O Islã do sudeste do Brasil: modos de adesão, identidades e dinâmicas sociais

Abstract

This thesis is the result of fieldwork done with Muslim communities in Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro and São Bernardo do Campo that tried to analyze how Muslims in this community experience their believes compared to a larger society in which they live. The option of studying three communities had here the main objective to expand the field of research in order to understand the dynamics of these groups and fundamental issues as accession identity and internal tensions. It was taken into consideration in this study the differences between communities and the tendency to universalize that this religion has been taking in Brazilian society. These communities were basically composed of Syrians and Lebanese immigrants, so these were ethnic communities, but in a period of just over a decade, they were reconfiguring from conversion of Brazilians without Muslin background adhered to this religion. This phenomenon of conversions to Islam is one of the common traits in these communities, considered now mixed communities and not ethnic. This reconfiguration brought into the dilemma of these communities identity, since conversions made by the new members, concerns muslin religion and not Arabian culture. Islam in Brazil is structured like one more religion therefore one more religious option, and presents itself as plural reality, a fact that makes these communities socially dynamic in their relationship with local society its making presence in the Brazilian religious scene. By observing the daily life of these communities, it was evident the aspects of social life, such as the relationship between immigrants and converts, building an identity and social structure and politics.