Construction of Muslim Identities in Contemporary Brazil

This book shows the results of my doctoral thesis in Social Sciences about the construction of Muslim identities in São Paulo, the state which receives more Muslim immigrants in Brazil. The issue of construction of identities of this religious minority was undertaken in relation to: a) the pressures of Brazilian society, characterized by the strong presence of Catholicism, the growth of Protestantism, the fundamentally Western culture, the secular state, the dependency of the USA and the tradition of welcoming immigrants and absorbing them in a process of Brazilianization; b) the impact of globalization over this minority group, both in the sense of the propagation of negative stereotypes in relation to Islam and its faithful, as a consequence of the influence of the Orientalist media and academia, as well as the sense of strengthening of the bonds of the diaspora with the rest of the Muslim world; c) the internal negotiations between immigrants and converts and between men and women for the definition of what is a Muslim; and d) the possible appearance of different Islamic practices and discourses generated by diversified occupations, ethnicities and spatial distributions, through the comparative study of the Muslim communities of Campinas and São Paulo city. Besides illustrating the variety of values, conceptions and beliefs Muslims have in Brazil, this work intends to facilitate the perception of what is a product of the national and cultural context and what is a product of global tendencies that influence Muslim minorities throughout the world, presenting a comparative research between the Muslim communities in Brazil and the Netherlands.

Written in an accessible style . . . The Construction of Muslim Identities in Contemporary Brazil will fit into university courses in Brazilian or Latin American studies as well as religious studies or the social sciences. In crossing boundaries conventionally upheld by area studies as well as the disciplines, this book will push students and non-specialists in Europe or the United States to learn of these heretofore understudied politics of religious difference across unexpected geographies., In this fascinating original study, Cristina Maria de Castro presents an insightful overview of the little-known Muslim communities in Brazil and their at times precarious relationship with majority society in the years of the war on terror and increasing Islamophobia. Extensive fieldwork among these communities has given her access to many of the discussions and debates in these communities. I found her analysis of how ‘born’ Muslim women (of Arab and South African origin) and converts negotiate their gender and religious identities vis-à-vis each other and the non-Muslim majority especially of great interest. The author’s comparative research on the Muslim communities of the Netherlands adds a valuable dimension to this study, bringing out more clearly the specificities of the Brazilian situation.

Cristina Maria de Castro is a Professor of Sociology at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil). In 2005 and 2007 she acted as a visiting researcher at the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World, based in Leiden, The Netherlands. In 2007, Castro was approved in a highly competitive selection process to participate in a training program for new PhD researchers in the Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning, CEBRAP, one of the most renowned research institutions in Brazil. Articles and book chapters on religion, gender and migration, with emphasis on Muslim minorities, have been published by her in Brazil, the USA and France.