Some history about the Cham people in Seattle, from Seattle Pacific University:
A unique presence that distinguishes the Muslim community in Seattle is that of several hundred Chams, Muslims from Vietnam and Cambodia. They first arrived in Seattle in 1978, fleeing the Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese Communist regimes. Out of 1,000 Chams accepted by the United States in the first influx, about 400 came to Seattle, with more arriving from 1979 to 1982. Today it is estimated that there are at least 100 families of Chams in Seattle. Many of the men are employed in the fishing industry, in auto mechanics, or in interior remodeling. Women often work in sewing factories or in seafood-processing plants.
Chinese records and Sanskrit inscriptions make mention of the kingdom of Champa in southern Vietnam as early as the second century A.C.E. Chams speak a Malayopolynesian language, the only sizeable group to do so in mainland Asia north of Malaya. Their earliest known kingdoms were Indianized civilizations with Hindu rulers. From the ninth century on, the Chams found themselves “sandwiched between two powerful and frequently aggressive neighbors – the Khmers of Cambodia and the Vietnamese of Tonkin – and had to fight hard for survival.” When the Vietnamese won, Sinicization went forward. From 1400 on, Islam moved into this milieu, spreading out from Malacca in Malaysia through traders, teachers, and intermarriage.
Over 50 percent of the Seattle Chams came from three villages in Indochina. (More.)
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