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The Manifestation of Islam in Argentina*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Gladys Jozami
Gladys Jozami*
Affiliation:
Universidad de Buenos Aires and CEMLA, Buenos Aires, Argentina
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Extract

In March 1995, a tragic incident understandably evoked public displays of Muslim religiosity in Buenos Aires. The incident—the death of the head of state's son—provoked the irruption of ritual and religious aspects of Islam, unknown to most Argentines, on the country's radio and television. The demise of president Carlos Menem's first-born brought into the public arena with a vengeance the issue of ethnoreligious identity that had been kept under wraps since the end of the nineteenth century as a matter for the intimacy of family and community.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 53 , Issue 1 , July 1996 , pp. 67 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1996

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Footnotes

*

This paper is the result of CONICET's generous material support and information from, among others, the data base of the Buenos Aires-based Centro de Estudios Migratorios Latinoamericanos (CEMLA). Fernando Devoto, María Elena Vela and Ignacio Klich are gratefully acknowledged for their valuable suggestions, encouragement and comments respectively, as are also The Americas’ anonymous evaluators.

References

1 Jozami, Gladys “La identidad nacional de los llamados turcos en la Argentina,” Temas de Africa y Asia 2 (1993), 191 Google Scholar.

2 Although all followers of Islam share a way of life and ethical system, these immigrants in Argentina belong to one of two large branches, a Sunni majority and Shiite minority. Estimated by the former at 10-12 percent of Argentina’s Muslims, the latter have acquired an unexpected prominence since the Iranian revolution. Among the Shiites, there are the Alawites hailing from Syria, a small though vital subgroup, especially in Buenos Aires and the northwestern province of Tucumán. On both provinces’ Muslim institutions, see, respectively, de Canuto, M. A. Saleh and Budeguer, S. El aporte de sirios y libaneses a Tucumán (San Miguel de Tucumán: Editorial América, 1979), pp. 90–92 Google Scholar; Cazorla, L. La inmigración sirio y libanesa en la provincia de Buenos Aires a través de sus instituciones étnicas (Buenos Aires: Fundación Los Cedros, 1995), pp. 65 Google Scholar, 68–72, 82–84, 130–34, 149–51. On Argentina’s Sunnis and Shiites, see Ahsani, S. A. H. “Muslims in Latin America: A Survey Part I,” Journal Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs (July 1984) 456–57Google Scholar.

3 That formal conversions are not unusual among Muslim adults is attested by other cases. For example, on José Selín Alí, see Jozami, , “Identidad religiosa e integración cultural en cristianos sirios y libaneses en Argentina, 1890–1990,” Estudios Migratorios Latinoamericanos (April 1994), 109 Google Scholar. Edited by I. Klich and J. O. Bestene, this Estudios issue was entirely devoted to Latin America’s Lebanese, Palestinian and Syrian immigrants.

4 During the first term of office of Carlos Menem (1989-95), a special assembly reformed the country’s constitution. Whereas the new text retains the previous constitution’s article 2, which provided support for the Roman Catholic church, it no longer requires that presidential and vice-presidential candidates be of the Catholic faith. Written in July 1994, a letter by the Federation of Arab Entities (FEARAB—Buenos Aires), an umbrella organization for some of the institutions created by Christian and/or Muslim Arabs, declared itself in favor of keeping the Catholic requisite for the country’s chief executives.

5 Viau, S. “Yo Junior,” Páginal/30 (March 1993)Google Scholar.

6 Funerary advertisements in Argentina’s national newspapers with the largest circulation revealed a massive use of Islamic symbols in relation to Carlos, Jr. This said, nuances were visible not only among Argentine society but also within the Argentine-Arab community. Whereas the Argentine-Arab Chamber of Commerce, one of the foremost institutions among the latter, resorted, like the majority, to the crescent, the Syro-Lebanese club Honour and Fatherland, as well as the Catholic Orthodox Archbishopric of Antioch, opted for the cross. For its part, the La Rioja Syro-Lebanese Society refrained from using any religious symbols. Such a diversity confirms the presence of various identities among yesteryear’s Arab immigrants, a group which some assume to be quite homogeneous. See La Nación 16–22 March 1995; Páginal/12, 16 March 1995; Caras, 17 March 1995.

7 Jozami, “El retorno de los ‘turcos’ en la Argentina de los noventa,” Paper presented at the International Conference “Discriminación y Racismo en America Latina,” Universidad de Buenos Aires, 23–25 November 1994.

8 See, for example, Assali, E. Biondi, “La comunidad musulmana de Tucumán, Argentina: Análisis etnoling üistico,” Working Paper 17, CICE, Buenos Aires, 1988;Google Scholar by the same author, “Alternancia de los códigos español-árabe entre los bilingües de Tucumán, Argentina,” Caravelle 52 (1989), 33–55; by the same author, “Actitudes y valoraciones hacia la lengua étnica entre los grupos migratorios de origen árabe en Argentina,” Encuentro 215 (1990).

9 Wherever the names of interviewees have been omitted, this is in deference to the wishes to those who preferred to remain anonymous.

10 Considering Argentina’s Muslim population as a subgroup of the largely Christian migration from Syria and Lebanon during 1862–1960, the bibliography on this still insufficiently studied current not only avails us of data but also of hypothesis on the Muslims. An idea of the corpus of published sources can be had by consulting several works, for example, Klich, I. “Introduction to the Sources for the History of the Middle Easterners in Latin America,” Temas de Africa y Asia 2 (1993)Google Scholar; Suleiman, M. W. “Los arabes en América Latina: Bibliografía preliminar,” Estudios Migratorios Latinoamericanos, (April 1994)Google Scholar. For the time being, the most complete and updated bibliographic aide is Klich, I. , “Sources on the Lebanese and Other Middle Easterners in Latin America,” Centre for Lebanese Studies, Oxford, 1995 Google Scholar.

11 On the interethnic links between Arabs and Jews, see Klich, , “Arabes, judíos y árabes judíos en la Argentina de la primera mitad del novecientos,” Estudios lnierdisciplìnarios de América Latina y el Caribe, (July-December 1995), 109–43Google Scholar.

12 Jozami, “El retomo de los ‘turcos,” table 1.

13 Author’s interview with the Libyan Cultural Centre director, Abdulhamid Hageg, Buenos Aires, June 1995. Hageg’s viewpoint coincides with that of other Arab representatives consulted. For instance, Abdel Kader Ismael, a Buenos Aires-based head of the Arab League Office, used to proclaim in the 1980s that if every Argentine-Arab contributed $1 a considerable sum would be raised for projects which the same Argentine-Arabs sought to finance with Arab embassies’ monies. For these foreign envoys it is incomprehensible that the reported 2.5-3 million Arabs, figures that they have adopted from local community members, are unable to self-finance their ideas. It can be assumed that greater clarity on the subject would result from asking how many are aware of their ethnic origins, and what does it mean to feel that someone in Argentina has Syrian or Lebanese ancestors, rather than devoting exclusive attention to how large is the Argentine-Arab ethnic group. See, for example, Jozami, , “La identidad nacional de los llamados turcos,” art. cit., pp. 189–204 Google Scholar.

14 The counterpart to this overdimensioned Arab presence would be statements by Israeli officials on the relatively large number of Jews in president Raúl Alfonsín’s administration. See Klich, I. “Lo latinoamericano en Israel,” Jahrbuch für Geschichte von Staat, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft Latein-amerikas (Cologne), 1994, p. 393 Google Scholar.

15 Merhi, C. “Les 10 millions de libanais du Brésil et d’Argentine. Songent- ils à revenir?,” Le Commerce du Levant, 2 July 1992 Google Scholar. Like others, Bishop Merhi’s figures suggest that he tends to equate all Middle Eastern immigrants with his fellow countrymen. For a similar practice by a one-time Argentine immigration director and several Lebanese authors, see Klich, , “ Criollos and Arabic Speakers in Argentina: An Uneasy Pas de Deux, 1888–1914,” in Hourani, A. and Shehadi, N. eds., The Lebanese in the World: A Century of Emigration (London: I.B. Tauris for the Centre for Lebanese Studies, 1992), pp. 250–51Google Scholar.

16 These figures are chiefly publicized by FEARAB and the Argentine-Arab Chamber of Commerce. Thus, Félix Elydd, the Chamber president in the late 1980s, remarked during a visit to Saudi Arabia that Argentina’s population comprised “not less than 2.5 million of Arab descendants.” Arab News, 28 May 1989.

17 Schamún, A. “La colectividad siria en la República Argentina,” Assalam, 25 May 1910 Google Scholar; La Siria nueva, 1917; El Misionerolal-Mursal, 9 July 1940. This special issue of El Misionero celebrated Argentina’s independence day and honored the country’s president, Roberto M. Ortiz, whose wife was part of Argentine society’s circle of ladies who early on began assisting the Maronites in Buenos Aires. Also worthy of note is the fact that one of Ortiz’s sons completed his secondary education at the Colegio San Marón.

18 Author’s interview at the Office of Islamic Culture and Divulgation, Buenos Aires, June 1992.

19 See “Islam in Argentina: A Report,” Journal Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs, January 1992, pp. 272–78. Compared to Ahsani’s estimate of 370,000 Muslims less than a decade earlier, Hussein’s figure represents an increase of nearly 22 percent that can neither be satisfactorily explained by the arrival of new Muslim immigrants, nor as a mere result of the natural growth of those already in the country and proselytism. Ahsani, , “Muslims in Latin America,” pp. 456–57Google Scholar.

20 Delval, R. Les Musulmans en Amérique latine et aux Caraïbes (Paris: Editions L’Harmattan, 1992), p. 264 Google Scholar; Wilkie, J. W. Contreras, C. A. and Weber, C. Anders eds., Statistical Abstract of Latin America (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin America Center Publications, 1993), p. 346, table 1104.Google Scholar

21 “Les Musulmans dans le Monde,” La Documentation française, 9 August 1952.

22 Elkholy, A. The Arab Moslems in the United States (New Haven, 1966), p. 23 Google Scholar. The contrast between Elkholy’s figure and that offered by Delval a quarter of a century later, i.e. 612,000 Muslims in Latin America and the Caribbean, suggests that quantifying the Muslims is not only unstable and problematic in Argentina’s case. Delval, , Les Musulmans, p. 15 Google Scholar.

23 Klich, , “Lo latinoamericano en Israel,” p. 392nGoogle Scholar.

24 For references to 540,000 Jews, see, for instance, Wilkie, , Contreras and Anders Weber, p. 346 Google Scholar.

25 See Pergola, S. della “Demographic Trends of Latin American Jewry,” in Elkin, J. L. and Merkx, G. W. eds., The Jewish Presence in Latin America (Boston: Allen & Unwyn, 1987), pp. 98–100 Google Scholar.

26 From a sociological perspective, Schnapper questions some of Delia Pergola’s demographic conclusions, especially those on France’s Jewish population (a case that bears some resemblance to that of Argentina), which she considers weak in respect of the data on Canada, Australia, Switzerland and Italy. For this scholar, the apparent methodological problems elicited by Jewish demography are, in fact, problems of definition and identity, which are also relevant to other groups. See Schnapper, D. “Les limites de la demographie des juifs de la diaspora,” Revue française de sociologie, 28, (1987), 319–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

27 F. Devoto, “Redes sociales y familia en las migraciones españolas a la Argentina: Una perspectiva regional desde los partes consulares (1910),” mimeo.

28 Undeniably, discrepancies between Immigration Directorate statistics and the numbers yielded by the disembarkation books exist. Other than human error and documented book losses, this suggests that Directorate figures may have been arrived at using more sources than the passenger lists. Interestingly, Argentine diplomats requested data on migrants going to Buenos Aires from the authorities at major departure points. On the latter, see, for example, Archives de la region Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur et du departement des Bouches-du-Rhône, Marseilles, 4M-2151, Argentine consulate (Nice/Marseilles) to Special Commissioner on Emigration, 17 March 1888, 23 April 1892, 10 and 24 March 1893, 16 April 1894.

29 Devoto, “Redes socialies.”

30 Favero, L. “Le liste di sbarco in Argentina,” in Rosoli, G. ed., Identità degli Italiani in Argentina (Rome, 1993), pp. 1–22 Google Scholar. To learn about the sources that are part of the CEMLA data base, see A. Bernasconi, “Utilización de los registros de desembarco argentinos: Posibilidades y límites,” Paper presented at the Jornadas sobre Redes Sociales y Migraciones, Universidad Nacional del Centro, Tandil, 1994; Bernasconi, A. and Silberstein, C. “Las listas de desembarco y el estudio de la inmigración italiana a la Argentina (1882–1925),” mimeo Google Scholar.

31 Jozami, , “Identidad religiosa e integración cultural,” table 2, p. 104 Google Scholar.

32 Karpat, K. “The Ottoman Emigration to America, 1860–1914,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 17 (1985), 182 Google Scholar.

33 Klich, , “Criollos and Arabic Speakers in Argentina,” p. 255 Google Scholar.

34 A case in point is provided by the disembarkation lists’ Alis and Bentolilas, a Muslim surname the former and Jewish the latter. Only 45 of the 143 Alis listed were registered as Muslim while no more than three of the 28 Bentolilas would have been Jewish. CEMLA data base.

35 Ríos, M.E. Vela and Caimi, R. “The Arabs in Tucumán, Argentina,” in Montiel, L. Martínez ed., Asiatic Migrations to Latin America (Mexico: El Colegio de México, 1981)Google Scholar; Bestene, J. “La inmigración sirio-libanesa en la Argentina: Una aproximación,” Estudios Migratorios Latinoamericanos (August 1988)Google Scholar; Klich, “Criollos and Arabic Speakers in Argentina.”

36 See Santamaría, D. “Estado, Iglesia e inmigración en la Argentina,” Estudios Migratorios Latinoamericanos (April 1990), 153 Google Scholar.

37 The Syrian rubric does not exclude arrivals from present day Lebanon. On the Argentine immigration authorities’ various ways of cataloguing the Middle Easterners, see Bertoni, L. A. “De Turquía a Buenos Aires: Una colectividad nueva a fines del siglo XIX,” Estudios Migratorios Latinoamericanos (April 1994), 71nGoogle Scholar.

38 Alsina, J. La inmigración en el primer siglo de la independencia (Buenos Aires, 1910), p. 96 Google Scholar.

39 Id. ant., pp. 88–89.

40 Censo General de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires, 1909).

41 On Arslan’s performance as a diplomat in Buenos Aires, see Klich, I. “Argentine-Ottoman Relations and Their Impact on Immigrants from the Middle East: A History of Unfulfilled Expectations, 1910–1915,” The Americas, (October 1993), pp. 177–205 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

42 Allard, Michel “Les Libanais en Argentine de l’immigration à l’intégration,” Travaux et Jours, Beirut, 48 (1973)Google Scholar.

43 La Siria nueva, p. 19.

44 Oral testimonies recorded by the author.

45 Klich, , “ Criollos and Arabic Speakers in Argentina,” pp. 277–78Google Scholar.

46 On the Druzes, a heterodox Islamic sect, see Hitti, P. The Syrians in America (New York: George H. Doran Co., 1924), pp. 41–42 Google Scholar.

47 “Religión de los inmigrantes: Quinquenio 1923–1927,” Immigration Directorate internal document, Buenos Aires.

48 Jozami, “Identidad religiosa e integración cultural.”

49 “Religión de los inmigrantes.”

50 Censo Municipal de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, 1936.

51 See n. 11, supra.

52 A mosque in now being built in the provincial capital of Mendoza.

53 For case studies on the early concentration of Syrian and Lebanese immigrants in the vicinity of the Buenos Aires port, as well as on their spatial distribution in Argentina’s northwestern provinces, see, respectively, Bertoni; Jozami, , “Aspectos demográficos y comportamiento espacial de los migrantes árabes en el NOA,” Estudios Migratorios Latinoamericanos, (April 1987)Google Scholar.

54 Oral testimony recorded by the author.

55 The equation of Muslim and “infidel” in a Benedictine priest’s work is consistent with consideration of Muslims as heretics in Catholic church documents. Alameda, Julián, Las Iglesias de Oriente y su unión con Roma (Buenos Aires: P. P. Benedictinos, 1929), p. 267 Google Scholar.

56 Baptism certificate of A. Cabur, 26 November 1958, Bishopric of Catamarca.

57 See El Misionerolal-Mursal, 9 July 1940.

58 Abderrahmán, M. Y., Adalid rioplatense (Buenos Aires: author’s edition, 1954)Google Scholar. Well-informed about the community’s various national and religious sections, Abderrahmán, nonetheless, did not present this figure as an absolute certainty.

59 Mentioned by Klich, , “ Criollos and Arabic Speakers in Argentina,” p. 278nGoogle Scholar.

60 Author’s interview with Hageg.

61 On the sequels of the first Arab-Israeli war among Arabs and Jews in Argentina, see Klich, , “Arabes, judíos y árabes judíos,” pp. 128–29Google Scholar.

62 On Muslim institutions in Buenos Aires province, see Cazorla, pp. 129–34.

63 Author’s interview with Hugo Ayan, Buenos Aires, June 1995. Carlos Romero, another grandchild of Aniceto Romero and a cousin of Ayan, is today a vicepresident of the Argentine Congress’ lower house. Educated in a Salesian school, Carlos is also a Catholic.

64 On the Iranian inspiration of two of the first mosques built in Argentina, in addition to other aspects of Saudi-Iranian competition in the country, see Klich, , “ Criollos and Arabic Speakers in Argentina,” pp. 258–59Google Scholar.

65 Supported by the World Assembly of Islamic Youth, the Islamic Conference Organization and the Islamic Development Bank, a first international meeting of Latin American Islamic youth took place in Brazil in 1981. Aimed at leadership training, the gathering attracted more than 100 youngsters from several countries. Four years later, the Saudi news agency announced an Islamic summer camp in Argentina. See “Brazil Hosts Islamic Youth,” 8 Days, 21 March 1981; Summary of World Broadcasts (Caversham Park), ME/7849/iii, 15 January 1985.