Islam in Brazil
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According to the official 2000 census for Islam in Brazil, there were 27,239 Muslims living in the country, primarily concentrated in the states of São Paulo and Paraná. The United States Department of State, however, claims that the census probably undercounts the actual total. Leaders of the Muslim community estimated that there were between 700,000 and three million Muslims, with the lower figure representing those who actively practiced their religion, while the higher estimate would include also nominal members. A very large percentage of them are Lebanese immigrants who left their country during the Lebanese Civil War.
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[edit] Afro-Brazilians and the Muslim Uprising of 1835
The history of Muslims in Brazil begins with the importation of African slave labor to the country. Brazil obtained 37% of all African slaves traded, and more than 3 million slaves were sent to this one country. Starting around 1550, the Portuguese began to trade African slaves to work the sugar plantations once the native Tupi people deteriorated. Scholars claim that Brazil received more enslaved Muslims than anywhere else in the Americas.[1] The Muslim uprising of 1835 in Bahia illustrates the condition and legacy of resistance among the community of Males, as African Muslims were known in 19th century Bahia. Muslim African tribes are Fula, Mandinka, Yao, and Makonde. Beginning on the night of January 24, 1835, and continuing the following morning, a group of African born slaves occupied the streets of Salvador and for more than three hours they confronted soldiers and armed civilians. Even though it was short lived, the revolt was the largest slave revolt in Brazil and the largest urban slave revolt in the Americas.[1] Hundreds of Africans took part and nearly seventy were killed. More than five hundred, according to conservative estimates, were sentenced to death, prison, whippings, or deportation. The rebellion had nationwide repercussions. Fearing the example might be followed, the Brazilian authorities began to watch the males very carefully and in subsequent years intensive efforts were made to force conversions to Catholicism and erase the popular memory and affection towards Islam.[2] However, the African Muslim community was not erased overnight, and as late as 1910 it is estimated there were still some 100,000 African Muslims living in Brazil.[3]
[edit] Muslim Immigrants in Brazil
Following the forced assimilation of the Afro-Brazilian Muslim community, the next period of Islam in the country was primarily the result of Muslim immigration from the Middle East and South East Asia. Some 11 million Syrian and Lebanese immigrants live throughout Brazil, however, just over 10 percent are Muslim [citation needed] while the vast majority claim the Catholic faith. The biggest concentration of Muslims is found in the greater São Paulo region
Architecture and cuisine also bear the trademarks of the culture brought to the hemisphere by the Arabs. Not even fast food has escaped the immigrant influence, as the second largest fast food chain in Brazil is Habib's, which serves Arab food. And the diversity of influence stretches to businesses such as the textile industry, which is dominated by Arab merchants. The São Paulo city council even has a Muslim Councillor by the name of Mohammad Murad, who is a lawyer by profession. A number of mosques dot the greater São Paulo area. The oldest and most popular of these is found on Av. Do Estado. Since its establishment over seventy years ago, the mosque has added a Quranic school, library, kitchen and meeting hall for various functions.
[edit] The Rise of Islam in Brazil
As has been the case in many of the larger metropolitan mosques in South America, foreign assistance and individual effort have played major roles in the sustainability of the mosques in the greater São Paulo area. For example the Imam of the Av. Do Estado Mosque is from the Middle East and oftentimes Imams are chosen jointly by the Mosques' management committees and the Arab governments that pay for the Imam's services. Ismail Hatia, a South African who came to Brazil in 1956, built a mosque in Campinas two years ago. Hatia, who also runs a language school, felt that the approximately 50 Muslim families in Campinas were in dire need of some community organization to help provide cohesion and direction for the Muslims. The Campinas mosque now holds regular Friday juma prayers and is in the process of establishing regular night prayers on Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. The mosque is currently in need of a full time Imam whose salary would be paid for by the Saudi Arabian government.
A recent trend has been the increase in conversions to Islam among non-Arab citizens. Indeed, Brazil has become a hub for Islam in Latin America. During the past 30 years, Islam has become increasingly noticeable in Brazilian society by building not only mosques, but also libraries, arts centres, and schools and also by funding newspapers.
[edit] Connections to Terrorism
Anti-terrorism experts in the United States claim extremist cells tied to Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and al-Qaida network are operating in Brazil, primarily in the Triple Frontera region bordering Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, which was described as a "haven for Islamic extremists" by the administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Asa Hutchinson, in testimony before the U.S. House International Relations Committee. The suspected activities of these groups include counterfeiting U.S. currency, drug, arms and uranium smuggling, and money-laundering activities.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Paul E. Lovejoy, Muslim Encounters With Slavery in Brazil, York University, ISBN 1-55876-378-3.
- ^ Joao Jose Reis, Slave Rebellion in Brazil: The Muslim Uprising of 1835 in Bahia, John Hopkins University Press, London 1993
- ^ Steven Barboza, American Jihad, 1993
