006 asking him to fund a new health center, a popular choice among the women, and a mosque, which the men favored. He told the villagers they would have to choose one. In the male-dominated community, it was a mosque. "The men have won again, but the mosque is also very important for preserving our culture and tradition," said 50-year-old Sit Khong, one of the five women in the village who were part of a committee to pick the project. "We will never find enough money to build it ourselves anyway."

The mosque, with the gold-colored inscription "Funded by Loving Gift of Lightman Family" above the front door, opened in May 2008. It can accommodate about 200 people and replaces a tiny building on wood stilts that held only 30 worshippers.The villagers follow Imam-San, a small Islamic sect that incorporates Buddhism, Hinduism and animism.About 500 followers of Imam-San from around the country came to this village of wooden houses and mango trees to celebrate the opening of the new mosque. Sem Ahmad, 57, said he wanted the Lightman family to help build a mosque in his village in Battambang province in northwestern Cambodia. "It is beautiful. I'd love to have the same mosque because we do not have one like this in our village," he said.

The mosque was built with $20,000 from his family's savings, not the foundation's funds, he said. In the future, he plans to focus on education for underprivileged Cambodians, which is his foundation's main goal.

Christians in Cambodia

The U.S. State Department estimates that only about 2 percent of Cambodians are Christian but that the number is growing and there are now about 2,400 churches in the country. Catholics make up 0.1 percent of the population.

Christianity, introduced into Cambodia by Roman Catholic missionaries in 1660, made little headway, at least among the Buddhists. In 1972 there were probably about 20,000 Christians in Cambodia, most of whom were Roman Catholics. Before the repatriation of the Vietnamese in 1970 and 1971, possibly as many as 62,000 Christians lived in Cambodia. According to Vatican statistics, in 1953, members of the Roman Catholic Church in Cambodia numbered 120,000, making it, at the time, the second largest religion in the country. In April 1970, just before repatriation, estimates indicate that about 50,000 Catholics were Vietnamese. Many of the Catholics remaining in Cambodia in 1972 were Europeans — chiefly French. American scholar on Southeast Asia, Donald J. Steinberg reported, also in 1953, that an American Unitarian mission maintained a teacher-training school in Phnom Penh, and Baptist missions functioned in Batdambang and Siemreab provinces. [Source: Library of Congress, December 1987 *]

A Christian and Missionary Alliance mission was founded in Cambodia in 1923; by 1962 the mission had converted about 2,000 people. American Protestant missionary activity increased in Cambodia, especially among some of the hill tribes and among the Cham, after the establishment of the Khmer Republic. The 1962 census, which reported 2,000 Protestants in Cambodia, remains the most recent statistic for the group. In 1982 French geographer Jean Delvert reported that three Christian villages existed in Cambodia, but he gave no indication of the size, location, or type of any of them. Observers reported that in 1980 there were more registered Khmer Christians among the refugees in camps in Thailand than in all of Cambodia before 1970. Kiernan notes that, until June 1980, five weekly Protestant services were held in Phnom Penh by a Khmer pastor, but that they had been reduced to a single weekly service after police harassment. His estimates suggest that in 1987 the Christian community in Cambodia had shrunk to only a few thousand members. *

Thousands of Christian missionaries have flooded into Cambodia since the early 1990s. The number of Christians reportedly grew from 200 in the early 1990s to 60,000 in the early 2000s. Many of the new converts were reportedly introduced to the religion by missionaries from evangelical Protestant groups. Many say the converts lack sincerity and only go along with the missionaries to receive the benefits of development—such as schools, extra food, wells and irrigation projects—that the Christian groups promise. Many Cambodians refer to them as “rice-bowl Christians.”

Among those who converted to Christianity were Kaung Kek Ieu, known by the revolutionary name Duch (pronounced Dook), the head of the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, where as many 20,000 people were tortured and prepared for execution during the Khmer Rouge era. Duch began his conversion process by attending Bible meetings by a Cambodian-American preacher who gave sermons with a 12-string guitar strapped to his neck. Duch was reportedly skeptical at first but eventually was saved and baptized and admitted being a sinner who sins “we so deep” many would not be able to forgive him.

Some Cambodian Buddhists have complained that Christian missionary groups are too aggressive. In January 2003, the Cambodian government barred Christian groups from proselytizing and giving out religious propaganda. In June 2007, government officials issued a public reminder of a ban on door-to-door proselytizing and the offering of food or other aid only to those who join churches.

Evangelical Christian Radio and Films in Cambodia

Reporting from Rong Domriex, Mary Jordan wrote in the Washington Post, “Tel Im, a barefoot 13-year-old, sat cross-legged on a bamboo bench, eager for her reading lesson. "Please turn to Lesson 33," said a woman's voice rising from a Sony cassette player powered by two wires clipped to a car battery. The tape was the closest thing to a school in this village shaded by banana trees, where water buffaloes meander in from the lime-green rice paddies. Im and her classmates flipped to Page 134 for a passage from the New Testament. "The title of this story is: 'Jesus Was Crucified,' " said the teacher on the tape, slowly pronouncing the words in Khmer, the local language, as the children followed along with their fingertips. Six months ago, Im couldn't read a word and had never heard of Jesus. Now, thanks to a literacy program run by the local chapter of an international Bible group, she has a book — the Bible — that she can read, and she says she wants to become a Christian. [Source: Mary Jordan, Washington Post, November 3, 2007 ^^]

“Farther north in the Cambodian hinterlands, Elijah Lok zoomed down dirt paths across the rice paddies to the village of Trapain Ampil with the "Jesus" film strapped to his motorbike. Tonight, as on most nights, Lok would be showing this two-hour movie about the life of Jesus, the most translated movie in history. He pulled two 16mm reels out of a metal carrier box, a big blue umbrella protecting them from monsoon-like rain. Two other members of his team lugged a giant white screen, two loudspeakers and a generator-powered projector into this village with no electricity. ^^

“When the downpour eased, 70 people stood barefoot amid the muddy puddles and watched the story of Jesus told in Khmer. For most of the villagers, who live here in shacks built on stilts to protect against flooding, it was the first movie they had ever seen. Originally released by Warner Brothers in 1979 for U.S. audiences, the Jesus film has been translated into more than 1,000 languages, with the voices of local actors dubbed over the originals. It has just been completed in Cham, which is spoken by several hundred thousand Muslims in Cambodia. ^^

“As Lok cranked up the projector, the film's soundtrack drowned out the sound of monks chanting in a nearby Buddhist temple. "The Gospel has done so much for me and my family," said Lok, 26, who often sleeps in a hammock he carries with him from village to village. Lok said he has found peace and contentment in his religion, but not everyone is receptive to his work. Some complain that Christianity is a foreigner's faith, an unwanted import from the West. ^^

Some take offense at the notion of Christians preaching to Buddhists. "In some villages, drunks have beaten our staff," Lok said. "Sometimes people take slingshots and hit the screen." But this night, children and adults were transfixed by scenes of the birth of Jesus in a stable and of him telling people to be like the Good Samaritan and help those in need. Some cried softly at the vivid crucifixion scene and began asking questions about his empty tomb and talk of him rising from the dead. When the film ended, several people gathered to ask Lok questions. "I would like to hear more about Jesus," said Heat Chean, 30, a farmer who held his infant daughter in his arms. "I'm a Buddhist, but Christians are good, too." ^^

Evangelical Christians in Cambodia

Reporting from Rong Domriex, Mary Jordan wrote in the Washington Post, “Tel Im, a barefoot 13-year-old, sat cross-legged on a bamboo bench, eager for her reading lesson. "Please turn to Lesson 33," said a woman's voice rising from a Sony cassette player powered by two wires clipped to a car battery. The tape was the closest thing to a school in this village shaded by banana trees, where water buffaloes meander in from the lime-green rice paddies. Im and her classmates flipped to Page 134 for a passage from the New Testament. "The title of this story is: 'Jesus Was Crucified,' " said the teacher on the tape, slowly pronouncing the words in Khmer, the local language, as the children followed along with their fingertips. Six months ago, Im couldn't read a word and had never heard of Jesus. Now, thanks to a literacy program run by the local chapter of an international Bible group, she has a book — the Bible — that she can read, and she says she wants to become a Christian. [Source: Mary Jordan, Washington Post, November 3, 2007 ^^]

“There is some resistance to the penetration by evangelical Christian groups in Cambodia. "We are getting used to globalization, but it is important to maintain our identity," said Nguon VanChanthi, director of the national Buddhist Institute. "For centuries and centuries we have been Buddhists." But, he added, people have a right to choose their religion, and the government is grateful for the medicine, food and manpower that Christian groups are bringing. As for the Christian literacy program, he said, "If Buddhists worry about it, they should teach children to read, too."^^

"It was unthinkable to have a church near a pagoda" in Cambodia a decade ago, said Arun Sok Nhep, who runs the United Bible Societies' Asia Pacific office. But he said the globalization of religion means that there are now more American Buddhists and more Cambodian Christians. In Rong Domriex, the farming village where children play knee-deep in the rice paddies, a local Christian pastor said he believes maybe half of the 11 children in Im's literacy class will become Christian. "Whether they follow Jesus Christ or not is up to them," said Dom Saim, the pastor and a former Buddhist. ^^

Im's father, Sum Tel Thoen, 37, a fisherman, said he didn't care that Christians were teaching his daughter. "It doesn't matter if my daughter is Christian. My focus is education," he said. "I can't read or write. I want my daughter to." He said he was pleased that his daughter was dreaming of getting a job someday, now that she can read, instead of spending her days collecting firewood. Brushing her black hair away from her large brown eyes, she said matter-of-factly, "I am too poor to go to school." ^^

“Her father said that he, too, was learning about the new faith from Im. He stood next to his daughter as she described Jesus. "He says, 'Don't steal other people's property, and if someone scolds you, be silent and don't scold back,' " she said, holding tightly to a paperback Bible, the first b Children in Rong Domriex, Cambodia, learn to read by following along in their books as they listen to a New Testament passage read on tape.” ^^

Image Sources:

Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, Tourism of Cambodia, Compton’s Encyclopedia, The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, AFP, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, The Economist, Global Viewpoint (Christian Science Monitor), Foreign Policy, Wikipedia, BBC, CNN, NBC News, Fox News and various books and other publications.

Last updated May 2014


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