Islam in Brazil

Islam in Brazil was first practiced by African slaves. The next significant migration of Muslims were Arabs from Syria and Lebanon. The number of Muslims in Brazil by the Brazilian Census 2010 is 35,167, which is approximately 0.018 % of the population of Brazil.

Slaves

The history of Muslims in Brazil begins with the importation of African slaves into the country. Brazil bought 37% of all African slaves, more than three million slaves in total. The carry-over of these people to Brazil began about 1550, as the native Indians, especially Tupi, proved to be unsuitable for the hard work on the sugar plantations.

The slave revolt in 1835 in the state of Bahia showed resistance in the "community of men ", as the African Muslims in the 19th century were known in Bahia. The majority of participants were Nago, the local term for ethnic Yoruba. Many of the " men " were soldiers and prisoners of wars between Oyo, Ilorin and other Yoruba city-states in the first half of the 19th century. Other participants were Hausa and Nupe, along with Jeje or Dahomey soldiers, who had converted to Islam and fought in alliance with Muslims.

Starting on the night of January 24, 1835, and continued the next morning, a group of African slaves occupied the streets of Salvador da Bahia and fought more than three hours against soldiers and armed civilians.

Despite the small size and number of participants was the revolt of the largest slave revolt in Brazil and the largest urban slave revolt in America. About 300 Africans took part and the estimated death toll ranges from fifty to one hundred, although exact numbers are unknown. This number increases even more when the wounded who died in prisons or hospitals, are included. Many of the participants were sentenced to death, prison, flogging or for deportation. The rebellion had nationwide impact. It now began a greater monitoring of the slaves, forced conversions to Catholicism increased. But the African Muslim community was not extinguished, and even for 1910 it was estimated that there were about 100,000 African Muslims in Brazil.

Immigration in the 20th century

After then but successful assimilation of Afro-Brazilian community of Muslims was the next period of Islam in the country mainly the result of the Arab immigration from the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Around 11 million Syrian and Lebanese immigrants live in Brazil - but most of them are Maronite Christians, the number of Muslim immigrants has been comparatively low. The largest concentration of Muslims is located in the metropolitan area of ​​the business metropolis of São Paulo.

Christian and Muslim Arabs also influenced architecture and cuisine of Brazil. The influence also extends to fast food: The second largest fast food chain in Brazil is Habib 's, which primarily offers Arabic food. The diversity of influence extends to companies in the textile industry, which is dominated by traders Syrian- Lebanese origin (mainly Christian ). The city council of São Paulo has a Muslim members with the name Mohammad Murad, who is a lawyer by profession. A number of mosques characterize the surroundings of São Paulo, the oldest and most popular of them on Avenida do Estado. Since its founding more than seventy years ago, the mosque has added a Koran school, a library, a kitchen and a hall for different occasions.

Muslims live mainly in the states of São Paulo and Paraná. There are Muslim communities in the industrial suburbs of the city of São Paulo and in the port city of Santos, as well as in smaller communities in Paraná in the coastal region and in Curitiba and Foz do Iguaçu at the border triangle Brazil / Argentina / Paraguay. The community is predominantly Sunni, Sunnis are almost completely assimilated into society. The recent Shiite immigrants tend to small insular communities in São Paulo, Curitiba and Foz do Iguaçu. There are about 36 mosques and other Islamic religious centers, and Islamic associations, but the story of the Ahmadiyya community began only in the late 20th century, when the community was founded in Brazil in 1986.

A new trend is the increase in conversions to Islam among non- Arab citizens. A recent Muslim source estimated that nearly 10,000 Muslim converts living in Brazil, which has not been confirmed by the census of 2010. The number of Muslims is only grown in the period from 2000 to 2010 of 27.239auf 35,167, only to fall to 34 550 by 2012.