champa people were hindu followers, but converted later to islam, the religion became popular in southeast asia. look at the map. from indonesia and malaysia, the belief spread to philippines, thailand and cambodia. from the cambodia finally to champa. vietnam itlsef embracing confucialism and buddhism saw threatened and encircled. there was no help from China. moreover the Ming chinese held their hand over the muslims. we had to act before the chinese could have the chance to intervene.
champa people were hindu followers, but converted later to islam, the region became popular in southeast asia. look at the map. from indonesia and malaysia, the belief spread to philippines, thailand and cambodia. from the cambodia finally to champa. vietnam itlsef embracing confucialism and buddhism saw threatened and encircled. there was no help from China. moreover the chinese held their hand over the muslims. we had to act before the chinese could have the chance to intervene.
I confirm what you said in the second paragraph is true
mosque in saigon
just one more remark: although our history books hide much of details, but as far as I read, our military campaign targeted both ending the dominance of islam and hindu in mainland indochina. with our army marching to burma in the east and malaysia in the south. too bad, the chinese became too angry threatening an invasion of vietnam, the muslims with holy war, so we stopped a bit too short of the goal.
