Posted on YouTube: December 9, 2022
Note: There were some Muslim immigrants, but not a half million.
Muslims tend to exaggerate.
The largest immigrant strains were:
1) The Italians (who ended up speaking Spanish, because the Spanish got there first)
2) The Spanish
3) The French
4) The Germans
5) Arabs (most of whom were Christian, and usually the Muslims among them dropped out of Islam)
5) Other Europeans like the Ukrainians, and yes, British, Irish, and Scandinavians
Officially – on paper – there are lots of Muslims in Argentina: supposedly half a millions (by descent, not immigration). However, most of those Muslim Argentines tend to intermarry into a branch of Christianity, or drift into non-observance, or convert themselves.
Such people may not officially change their affiliation on paper.
This video explains it.
(The video is set to the right time.) This imam admits that the official figure
of half a million Muslims in Argentina is ridiculous.
Argentina assimilates/converts Muslims very well.
Posted on YouTube: September 22, 2015
Islamic clerics like to boast of higher numbers than they really have. If someone was born to Muslim parents, they are counted as Muslim even if they never attended a mosque, or if they converted out.
Source: Islam in Argentina – Pedro Breiger
Arab immigration to Argentina was quite considerable in the late 19th century, after World War I and up to the mid-20th century , having become its third most important immigration wave. Of these immigrants, 40% are estimated to have been Muslims or children or grandchildren of Muslims.
Forty percent of Argentina’s Arabs had one Muslim ancestor, yet Argentina’s Arabs are only about 10% Muslim today, if even that. Even then, most Argentine Muslims are not practicing at all. This means a steady translation over to Christianity, whether by conversion, intermarriage, or just simple neglect.
That is the real ongoing situation concerning Islam in Argentina … and in the rest of Latin America.
The religion that IS growing in Argentina is Evangelical Christianity.
On top of that, Argentina has just elected a president sympathetic to Israel.
The basic pattern in South America is basically this.
A) The vast majority of Arabs who immigrated to Latin America were Christians (often fleeing some form of Muslim persecution).
B) Those Muslims who did arrive usually intermarried with Christians, converted to Christianity, or had their children raised Christian.
C) Those who remained Muslim were often not practicing. Until recently, there was nothing in Latin America which facilitated an Islamic lifestyle.
D) Until the 1980s-90s, when Arab oil subsidies floated in, Islam in Latin America – which was incredibly small to begin with – almost died out.
E) So the numbers for Muslims in South America are often inflated, not taking into account those who dropped out.
F) The rise of Evangelical Christianity is winning the spiritual battle in Latin America.
AND NEVER FORGET — The statistics for Muslims can often be horribly exaggerated.
There are small cells of Hezbollah; but while worrisome, they are few in number, often just drug smugglers raising cash for their cause.
Meanwhile, Argentina has blacklisted Hezbollah, because of attacks on Argentine soil. And the border region of Brazil, Argentine, and Paraguay (the Triple Frontier) was worrisome for a while, but the FBI and Mossad went down there and helped the locals clean it up. Again, it was mostly smuggling to raise cash.
However, Islamic penetration into the general population is very small.
3 January 2024 – Edited: Made corrections. Improved writing.