WI: Muslim Cambodia?

[Hrvatskiwi]

So I stumbled across this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian–Dutch_War

It mentions that there was a Cambodian king that converted to Islam and styled himself Sultan Ibrahim due to the assistance of Malay traders in his rise to power.

Given that this happened roughly the same time as the Safavids came to power in Iran and converted the country from predominantly-Sunni to Shi'a, is it possible that Sultan Ibrahim could retain power (he was deposed with help from Dai Viet) and that him and his successors could impose Islam on Cambodia. If they were successful, what would the impact be on the region with a Muslim Kampuchea?

 

[zeppelinair]

The Wats, or temples of Theravada Buddhism, were the centres of popular literacy in Cambodia up to the 19th century. Buddhism, therefore, was very firmly established in Cambodia before the war in the 1640s. I think it's a different situation, as it is akin to changing from Shia to Sunni and changing from what you know to what you haven't ever heard of.

 

[Ridwan Asher]

Safavids had full military power to force conversion of Iranians from Sunni to Shia Islam. I'm not sure where a Cambodian king will get that sort of power.

Perhaps if Islam had been able to root strongly in Mekong delta for long enough, it can spread from there to the rest of Cambodia through conquest and gradual osmosis like in Java. It's imperative however, to prevent the Vietnamese threat from aborting the process.