This is a segment of program that Argentina TV did on Arab-Argentine Musicians.
This is Argentina Public TV’s General Interest Program about Argentina called LIVE IN ARGENTINA
(Click Here for Website Blog) (Click Here) for full 5 part playlist about ARAB ROOTS in Argentine Music
The title MAPA MUSICAL ARGENTINA: RAÍCES ARABES – Argentine Musical Map (Layout): Arab Roots
RAÍCES ARABES = Arabic Roots
Some of these musicians are quite famous in South America. Mario Kirlis has played all over the world. Check out this video of Mario Kirlis in China.
This is Mario Kirlis in China
Mario Kirlis blends Latin and Mid-Eastern music. In this video he has Chinese ladies learning Arab dancing.
From 2011 – Arab-Argentine Home of Berisso – Islamic Mutual Aid Society of Berisso
At (0:25), the girl in the red dress looks Ukrainian. At (6:40), the girl in the blue dress looks positively Celtic.
How many of these so called Muslim Arabs even look Arabic?
How many are just culturally affiliated, with no religious connection?
How many are Christian non-Arabs, who just wanted to take up Arab dancing?
Argentina is almost unique in Spanish speaking Latin America in that the Arab immigration was so large and stable that it did produce a somewhat noticeable Muslim community. (Brazil to a lesser extent, but it was Portuguese speaking) Yet, even in Argentina and Brazil, the Muslims never rose above a small minority within their Arab ethnic communities.
Even in Argentina, the trend was for the Muslims to assimilate to non-observance, and often intermarry into Christianity.
Most of the other countries Christianized the Muslims who did come in, making for extremely small Muslim communites prone to coversion over time.
The difference is that in Argentina and Brazil, the Muslim communities are small, while elsewhere in South America they are incredibly small.
For ex: Nominally, in Argentina: (Muslims are about 10-20% of the Arab ethnic population. In practice considerably smaller).
In Chile: (Muslims are less than 0.5% of the Arab ethnic population).
Overall, taking the whole nation into account …
About 1½% of Argentina is Muslim (Nominally! In practice, much less).
About 0.025% of Chile is Muslim, and most of those are new arrivals, or converts who may re-convert back out.
Muslims in Argentina are noticeably small. In Chile, they are microscopically small.
However, the Islamic Mutual Aid Society of Berisso is one Islamic group that did put down roots in Argentina. (The link is to their website in Spanish). They were founded in 1917.
This was pre-Iranian Revolution, pre-Saudi funding; and may be one of the few genuine expressions of original cultural preservation not tainted by the Islamic extremism.
The Islamic groups now forming in Latin America are often expressions of Saudi or Iranian manipulation. [For ex: the recently built obscenity of the King Fahd Mosque in Buenos Aires, was financed by the Saudis, and draws very few Argentine Muslims. Almost all attendees are recent immigrants. The Saudi-financed Mosque’s behavior has been very unpopular with Argentine Arabs.]
Berisso is a suburb about 13 miles/20 km southeast of Buenos Aires. Oddly, Berisso has a double s, which is not found in Spanish; and is a name of Italian origin. The town was founded by Italian immigrants.
Berisso is notable for its immigrants with many of it citizens tracing their roots to Italian, German, Portuguese, Arab, East European, Irish, Lithuanian, and Jewish immigrants. [And you though Argentines were primarily Spanish Gauchos! – Actually, Italians may now outnumber the Spanish in Argentina where the Spanish is now spoken with an Italian accent in Buenos Aires.]
How many of these dancers are still practicing Arab Muslims, I do not know.
Please look at the above video in this post. Notice how many of the girls look like pale skinned Slavs or Nordics. At (6:40), the girl in the blue dress looks positively Celtic. How many of the swarthier girls are actually Latin?
As we have seen, in Latin America, Arab culture has broken out of the ethnic envelope, and is now embraced by non-Arabs. Also, the rate of intermarriage is very high.
If you doubt this, the video was posted in 2011, by someone with the Surname of Gonzalez, which is a Spanish name of Visigothic (Ancient Germanic) origin.
I am sure some Islamic aspect survives in the group; but I suspect a lot of it functions as a cultural relic for those who have a Muslim ancestor; but are now either Christian, confused, or unsettled as to what they are.
I included this to show that in Latin America, the Muslim groups, while culturally powerful, are religiously neutered. This is not a Salifist, or Wahabbist group.
Latin America usually converts Muslims; and even where it fails to convert, willl often culturally soften the Muslims. Do you see burqas in that group?
Latin America is – and has been – doing something right that the West needs to emulate.
This is the Lebanese section of a 27th annual ethnic festival, in Rosario, which is Argentina’s third biggest city, about 180 miles NW of Buenos Aires.
Depending on who you ask, 8% to 10% of Argentines have some Arab background, though in some cases it is heavily diluted with Spanish, Italian, etc. Mostly Syrian Orthodox or Maronite Catholic. They tend to be less radicalized than Chile’s Palestinians, who are almost totally Christian.
Oddly, Argentina has a bit more Muslims, but they seem to be less radicalized because the Palestinian presence – even a Christian one – is minimal; whereas in Chile, half the Arabs are Palestinian.
Argentina’s Muslims are about 10% of the Arab population – which translates to about 1% of the total population. However, the Muslims in Argentina tend to be totally assimilated. Their own imams try to exaggerate the numbers, but Pedro Brieger, an Argentine Acadamic, has noted that in 2003 the real numbers of practicing Muslims were grossly exaggerated.1
The prevalence of Syrian Orthodox and Maronite Catholic seems to moderate the views of Argentine Arabs. Yes, there is some degree of support for Palestine. That is to be expected from any Arab community; but you do not see the large scale political support one sees in Chile.
The reason I suspect is that Palestinians are less common in Argentina.
1See: La Comunidad Musulmana en la Argentina (In Spanish), Pedro Brieger. Los datos, extraoficiales, son importantes si se tiene en cuenta que en promedio se habla en Argentina de familias tipo de cuatro integrantes, lo que implicaría que en la ciudad de Buenos Aires habría un poco más que 4500 musulmanes, muy alejado del imaginario popular
Translation: The data, unofficial, are important if one considers that an average family in Argentina speaks of four types, which would imply that the city of Buenos Aires would have a little more than 4500 Muslims, far from the popular imagination
My Note: The Buenos Aires Metro area has 1/3rd of Argentina’s population. Immigrants tend to be found in Buenos Aires rather than the outlying areas which usually have older stocks. So we can assume even lower concentrations outside Buenos Aires. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule.
Former President Carlos Menem’s Syrian Muslim parents settled in the interior La Rioja Province; but they ran a winery, a practice forbidden to Muslims; so even the exceptions prove the rule. Carlos himself converted to Catholicism.
What this means, in effect, is less than 10,000 practicing Muslims in a country of 41,000,000. Or roughly about 0.025% practicing Muslims.
This is changing. The Saudi financed King Fahd Mosque is probably re-invigorating some renewed interest in the lapsed Muslim community which is considerably larger. But it is competing with a rising Evangelical Revival sweeping all of South America, even Argentina, which is now 9% Evangelical. Until recently, Protestantism was primarily found among some Swedish- and German-Argentines and the Anglo-American resident communities; but that is changing, apparently rapidly so.
I doubt even a resurgent Islam can compete with it.
