Mormonism In Brazil

Religious intolerance has always been a trademark of Brazil despite the fact that since the year of 1891 the country was constitutionally declared a secular nation. With a population of more than 209 million, Brazil is mostly catholic (65%), and while Protestants (23%) have eased their way into being socially tolerated and accepted through the years every other religion is quite often rejected and frowned upon. This rejection makes it difficult for other religions to grow, but certainly not impossible. Currently, Brazil has nearly 1.5 million members of the Islamic faith and 1.3 million members of the Mormon faith. When looking at the social and political history behind the growth of Mormonism and Islamism in Brazil there are so many general
As previous stated, the first wave of Muslims who arrived in Brazil were black slaves mostly from West Africa and up until 1910 African Muslims were the majority in the Brazilian Muslim population. The second wave of Islam immigrants came from the Middle East and South East Asia. It is estimated that approximately 10 million Arabs migrated to Brazil throughout the 20th century. Today, the Muslim population of Brazil is mainly composed of Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian Arabs, with a smaller number of African migrants and Brazilian converts. As for the number of Muslims in Brazil today, the answer depends on who you ask: “According to the official 2000 census, there were 27,239 Muslims in Brazil, or less than 0.016% of the Brazilian population. Meanwhile, Muslim sources speak of 500,000, 1,000,000 or 1,500,000, and say that the error is due to the classification of Muslims in other categories”. The latter may very well be the case when taking into consideration that in the Brazilian government census Muslims aren’t officially counted. The census places Muslims, Buddhists and other minorities in the “other” column, and that is only 2% of the population. Despite the slow growth and it still being a minor religion, as the Muslim population grows so do the mosques. Just like in Mormonism the first LDS temple was built in São Paulo, the first Islamic mosque
“Brazilians took notice of Islamism”, he says. “And Islam is always well received by the less fortunate.” Taking that into consideration, after September 11 Islamism has had a notable development in favelas, the slums around large Brazilian cities. The favelas of Brazil are known for the insanely high rates of poverty, crime and violence, and for being populated by mostly blacks. In the interpretation of Ali Hussein El Zoghbi, director of the Federation of Muslim Associations of Brazil and adviser of the National Union of Islamic Entities, there are three key factors that go into understanding this phenomenon: Islamic icons that are associating with important representatives of black history and civil rights movements, instant access to information guaranteed by the internet and the improvement of the structure of Islamic Brazilian entities. "The children of Arabs who arrived in Brazil post-war gathered more knowledge. This allowed in recent years increased proselytizing and an approximation to Brazilian culture,” he