Editing Khmer Rouge (section)

=== Relationship to religion ===
Democratic Kampuchea was an [[State atheism|atheist state]],<ref name="Wessinger 2000 p282">{{Cite book |last=Salter |first=Richard C. |title=Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence: Historical Cases |title-link=Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence |publisher=[[Syracuse University Press]] |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-8156-0599-7 |editor-last=Wessinger |editor-first=Catherine |editor-link=Catherine Wessinger |language=en |chapter=Time, Authority, and Ethics in the Khmer Rouge: Elements of the Millennial Vision in Year Zero |page=282 |quote=Democratic Kampuchea was officially an atheist state, and the persecution of religion by the Khmer Rouge was matched in severity only by the persecution of religion in the communist states of Albania and North Korea, so there were no direct historical continuities with Buddhism into the Democratic Kampuchean era.}}</ref> although its constitution stated that everyone had freedom of religion, or not to hold a religion. However, it specified that what it termed "reactionary religion" would not be permitted.<ref name="Vickery 1999" />{{rp|191}} While in practice religious activity was not tolerated, the relationship of the CPK to the majority Cambodian [[Theravada|Theravada Buddhism]] was complex; several key figures in its history, such as [[Tou Samouth]] and [[Ta Mok]], were former monks, along with many lower level cadres, who often proved some of the strictest disciplinarians.<ref name="Vickery 1999" />{{rp|191}} While there was extreme harassment of Buddhist institutions, there was a tendency for the CPK regime to internalise and reconfigure the symbolism and language of [[Buddhism in Cambodia|Cambodian Buddhism]] so that many revolutionary slogans mimicked the formulae learned by young monks during their training.<ref name="Harris 2008">{{cite book|last=Harris|first=Ian|title=Cambodian Buddhism: History and Practice|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0824832988}}</ref>{{rp|182}} Some cadres who had previously been monks interpreted their change of vocation as a simple movement from a lower to a higher religion, mirroring attitudes around the growth of [[Caodaism|Cao Dai]] in the 1920s.<ref name="Vickery 1999" />{{rp|193}}

Buddhist [[laity]] seem not to have been singled out for persecution, although traditional belief in the [[Tutelary deity|tutelary spirits]], or ''[[neak ta]]'', rapidly eroded as people were forcibly moved from their home areas.<ref name="Harris 2008" />{{rp|176}} The position with Buddhist monks was more complicated: as with [[Islam]], many religious leaders were killed whereas many ordinary monks were sent to remote monasteries where they were subjected to hard physical labour.<ref name="Harris 2008" />{{rp|176}} The same division between rural and urban populations was seen in the regime's treatment of monks. For instance, those from urban monasteries were classified as "new monks" and sent to rural areas to live alongside "base monks" of peasant background, who were classified as "proper and revolutionary".<ref name="Harris 2008" />{{rp|176}} Monks were not ordered to [[Defrocking|defrock]] until as late as 1977 in [[Kratié Province]], where many monks found that they reverted to the status of lay peasantry as the agricultural work they were allocated to involved regular breaches of [[Monasticism|monastic]] rules.<ref name="Vickery 1999" />{{rp|192}} While there is evidence of widespread vandalism of Buddhist monasteries, many more than were initially thought survived the Khmer Rouge years in fair condition, as did most Khmer historical monuments, and it is possible that stories of their near-total destruction were propaganda issued by the successor People's Republic of Kampuchea.<ref name="Harris 2008" />{{rp|181}} Nevertheless, it has been estimated that nearly 25,000 Buddhist monks were killed by the regime.<ref name="NYTi">Shenon, Philp (2 January 1992). [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE5DE163CF931A35752C0A964958260 "Phnom Penh Journal; Lord Buddha Returns, With Artists His Soldiers"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080223082943/https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE5DE163CF931A35752C0A964958260 |date=23 February 2008 }}. ''[[The New York Times]]''. Retrieved 30 July 2019.</ref>

The repression of Islam<ref>{{cite book|date=2003|last=Juergensmeyer|first=Mark|title=The Oxford Handbook of Global Religions|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=495}}</ref> (practised by the country's Cham minority) was extensive. Islamic religious leaders were executed, although some Cham Muslims appear to have been told they could continue devotions in private as long as it did not interfere with work quotas.<ref name="Harris 2008" />{{rp|176}} Mat Ly, a Cham who served as the deputy minister of agriculture under the [[People's Republic of Kampuchea]], stated that Khmer Rouge troops had perpetrated a number of massacres in Cham villages in the Central and Eastern zones where the residents had refused to give up Islamic customs.<ref name="Vickery 1999" />{{rp|347}} While [[François Ponchaud]] stated that Christians were invariably taken away and killed with the accusation of having links with the U.S. [[Central Intelligence Agency]], at least some cadres appear to have regarded it as preferable to the "feudal" class-based Buddhism.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Third Indochina War: Conflict Between China, Vietnam and Cambodia, 1972–79|date=2006|publisher=Routledge|editor1-last=Quinn-Judge|editor1-first=Sophie|page=189|editor2-last=Westad|editor2-first=Odd Arne}}</ref><ref name="Vickery 1999" />{{rp|193}} Nevertheless, it remained deeply suspect to the regime thanks to its close links to [[French colonialism]]; [[Roman Catholic Cathedral of Phnom Penh|Phnom Penh cathedral]] was razed along with other places of worship.<ref name="Vickery 1999" />{{rp|193}}