Under Brazil’s New Govt, Islamophobia Continues to Rise

By Xiu Ying, Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – After the massacre in Christchurch, the Brazilian Muslim community is once again on high alert for possible attacks.

On the same day as the massacre in New Zealand, the Abu Bakr Assidik Mosque, located in the city of São Bernardo do Campo, near São Paulo, was guarded by the Civil Police and the Municipal Guard to ensure the safety of those present during the Friday prayer. The city’s Muslim community feared attacks after online threats and a series of YouTube videos made against Muslims.

A member of the congregation who wished to remain anonymous said that the individual “did not threaten any specific mosque, [but] in his threats he said that Muslims have to die.”

Hatred and threats against Muslims in Brazil are not new. Among Latin American countries, Brazil welcomed the largest number of Syrian refugees. And by 2015, the country saw a twenty percent increase in the number of Mosques in the São Paulo state alone compared to the previous year.

For over ten years, there has been a visible trend of the Islamic faith growing steadily on the peripheral areas of Brazil’s biggest cities, disputing the ground with the fast-growing neo-Pentecostal evangelical faith. Despite the official number of less than forty thousand Muslims in Brazil, Islamic organizations believe that the real number may have exceeded 1.5 million since 2016.

Cases of xenophobia and Islamophobia have also risen. According to a research carried out by lawyer Luciana Carvalho, almost 85 percent of respondents felt discriminated for being Muslim while over 72 percent said they have been victims of assault or offenses.

Brazil’s Right-Wing

According to Francirosy Campos, anthropologist and professor at the University of São Paulo (USP), the main problem faced by Muslims in Brazil is prejudice and threats, many of them made on social networks, particularly on Facebook.

But some religious and right-wing groups go beyond social media posts. A fringe evangelical denomination called Geração Jesus Cristo, or Generation Jesus Christ, is one of the groups known for publicly discriminating against Muslims.

In 2017, members of the group carried out anti-Islam demonstrations in Rio de Janeiro. The protesters carried posters with hate messages like “Islam: Legal Murderers in Brazil,” “Quran: Guide for rape and murder,” and “Say no to paedophilia, say no to Islam,” as can be seen in a video recorded by journalist Hajj Mangolin.

Members of this evangelical denomination are known for their religious fundamentalism and for their slogan “Bible: yes, constitution: no.”

They are also known for posting incendiary videos on Youtube against Islam, LGBTQ people, and religious minorities. Their leader, Minister Tupirani da Hora Lores, was arrested in 2009 for crimes of religious intolerance after an attack against an Umbanda temple. This was the first time a religious leader was arrested for such crimes.

In May 2017, members of a group called “Direita São Paulo” (Right-wing São Paulo) organized a demonstration in the city against the Brazilian Migration Law, which they considered very lenient towards foreigners and potential “terrorists.” During the protest, they shouted phrases like “The European community no longer wants the Islamists who rape girls.”

A group of left-wing human rights activists staged a counter-demonstration and a Palestinian refugee was severely beaten in the skirmish that ensued. Palestinian Hassan Zarif, owner of Al Janiah, a restaurant and an important cultural centre and meeting point of the Arab community of São Paulo, was arrested along with two Brazilian activists after the confrontation and released the following day.

An Uncertain Future

The foreign population in Brazil is just below 2 million, or 0.9 percent of the total population. Yet even with no relevant cases of violence carried out by Muslims, Islamophobic propaganda managed to stick and grow.

The arrival of a new government led by Jair Bolsonaro, a former army captain of the far-right with a strong anti-minority speech, has not helped to allay the fears of the Muslim community in Brazil.

“There are many stereotypes and a prejudiced view of the Islamic community fed by the traditional media. This is not new,” says Soraya Misleh, a well-known activist for the Palestinian cause.

“What is new are some explicit Islamophobic manifestations in Brazil, which have been increasing, especially after the arrival of a number of Arab refugees. Bolsonaro, with his discourse, feeds these unmasked expressions of Islamophobia, which attacks the oppressed and exploited,” she says.