The Lebanese Club has a long history in Uruguay. It goes back to 1905, when Uruguay set out to outlaw Asian immigration, which would have prohibited Arab immigration. By that time, yes, even that early, the Lebanese and Syrian community in Uruguay was large enough to intervene and get an exemption for Syrians and Lebanese.
The point is: Even as early as 1905, there was a powerful Arab community in Uruguay.
The São Paulo military police arrested Nabha Lebanese Fadi Hassan, [on] Thursday night, suspected of having links with Shiite group Hezbollah , reported [by] the institution, one week before the start of the Olympic Games in Brazil.
[The] 42-year-old suspect was wanted by Interpol since 2013 on charges of international drug trafficking. He was arrested in the city of Caieiras, in the Sao Paulo metropolitan cord, said a note of the military police reported on its website. … (Read More)
Translated by Chrome app. I made some minor grammatical corrections: errors common to all translation engines. They always fail with pronouns and articles.
The News Source is Chilean, though the story concerns Brazil.
Again, when dealing with the Lebanese, many Lebanese-Latins are Maronite Christians, a sect affiliated with Roman Catholicism – where priests can be married. The Maronites, almost alone among the Arabs – though the Maronites often call themselves Phoenician, not Arab – looked westward. While other Arabs dreamed of the Caliphate, the Maronites looked to France for protection for centuries.
A debate over national identity has raged in Lebanon since the start of the 20th century with many Maronites, the dominant Christian sect in the multi-confessional country, claiming direct ancestry from the Phoenicians in a bid to stand apart in the largely Muslim Middle East.
Frankly, many Maronites despise other “Arabs.”
There are 90,000 Lebanese-Chileans. In Chile, the Palestinian Christians predominate at around 500,000 ±. (Figures can vary, due to intermarriage.)
Officially, there are 1.5 Million Lebanese-Argentines, almost half of the Arabs in Argentina. They are in a rough parity with Syrian-Argentine Christians. And there are some Muslims in Argentina.
There are an astounding 7 Million Lebanese-Brazilians (in whole or part-Lebanese). The Lebanese-Brazilians are 65% Roman Catholic, indicating a probable Maronite background. 20% are East Orthodox Christian. Wikipedia lists 15% of them as Sunni, Shi’a or Druza. (That latter number is probably inflated.)
What is clear is that the Maronite Lebanese are the majority of Lebanese in Latin America; and often almost half of any Latin country’s Arab population.
The Maronites were not as hostile to Israel as other Arab groups (Muslim or Christian). Given their (quasi)-Catholicism and Western outlook, they tend to blend in seamlessly in Latin America, without taking strong positions regarding the Mideast conflicts. They can moderate radical Arab influence, except in Chile and Honduras where the Palestinian Christians have real power.
The Lebanese Maronites tend to blend in very well in all Western countries. Here in America, they are exceptionally well assimilated.
Posted on YouTube: July 25, 2014 Danny Thomas dancing with Uncle Tonoose (Hans Konreid)
Assimiled by the 1950s!
