Religious syncretism is ever present in Brazil.\u201cThe evangelists deny a great section of Brazilian culture. Indeed, they are racist,\u201d says a Candomble priestess.<\/p>\n
Her indignation came after devil worshippers were stopped from slaughtering animals and performing rituals in some newly built stadiums.<\/p>\n
During the recent riots in Brazil ahead of the World Cup, Afro-Brazilian religious leaders were joined by Jews, Protestants, Buddhists and Baha\u2019is, dressed in the traditional garb of their faiths, to draw attention to “intolerance”.<\/p>\n
On April 28 a federal judge in Brazil stated as part of an official court ruling that \u201cAfrican-Brazilian cults are not religions\u201d because their \u201creligious events do not contain [the] necessary traits of a religion,\u201d adding fuel to the flames.<\/p>\n
The ruling continues on to define these necessary traits as \u201ca basic text a hierarchical structure and a God to be worshiped.\u201d (O Globo, 5-20-2014). In the opinion of Federal Judge Eugenio Rosa de Araujo, Candombl\u00e9 and Umbanda do not meet that definition.<\/p>\n
The drumbeat of Candomble \u2014 a religion introduced in Brazil in the 16th century by west African slaves \u2014 resounded during the riots.<\/p>\n
A Candomble priest, or \u201cbabalaw\u00f4,\u201d said he wanted to gain the world\u2019s attention, because “religious intolerance generates racism and threatens democracy”.<\/p>\n
Black followers of Candombl\u00e9 and Umbanda say they want to isolate “racist” Christian evangelical churches, while showing that Brazilians of all religions can live together.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor 25 years, they have hit us over the head with the Bible. In school, our children are treated like followers of the devil,\u201d the priest told AFP.<\/p>\n
They might be treated as followers of the devil, because many are. One of the “spiritual leaders” on Brazil’s biggest football club Vasco, openly calls himself a devil worshipper.<\/p>\n
Police did not confirm the estimated numbers of demonstrators.<\/p>\n
Evangelical churches have flourished among the poor in this giant South American country, where more than 80 million people \u2014 45 percent of the population \u2014 are black or of mixed race.<\/p>\n
But Jose Flavio Pessoa de Barros, an anthropologist at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, charged that they \u201cdemonize cults of African origin to recruit followers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Followers of Candomble and Umbanda, have held annual marches against religious intolerance since 2008, after several places of Afro-Brazilian worship were sacked and their leaders attacked.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Religious syncretism is ever present in Brazil.\u201cThe evangelists deny a great section of Brazilian culture. Indeed, they are racist,\u201d says a Candomble priestess. Her indignation came after devil worshippers were stopped from slaughtering animals and performing rituals in some newly built stadiums. During the recent riots in Brazil ahead of the World Cup, Afro-Brazilian religious … Continue reading “Black Brazilians fight ‘religious intolerance’”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2961,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[156,650,9457,9460,9459,157,9458,111,476,9461,3377],"class_list":["post-14680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blacks","tag-brazil","tag-candomble-and-umbanda","tag-devil-worshippers","tag-minority-religions","tag-racism","tag-religious-intolerance","tag-riots","tag-soccer","tag-vasco","tag-world-cup"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2961"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14681,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14680\/revisions\/14681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}