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Viewing cable 06SAOPAULO498, SAO PAULO'S ARAB COMMUNITY: DIVERSITY AND DIVISIONS
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| Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 06SAOPAULO498 | 2006-05-09 16:00 | 2011-07-11 00:00 | UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY | Consulate Sao Paulo |
VZCZCXRO8646
PP RUEHRG
DE RUEHSO #0498/01 1291600
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 091600Z MAY 06
FM AMCONSUL SAO PAULO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5013
INFO RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 6157
RUEHRG/AMCONSUL RECIFE 2900
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO 7072
RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION 2552
RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES 2214
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ 2768
RUEHMN/AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO 1957
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 0278
RUEHPE/AMEMBASSY LIMA 0961
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT 0032
RUEHDM/AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS 0026
RUEHTV/AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV 0188
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUMIAAA/USCINCSO MIAMI FL
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 SAO PAULO 000498
SIPDIS
STATE FOR WHA/BSC, NEA/ELA, AND DRL/IRF
NSC FOR CRONIN
SOUTHCOM FOR POLAD
SENSITIVE
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL KPAO KISL KIRF SOCI SCUL BR
SUBJECT: SAO PAULO'S ARAB COMMUNITY: DIVERSITY AND DIVISIONS
DIMINISH POLITICAL CLOUT
REF: A) Sao Paulo 360
B) 04 Sao Paulo 850
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY.
-------
SUMMARY
-------
¶1. (SBU) While the Lebanese Christian community in Sao Paulo is
active in politics, the Arab community in general (Muslim and
Christian) lacks political clout at the national level. In fact,
our conversations with a number of Christian and Muslim leaders of
Sao Paulo's large Middle Eastern community (mostly Lebanese and
Syrian), suggest there is neither a cohesive Christian nor Muslim
political interest group or voting bloc in Brazil. To the limited
extent that Muslims are politically active, they tend to support the
governing Workers Party (PT) and other leftist parties. This
reflects the diversity and divisions within both of their
economically important but religiously and politically divided
communities. GoB officials often attempt to justify some of their
more controversial positions and policies on Middle East matters as
a response to the political demands of the Brazil's Muslim
community. However, neither the Christian nor the Muslim community
appears to be keenly interested in the Middle East political scene.
This begs the larger question of what is driving the Brazilian
government's sometimes controversial and contradictory policies in
the Middle East. END SUMMARY.
-----------------------------------------
CONSULATE REACHES OUT TO ARAB COMMUNITY LEADERS
-----------------------------------------
¶2. (SBU) Following up on our recent meeting with leaders of the
Lebanese Christian community during the visit of Congressman Issa
(Ref A), consulate officers met separately with three other
prominent leaders of Sao Paulo's Arab community: Federal Deputy
Ricardo Izar, grandson of Lebanon's first Consul in Sao Paulo; Raul
Tarek Fajuri, an influential Arab publisher; and Said Mourad, a Sao
Paulo state legislator who claims to be the only elected Muslim
official in the state of Sao Paulo. Although these contacts
represent different sub-groups of Sao Paulo's large Arab community,
they share similar views of the openness of Brazilian society to
people from other cultures and the comfortable place Arabs have in
this cultural melting pot. (NOTE: The Lebanese Consul General in Sao
Paulo estimates that the Arab community in Brazil, based mostly in
this consular district, consists of some seven million Christians
and one million Muslims. Both the Christian and Muslim communities
are divided along sectarian religious lines; the Christian community
includes Maronites and members of other Eastern churches; among the
Muslims, Sunnis outnumber Shias, though reliable numbers are hard to
come by. Also, it appears that a rift has developed between these
two communities since the assassination of Lebanese former PM
Hariri. END NOTE.)
--------------------------------------
"ARABS" AND LEBANESE, CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS
--------------------------------------
¶3. (SBU) Poloff and Political Assistant visited Federal Deputy
Ricardo Izar at his campaign headquarters in an upscale neighborhood
in south-central Sao Paulo. Izar, a member of the Brazilian Labor
Party (PTB), recently gained prominence due to his chairmanship of
the Chamber of Deputies' Ethics Council, which has attempted to
discipline Deputies implicated in the political corruption scandal.
His views on the current domestic political situation and upcoming
elections will be reported septel. When asked to talk about his
association with the Arab community on the national and state level,
Izar grew enthusiastic. He said his grandfather ("that's his
picture on the wall there"), had fled Lebanon due to persecution by
the Ottoman Turks and eventually settled in Brazil; he was appointed
in 1918 by Lebanon's French occupiers as the country's
SAO PAULO 00000498 002 OF 004
representative to Sao Paulo's growing Lebanese community. Like our
other interlocutors, Izar said Lebanese and Syrian Muslims are of
more recent provenance, residing mostly in Foz do Iguacu (Parana
state) and on the outskirts of major cities, where they sell
furniture. The Muslim community is fragmented, he said, and not
politically influential; each mosque and beneficent society tends to
represent some parochial interest, and there is little common
orientation. Izar characterized one mosque in the Bras neighborhood
of eastern Sao Paulo as radical in its political orientation.
¶4. (SBU) While there are many links between the Arab Christian and
Muslim communities in Brazil, they are not all that close to each
other. By way of example, Izar noted that the Mount Lebanon Club -
"the best club in Sao Paulo, no, in all of Brazil" - a center of
Lebanese community social activity, did not have a single Muslim
member. He commented in passing that the Lebanese in Brazil did not
like to be referred to or thought of as "Arabs" - there was a
linguistic affinity with Arabic-speakers, but not an ethnic or
cultural one. There were of course important links between the
Lebanese and Syrian communities, as illustrated by the highly
regarded Syrio-Lebanese Hospital in Sao Paulo, whose Board had
members of both communities (again, all were Christians). There are
43 Federal Deputies of Arab descent, he noted, but only one - Jose
Janene (Progressivist Party from Parana, the last remaining Member
to face expulsion for his role in the public bribery scandal. NOTE:
Izar expressed confidence that, despite the recent exoneration by
the Plenary of numerous Deputies, Janene will in fact be expelled.
End NOTE.) - is a Muslim. Another, Jamil Murad (Communist Party of
Brazil from Sao Paulo), "is not even sure what his background is,
but he's close to the Muslim community." To the extent that they
are active in Brazilian politics, Izar said Muslims tend to be
affiliated with President Lula's Workers Party (Partido dos
Trabalhadores - PT) or parties further to the left.
¶5. (SBU) Some members of the Brazilian Lebanese Christian
community, Izar said, are so completely assimilated or integrated
that they retain only a vague sense of their Middle Eastern
heritage, and no interest in the politics of the region. He himself
was active in the Brazil-Lebanon Parliamentary Group, and had
attended the 1998 inauguration of Lebanese President Lahoud. Izar
expressed disagreement with many aspects of the current government's
Middle East policy, and said he had taken the Foreign Minister to
task over it, but had not accomplished much.
---------------------------------------------
ARAB PUBLISHER DENIES PERSECUTION, DOWNPLAYS MIDEAST TIES
---------------------------------------------
¶6. (SBU) Poloff and Information Officer (IO) recently met with
publisher Raul Tarek Fajuri in the offices of CHAMS magazine, a
leading Arab monthly based in Sao Paulo with a circulation of
approximately 10,000. The magazine, launched by Fajuri's late
Lebanese Christian mother, caters to both the Muslim and Christian
Arab communities and reports on major political and social events.
With a focus on institution openings and ribbon-cutting, benevolent
society functions, high-profile weddings, and the visits of
prominent religious and secular dignitaries from the Middle East,
the magazine is popular in Sao Paulo's Syrian and Lebanese
communities.
¶7. (SBU) According to Fajuri, neither the Christian nor Muslim Arab
community finds itself the target of discrimination or persecution
in Brazil. He noted that the general openness of Brazilian society
results in acceptance of ethnic Arabs of any religion. Fajuri
pointed out that Arab immigrants, particularly Lebanese and Syrian
Christians from the post-World War I immigration wave, have been
highly successful in Brazilian business and society (see Ref B for a
broader discussion of Arab immigration to Brazil). Furthermore,
widespread intermarriage has softened the lines between Syrian and
Lebanese, Muslim and Christian. However, Fajuri observed that new
arrivals are far more likely to retain ethnic and social ties to the
Levant and the rest of the Middle East. He also said social
SAO PAULO 00000498 003 OF 004
divisions among members of the various churches of Eastern
Christianity have all but disappeared in Brazil.
¶8. (SBU) Fajuri stated that Arab-Brazilians who have been in Brazil
for a few generations have little in common, except religion, with
their ancestral homeland. They remain largely uninterested in
political activity here in Brazil or in political developments in
the Middle East. (NOTE: Fajuri's opinion differs from that
expressed in Ref A by leaders of the Brazilian Lebanese Christian
community, who said that although Lebanese nationals resident in
Brazil are not eligible to vote in Lebanese elections, they are very
interested in developments in the Levant, as well as Brazilian
policy toward the region, particularly since the assassination of
former PM Hariri. END NOTE.) Fajuri averred that newer immigrants,
particularly Muslims, are much more likely to travel back frequently
to their homeland, to own land and have family ties there, and to
follow more closely political developments in their countries of
birth.
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MUSLIM POLITICIAN ECHOES VIEWS BUT EVINCES PARANOIA
------------------------------------------
¶9. (SBU) Poloffs and Political Assistant also met recently with Said
Mourad, the only Muslim elected official in the Sao Paulo state
legislature. Ironically (and reflecting the irrelevance of party or
religious labels in Brazil), Mourad is one of two representatives of
the Social Christian Party (PSC) in the Sao Paulo State Legislative
Assembly. Mourad won office in 2002 under the banner of the
rightist Party for the Re-edification of the National Order (PRONA),
but subsequently switched to the Liberal Front Party (PFL) and from
there to the PSC. (COMMENT: Three parties in less than four years
is a bit extreme, but party-hopping is not uncommon in Brazil, where
political parties often lack a clear identity and ideology. For
example, according to his Chamber of Deputies official biography,
Deputy Izar, during his 43-year career, has been affiliated with
nine different political parties, including two different stints
(1963-66, 1989-93) with the Liberal Party. END COMMENT.)
¶10. (SBU) Having served as state deputy for almost four years,
Mourad claims to be the only elected Muslim in state politics, and
refers to himself as the informal leader of the "Peace Group,"
comprised of himself and eleven politicians of Arab (and Christian)
descent. While Mourad does not appear to be an "up and coming"
young politician on the state scene (and appears unlikely to win his
re-election bid), he illustrates the lack of political clout of the
Arab community or the existence of a solid voting bloc among
Brazilian Muslims. Mourad stated that he represents the Muslim
community but does not articulate any specifically pro-Muslim
agenda
¶11. (SBU) Mourad echoed Fajuri's remarks about the openness of
Brazilian society and the general lack of prejudice experienced by
members of the Arab community. He stated emphatically that Muslims
do not feel harassed in Brazil, nor are they prevented, by
government or society, from freely practicing their faith. At the
same time, he voiced some of the paranoia that is occasionally
expressed among Brazilian Muslims regarding closer government
scrutiny of Arab activities (particularly in the Tri-border area
shared by Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay). For instance, he claimed
that "intelligence and security groups," including the Mossad,
watched and followed him and harassed his family. Mourad also
complained about what he considers the negative and distorted
representation of the Arab world in the Brazilian media. He claimed
that the press portrays Arabs as "terrorists." Seeking to counter
this alleged bias, Mourad said he escorts groups, including fellow
State Deputies, to religious services at local mosques and to other
Islamic events.
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COMMENT: DUBIOUS GOB CLAIMS OF MUSLIM VOTING BLOC
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SAO PAULO 00000498 004 OF 004
¶12. (SBU) GoB officials often attempt to justify some of their more
controversial positions and policies on Middle East matters as a
response to the political demands of the Brazilian Arab community.
These officials claim they want to avoid stirring up, offending or
alienating this putatively politically influential community.
However, the commentary of these three prominent Arab Brazilians,
along with our previous conversations with Lebanese Christian
leaders (Ref A), suggest there is no strong or cohesive Arab
Christian or Muslim voting bloc in Brazil. (The Arab-Brazilian
Chamber of Commerce, whose members include the Ambassadors of Arab
League nations with diplomatic representation in Brazil, is actively
engaged in promoting Arab culture and has close ties to the Foreign
Ministry, but its political activity and influence are limited.)
Moreover, mainstream political commentators and analysts post has
spoken to have stated that ethnicity and religion in Brazil tend not
to influence political orientation to a great extent. Even the more
dominant Lebanese Christians do not constitute a monolithic
political bloc. In fact, the broader Arab community - Christian or
Muslim - may share certain interests and affinities, such as an
attachment to the homeland, but these sub-groups do not appear to be
keenly interested in the Middle East political scene. This begs the
larger question of what is really driving the Brazilian government's
sometimes controversial and contradictory policies in the Middle
East. END COMMENT.
¶13. (U) This cable was coordinated with Embassy Brasilia.
MCMULLEN