R 201218Z NOV 09
FM AMCONSUL SAO PAULO
TO SECSTATE WASHDC
INFO NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
AMEMBASSY BRASILIA
AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO
AMCONSUL SAO PAULO
AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO
AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
AMEMBASSY LIMA
AMEMBASSY BOGOTA
AMEMBASSY PARAMARIBO
AMEMBASSY LA PAZ
AMEMBASSY ASUNCION
AMEMBASSY QUITO
AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO
CONFIDENTIAL SAO PAULO 000653
SIPDIS
DEPARTMENT FOR SR FARAH PANDITH, KAREN CHANDLER AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PASS TO AMCONSUL RECIFE
E.O. 12958: DECL: 2019/11/20
TAGS: PGOV OEXC OIIP PHUM PINR PINS PROP SCUL PTER BR
SUBJECT: Scenesetter for SR Farah Pandith's Visit to Brazil: Sao Paulo's Muslims
REF: SAO PAULO 433 SAO PAULO 421 BRASILIA 709 2008 SAO PAULO 542
Classified By: David C. Brooks, State POL; Reason: 1.4 (d)
1. (U) Post is delighted to host Special Representative (SR) Farah Pandith’s first visit to Latin America, November
22-23. Brazil offers a unique context for engaging the local Muslim communities. The country hosts a significant
(400-500 thousand) Muslim minority that lives within a larger society that has historically taken great pride in both
its diversity and tradition of cultural and religious tolerance. Sao Paulo hosts Brazil’s largest Muslim community, a
combination of both older and more recent Arab immigrants (mostly from Lebanon) as well as some Africans and Brazilian
converts. Engaging this group in the midst of Brazil’s famous “melting pot” context can generate opportunities for
making connections not available elsewhere and will likely echo favorably with non-Muslim
Brazilians. Brazil’s Muslims By the Numbers (Such as They Are)
2. (U) Statistics on Brazil’s Muslim population vary widely. A year 2000 census lists only 27,000 Muslims in the
country. Spokesmen for the country’s Muslim community have sometimes put this figure as high as 1-2 million. Most
knowledgeable observers calculate that there are 400-500 thousand Muslims in Brazil. (Muslim community members
universally lament the lack of hard data on their own numbers, due, in part, they say to flaws in the Brazilian census
methodology.) The majority are Sunnis of Lebanese descent. Many of these immigrants’ families arrived decades ago and
have set strong roots in Brazil. A more recent group of immigrants has complemented these earlier flows. The new
immigrants are frequently also from Lebanon, but they are poorer and far more Shiite. Their politics is more radical and
they frequently look to Hezbollah for leadership. The Consulate does not have contact with this latter group, which
tends to keep its distance from us.
Consulate Engagement: A Work in Progress
3. (C) For several years, the Consulate has sought greater engagement with Sao Paulo’s various Muslim groups (Refs A-E).
Working closely with the Lebanese Consul General, Joseph Sayah, we have developed an increasing network of friends among
Sheiks and community leaders in the Sunni community, including an ability to dialogue with some Sunni Fundamentalists
who hold highly critical views of the United States. We continue to try to make inroads into women and youth groups, but
this is difficult in an essentially conservative, hierarchical community where even friendly Sheiks tend to guard their
flocks closely, youth often enter family businesses and, as yet, women do not play overt leadership roles. Your visit
offers us an opportunity to increase this engagement by highlighting both Washington-based programs and giving a
Washington push to ideas we have developed locally.
4. (U) What follows is a description of broad trends in Brazil’s Muslim communities built around data points developed
from our own experiences. This account includes data from only two trips outside Sao Paulo, a gap we intend to close in
the coming year as we promote Muslim engagement as part of our normal political travel in our district.
The Lebanese Connection
5. (C) Heavy Lebanese immigration to Brazil, most of which was Maronite Christian, has shaped Brazil’s Muslim community
in important ways. Most of the Lebanese who are here are descended from earlier generation immigrants who extol the
virtues of a tolerant Lebanon where Christians, Jews and Muslims mixed with ease. This is a cornerstone of this
community and has only been reinforced by Brazil’s own broad traditions of cultural tolerance. Many Lebanese Brazilians
would like to see this spirit brought back to the country of their ancestors/their country of origin. A key figure in
this effort is Lebanon’s Sao Paulo-based Consul General, Joseph Sayah. A Maronite Christian with fluent Arabic and an
intimate understanding of Islam, he actively maintains contacts with a wide range of actors in the Brazil’s Islamic
communities, promoting moderation. The social events he sponsors put this tolerance on remarkable display. In his hands,
Lebanese National Day becomes a virtual celebration of religious comity, with Lebanese Jews, Christians and Muslims all
hugging and conversing in fluent Arabic. Sayah is a close friend of the Consulate and a key interlocutor in reaching out
to disaffected Muslims who would rather keep their distance from us.
America at Arms-Length: the Sunnis of San Bernardo
6. (C) The San Bernardo suburb of Sao Paulo is home to a Sunni mosque that is run by Jihad Hammadeh, a Lebanese Sheik
who speaks excellent Portuguese. For this reason, he frequently appears in local media speaking out on Islamic or Middle
Eastern issues (often criticizing what he sees as unfair stereotyping of Muslims in global media). Hammadeh also works
for two organizations that are dedicated to the spread of Islam in Latin America: the Center for the Propagation of
Islam in Latin America (CDIAL) and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY). The latter was originally financed by the
Saudi Monarchy, but sources indicate that that funding has dried up in recent years. The San Bernardo Mosque gives
classes in both Islam and Arabic language to those interested and makes strong efforts to convert Brazilians to Islam.
7. (C) Hammadeh meets with us, but never attends our events and keeps us at arm’s-length. When we have suggested
visiting his Arabic language classes, he has demurred. When during a recent visit SP’s Jared Cohen talked about creating
cyber-linkages between Brazilian Muslims and U.S. Muslims, Hammadeh said that this should take place through individual
Sheiks (Ref B). Hammadeh is generally moderate in his public pronouncements, but various sources indicate that the
Islamic line he promotes among followers is strongly fundamentalist. Modern Islam: Sheik Houssam Al-Boustani
8. (U) Sheik Al-Boustani teaches a class for young Brazilians interested in learning Arabic and learning about Islam
under the auspices of the Lebanese Future Movement. Boustani studied Islam in India and has lived in Brazil for nine
years. He is an extremely enthusiastic and energetic teacher who peppers his lessons on the Koran and on Arabic language
with self-deprecating humor. His students, which he says number seventy-five at any one time, are generally young
Brazilian professionals who are attracted to what Boustani calls his version of “modern” Islam. Boustani is most
welcoming to us and has had Poloff as a guest in his classes. He has also worked on a number of inter-faith initiatives,
including the Abraham Path Project, consulting for a Brazilian TV movie (a fictional romance) about a Jewish Holocaust
survivor and an Arab woman who marry in Brazil after World War II, and co-teaching a course on religion with a Rabbi and
a Catholic Priest. Finally, he has recently published a book about Mohammed in Portuguese and is working on a book on
Islam in Brazil.
9. (C) Boustani’s openness is sincere, but did not necessarily come naturally to him. According to Lebanon CG Joseph
Sayah, it is the product of a long process. Boustani has a tough-hewn past. He is a former amateur boxer, and he fought
the Soviets in Afghanistan. When he arrived here nine years ago, according to Lebanon CG Joseph Sayah, he was quite
extreme in his views. Over time, he has moderated considerably. His teaching style, as witnessed by Conoff, is expertly
pitched for young Brazilians attracted to Islam but who also dress stylishly and require/respond to a highly
entertaining presentation of religious ideas. Boustani himself has said that Islamic outreach in Brazil has to engage
other religious traditions. He also admires some aspects of Brazil’s Evangelical Christian communities, which he says
have become experts at reaching humble folk with a mass message. (Note: Boustani is presently in Lebanon, but we are
attempting to arrange a meeting with his students. End Note.)
Anti-American Attitudes
10. (SBU) While Brazil’s Islamic community is peaceful and has many friendly elements, it also contains reservoirs of
strong suspicion of the U.S. In an August meeting, Sheik Yamani of the Mosque in Londrina (an interior city in Parana
State) told Poloff that Bin Laden’s involvement in the 9-11 attacks on the Twin Towers had never been proven. (When
Poloff pointed out that Bin Laden had bragged about the same on television, Sheik Yamani replied, “Such things can be
doctored.”) The Sheik, a 31 year old of Portuguese descent, proved otherwise quite friendly, inviting Poloff to attend
Friday services at his Londrina Mosque. He appeared to represent a conservative strain of Euro-Islam, evidenced by his
and his wife’s highly conservative dress. Poloff has also taken pains to correct other myths that abound among some
Muslim contacts, such as the story that former President Bush is the grandson of a U.S.-based Pastor Bush, who wrote a
book condemning Islam in the 19th century.
The Radicals
11. (C) While the majority of Brazil’s Muslims are moderate in orientation and the overwhelming majority is moderate in
deed and action, genuine radical elements do exist here, some in the Tri-Border area of Foz de Iguacu and others among
Sao Paulo’s estimated 20,000-strong, Hezbollah-oriented Shia population. Muslims at the moderate, Sunni-oriented Future
Institute charge that Shia immigrants sometimes come to Brazil with Hezbollah support (allegedly USD 50,000 is a typical
sum) to found businesses to support Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Reasons to Engage
12. (C) The Brazilian-Lebanese context provides an excellent double background of tolerance that already promotes a high
degree of mixing between Brazil’s Muslims and the rest of the society. Engaging moderate Muslims puts radicals on the
defensive and opens conduits of communication that could lead to greater information about more distant elements of the
community given over to greater radicalism. Work with friendly moderates should not be seen as separate from monitoring
more threatening elements. While Brazil’s tiny, Hezbollah-oriented Shia population is a legitimate concern, Lebanon CG
Joseph Sayah also told Poloff to “not lose sight of the Sunnis.” (Note. Sunnis outnumber Shiites in Brazil by about ten
to one. End Note.) Sayah described how some young Brazilians, either of Arab background or not, have become attracted to
fundamentalist versions of Islam. While beliefs do not translate directly into action, such conversions can create a
climate for the growth of fanaticism. Al-Boustani’s version of “modern Islam” is tailored to counter that. "By
expressing a willingness to engage all groups, we make it more difficult for extremists to try to create the kind of
closed atmosphere that enables their recruiting".
13. (C) Toward this end, Post has suggested several possible programs, including a campaign to provide consular
information to Muslim contacts, a series of outreach presentations on President Obama, and, most important, our desire
to bring down a visiting U.S. Sheik who can explain how Islam is now a vital part of American society and build ties
with local religious leaders. Given its size, diversity and traditions of cultural tolerance, Brazil could be an
excellent testing ground for programs that might be useful to other WHA posts with similar Muslim minority populations.
White