Brazil, like numerous other nations, grapples with mounting Islamophobia, according to a recent survey by the Anthropology Group on Islamic and Arab Contexts, an organisation affiliated with the University of São Paulo, incidents of harassment among Muslim Brazilians have surged since October 7th.
Approximately 70 percent of respondents reported acquaintances who encountered religious intolerance since October 7th.
United Nations experts have warned that Palestine is at “grave risk of genocide”. 30,000 Palestinians have been massacred in the Gaza enclave according to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, alongside 2 million Palestinians being displaced.
“Many Muslim women told us they are now called things like ‘Hamas daughter’ or ‘Hamas terrorist’,” one victim explained.
The online survey revealed that a significant number of respondents had personal encounters with religious intolerance. Notably, the study highlighted that women experienced slightly elevated levels of religious intolerance.
“About 60 percent of the respondents affirmed that they suffered some kind of offence, either on social media or in their daily lives at work, at home or in public spaces,” Barbosa, a Brazillian Muslim said.
Last month a video circulated on social media, showing a resident of Mogi das Cruzes, a suburb of São Paulo, aggressively approaching a Muslim woman and attempting to remove her headscarf. The footage garnered attention from news outlets such as CNN Brasil.
One of the women involved, Karen Gimenez Oubidi, also known as Khadija, converted to Islam eight years ago after marrying a Moroccan man. She explained that the altercation arose from a disagreement between her children and a neighbour who became upset as a result.
“She came down with her brother and was very aggressive. She called me a ‘cloth-wrapped bitch’. I soon realised it was not only about the kids’ fight,” Gimenez Oubidi said.
“He (the neighbour’s brother) said a few times to me, ‘What are you doing now, terrorist?’ He didn’t say it loudly: It was just for me to hear. He knew what he was doing,” Gimenez Oubidi said.
Pictured: Karen Gimenez Oubidi, known as Khadija, subject of Islamophobic attack.
The 2010 census tallied 35,167 individuals who identified as Muslim in Brazil. However, subsequent estimates have suggested that the population could be as high as 1.5 million.
Mahmoud Ibrahim, the leader of a mosque in Porto Alegre, contends that the mentality of “us-versus-them” has manifested as hostility toward his community.
