Argentina’s President Milei is controversial with his right wing economic policies, but even more controversial with his unequivocal support for Israel during this Gaza War.
Argentina’s new President Javier Milei, who has recently embraced Orthodox Judaism, said Friday he would visit Israel as he condemned Hamas’ actions in an address to the Jewish community in Buenos Aires.
“In the coming weeks, I will be traveling to the Holy Land,” Milei said in a speech at the Holocaust Museum in Argentina’s capital, evoking a “new chapter in the brotherhood of our two nations.”
He condemned as “atrocious and unforgivable,” the October 7 attack by Islamist group Hamas on Israel which resulted in the deaths of some 1,140 people, most of them civilians according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Mexico is a predominantly Christian country, with adherents of Islam representing a small minority. Due to the secular nature of the state established by Mexico’s constitution, Muslims are free to proselytize and build places of worship in the country. The country has a population of around 126 million as of 2020 census and according to the Pew Research Center, the Muslim population was 60,000 in 1980, 111,000 in 2010, and is predicted to be 126,000 in 2030; however, according to the 2010 National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) census, there were only 2,500 individuals who identified Islam as their religion. Most Muslims are foreign nationals and the majority are Sunni.
Notice that the official numbers were much lower than the claimed numbers. Most of the Muslims were foreign nationals.
Yet, Mexico may have over a million Lebanese (almost all of whom are Christian),
What we see here is the all too common phenomena of Muslims exaggerating their numbers. Those few Muslims in Mexico may be temporary converts who will become Evangelical or revert to Catholicism in the following year. Mexico, like much of Latin America is in the midst of an Evangelical Revival. Evangelicals may not be growing as rapidly in Mexico as in the other Latin American countries, but they are still growing.
The thing to remember is that, while the Muslim population in Mexico is miniscule, the Arab-Mexican (Christian) population is very large, in the millions. And the Arab-Mexican Christians are significant. Think of Carlos Slim and Salma Hayek. Getting figures for them is unreliable, however, because a lot of them have moved to the United States.
In the case of Islam, practically speaking, Mexico has almost no Muslims. There are exceptions.
Chile is turning against Israel, thanks to a left-wing government, with a left wing president, Gabriel Boric, with a powerful Palestinian-Chilean community.
However, Argentina has just elected a center-right politician, Javier Milei, who is thoroughly fascinated with both Israel and Judaism.
Presidente Milei supports Israel.
So let’s go over some basics.
– There are 46 million Argentines.
– There are roughly 4 million Argentines with a degree of Arab ancestry. However, many of them are attenuated in their Arabness, being only one-half, one-quarter, one-eighth Arab, and so on.
– Most of the Arab-Argentines are Christian. They were descended from Syrians and Lebanese whose ancestors fled Muslim tyranny. These Lebanese and Syrian Arab Christians did not often have an anti-Israel prejudice, per se, as they often view the Mideast through a Christian vs. Muslim lens. Whereas Chile’s Arab tend to be Palestinians, who, even though mostly Christian, are hostile to Israel.
– Contrary to official statistics. the few Muslims who made it to Argentina, tended to convert, marry out, or lapse in their Islamic observance. Hence the official numbers for the Muslims in Argentina are grossly exaggerated.
The Jewish community in Argentina is about 180,000, the seventh largest Jewish community in the world. It tends to be centered in Buenos Aires. There was also an agricultural community in Moisés Ville.
They have had a massive effect on Argentina’s history, culture, and music. A lot of tangos were written by Jews.
So while Chile, and much of Latin America, is turning against Israel, the Argentine government is not. The dynamic is interesting to follow.
The problem is that Chile is a very successful country, a first world country, and a leader in South America, while Argentina, though bigger – and with a much greater potential – has a history of instability and poor government.
But here is an interesting aside of a video, which describes the Villa Crespo neighborhood in Buenos Aires as an Argentine Shtetls (Jewish towns).
Posted on YouTube: September 1, 2022
The video can be auto-translated, using the settings options.
As important as the Jews are in Argentina, they were once more powerful. During the dictatorship, from 1976-83, in Argentina, many Jews fled to Israel. The population dropped from approximately 300,000 to 180,000.
However, that number may not include the children of intermarriage, who might have a Jewish father, but a Christian mother. And if one includes the Christian relatives of these Jews, the numbers would still be around 300,000, or a little under 1% of the country.
Sao Paulo – In 2023, the Halal do Brasil Project presented halal products (produced under the laws of Islam) to consumers and business people worldwide in actions in Arab countries, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Germany, in addition to Brazil itself. The goal for 2024 is to expand the promotion and visibility of these products. The project is a partnership between the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) and the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (ApexBrasil). It started in January 2023 and will run until April 2025, when it could be renewed. Pictured above, Brazilian halal products promotion in a show.
As nations go, Brazil has a low percentage of Muslims in its population, far less than 1%. Moreover, Brazil is almost one-third Evangelical Christian, with a large pro-Zionist community.
Not exactly the kind of place one would expect to find a drive to export halal (Muslim religiously accepted) food products.
But roughly 15 million people in Brazil are Arab in whole or part, albeit almost all Christian. And they would want to make money exporting Brazil’s foodstuffs to the world, even the Arab world.
Posted on YouTube: December 30, 2022
I know the video’s data is dated, but the video
itself is only 13 months up on YouTube.
Religion aside, there is money to be made. Brazil is trying to increase its share of the market.
