Even though not translated yet, please watch this.
Lights of Arabia TV – Argentina
This is her website (Click Here)
You have to check out that video and her website to see just how big Arabic Dancing is on a national level in Argentina.
Argentina
Argentina is a very large country on the southeast of South America, running from the polar south to the tropical north. The population is very European in ancestry, with roughly half being pure-European in background, and another large section being mostly European in background.
It has a large Arab population (9±%), but which is intermarried and assimilated into the country’s larger demographic This is because it is heavily Maronite (Catholic) Lebanese who assimilate well.
Interestingly, Argentina has around 180,000 Jews – the seventh largest Jewish population in the world – and they can be politically active.
Intermarriage
This documentary says it all.
It is about an Argentine woman who discovers that though she is of Italian, Spanish and Irish descent, one of her ancestors, her great-grandfather was a Lebanese Muslim. She set out to discover her distant relatives.
Posted on YouTube: August 15, 2012
The Muslims were so possessive of their women that it was unthinkable for them to allow women to migrate to Argentina alone. Hence, most of the Muslim men had no women to marry, unless they brought one over with them, or wrote for one expressly for marriage.
The intermarriage rate was high with the result that the children were usually raised Catholic.
The effect of this is stunning.
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.
Well, Argentina’s Arabs are about 10% Muslim today, but most are not practicing at all. This means a steady translation over to Christianity, whether by converstion, intermarriage, or just simple neglect.
I am not going to pretend that this is a tragedy. I am Christian, and find this trend very heartening, especially since the Christianization seems to be a product of assimilation, not coercion.
What I do find very heartening is how well the Arabs succeed once they have assimilated. This offers hope not only for the Arabs in Latin America, but for the world was well.
If the Arabs could see that the deck is NOT stacked against them, that Western Civilization has embraced them – at least in Latin America – it would offer them hope. Where hope abounds, extremism will fade away.
The Muslim world may have to ask some painful questions.
Is their monolithic view of Islam helpful or hurtful?
Should they consider Christianity?
If Latin America is any indication of the superiority of Christianity, Islam is hurting the Arab world. The Muslims should consider Christianity.
In Latin America, the Arab is elite. Maybe it is time for the Muslim world to reconsider its insistance on Islam.
September 1, 2020 – Made some changes.
November 19, 2024 – Made some changes. Converted from a page to a post.
Restaurant Al Shark
This is an Arab Restaurant in the Palermo district of Buenos Aires, one of Buenos Aires’ better neighbordhoods.
The restaurant’s name Al-Shark comes from Al Sharq which is Arabic for “the East.” It does not mean the man eating fish, shark, which in Spanish is tiburón.
Bicentennial Dabke
If you really want to get a sense of how far Arabic culture has penetrated South America, then look at this Dabke line in what looks to be Buenos Aires.
This was Argentina’s Bicentennial Day in 2010.
Yet, they deemed it appropriate to have ethnic Arabic Dabke dancing for the festivities. Notice the blond at (0:14), possibly a German-Argentine.
Posted on YouTube: May 24, 2010
Clearly, not all these people are Arabic; but it shows how far Arabic culture has penetrated into Argentine life.
May 8, 2017: Edited – Had to change video. The original dabke video was taken down, but it was not hard to replace with another video, which again shows how common dabke is in Argentina. The poster of the video is Argentine.
January 16, 2025: Edited – Added date to video. Changed from page to post format.