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.
Cumbia is a popular form of music throughout Latin America.
This video is clearly political, by the Orkestra Popular San Bomba (Holy Music Popular Orchestra).
Orkestra Popular literally means Popular Orchesta, but in actuality would mean something like Pop Music or Street Music.
Bomba literally means bomb, but has so many meanings that it is impossible to translate apart from context. In this context, it probably means music. Bomba is a type of MUSIC.
San means holy.
The group’s name is clearly farcical and idiomatic.
Again, one must remember that in Latin America there is no equivalent of AIPAC, so the Palestinian viewpoint is more mainstream. The chief exception is Brazil, which has a very large pro-Israel Evangelical community. But this video comes from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The video is in Arabic, but what is clear is that Arabs still seek to go to South America (this video concerns Argentina).
The difference with the past is that former Arab immigrants to South America tended to be Christian. Now, they tend to be Muslim.
In the past, when the Catholic Church was stronger, the occasional Muslim immigrant would not have been much of a problem, as there was social pressure to convert. Those Muslims who went to South America in the past ended up either converting or intermarrying – with the result that their children were baptized Catholic.
Today, in some countries – such as Chile and Brazil – the Evangelical Christian community is so powerful and growing that the function of conversion would be handled by Evangelicals. The effect would be the same: The children of Muslims would become Christian.
So Muslim immigrants would not pose much of a danger to South American culture … provided that there is NOT too many of them.
My own opinion is that South America could easily handle a pulse immigration of Arabs if the numbers are kept within reason – that is to say, kept under 1% of the population, and not allowed to concentrate in Islamic barrios. One would want to avoid creating heavily Arabizedbanlieues [neighborhoods] as is seen in France. Such concentrations prevent assimilation.
While the situation in France is worrisome, one must remember that France is about 8% Muslim, while I am suggesting that Muslims be kept only around 1% in any Latin American country, and not be allowed to concentrate in neighborhoods. If the immigrants are spread out, the children of Muslim immigrants would quickly assimilate. This has been the case in Latin America. Arabs are Latinized quickly.
Now, Argentina is “officially” roughly 1% Muslim already, but the numbers are exaggerated. In reality, very few are practicing Muslims. So a decent number of Arabs could be allowed in, as long as the stress is placed on assimilation.
(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
From the late 19th century and early 20th century, there should be about half a million Muslims in Argentina. But now there is not even five to seven thousand Muslims who call themselves Muslim.
WOW! DID YOU HEAR THAT? LATIN AMERICA CONVERTS MUSLIMS.
So, despite the official figures, in reality, Islam in Argentina all but died out. That is how successful Argentine assimilation was. Yes, there are looney converts to Islam, but they are insignificant. While Argentina claims a half-million Muslims, 99% of them either converted to Christianity or are totally non-practicing Muslims.
If you want to see who really is making converts in Argentina, look to Evangelical Christians. Evangelicals are now 15% of the population and growing rapidly.
In fact, in Argentina, as is shown in a 2015 survey (see page 16), at that time, there were 2,200 converts to Protestant Christianity from Islam. That imam is in for a shock. He won’t make too many converts, but a lot of Muslims may become Evangelical.
Islam has no answer to street preaching.
Rather and instead, any newer Muslim immigrants to Argentina would be assisted by a lot of Christian-Arab-Latinos who have been in South America for generations, and who have assimilated successfully.
The story of Graciela [also known as Grace] Spinelli is typical.
When she was 15 watching TV and asking about the Muslim call for prayer, Argentinian Graciela discovered her Arab, Lebanese and Muslim roots.
Years later, she decides to return to Lebanon in search of her great grandfather’s family tree, reconnecting with her lost ancestors and a land she ignores but still belongs to.
[My note:After the trip to Lebanon, Graciela returned to Argentina, and became an actress and producer in Latin movies, sometimes under the name of Grace.]
Of course, Graciela’s family tree also included some Italian, Spanish, and Irish, to the point where she had no idea that her great-grandfather had been a Lebanese Muslim. Below is a documentary (a shortened version) of her discovery.
A shortened version of a documentary about a Catholic Argentine woman
was shocked to find out that one of her ancestors was a Muslim.
Graciela Spinelli’s family was all too typical. Her great-grandfather, a Lebanese Muslim, married a Catholic Argentine woman. So Graciela Spinelli’s great-grandmother had the children baptized Catholic, behind her husband’s back (set to right time in video). Graciela had to find this out from her great aunt.
The children of Muslims integrated and Christianized successfully in South America. In Graciela’s case, all too successfully, because she had no idea of who was in her family tree.
While, I am not advocating that anyone forget their ancestors, the documentary does show that the children of Arab Muslims can be well integrated in Latin America.
New Arab Muslim immigrants would interface with these earlier Christian-Arab-Latinos, and would discover the wisdom of embracing the dominant Christian culture.
The Hogar Árabe Argentino de Berisso [Argentine-Arab Home of Berisso] is an Arab Cultural Society in Berisso (a suburb of Buenos Aires), and is a shining example. It is 100 year old, and helps Arabs in Argentina assimilate, while maintaining pride in their heritage.
The chief difference with the past is that a century ago the Muslim children became Catholic. Today, they might become Bautista (Baptist) or Pentecostalista (Pentecostal).
However, preference should be given to Palestinian immigrants, so as to quiet down the Israel/Palestine conflict.
Perhaps Argentina could be persuaded to take in some of those Palestinians … and who knows … maybe they could be directed to an iglesia bautista (Baptist Church).
This is in Spanish, but it there is an option to have it translated to English.
1) Click Settings Wheel and choose Subtitles/CC.
2) Click to turn on: Spanish (auto-generated) .
3) Click – for a second time – to turn on: Subtitles/CC(1) Spanish (auto-generated) .
4) Click auto-translate.
5) Choose English – THIS CAN BE TRICKY – I suggest using up and down arrows to chose English, and then press Enter.
This can be very touchy, and you may have to play with it, but it works. Once you get the hang of it, you can turn the option on in a few seconds.
This is very interesting. Pedro Brieger, a media force in Latin America – and who, himself, is Jewish – shows up on the YouTube Channel for the Palestine Federation of Chile, for a conversation.
Pedro Brieger is controversial. Many Jews consider him less than friendly to the Likud (right wing) strain of Zionism. That is for you to decide.
Brieger is an academic – He held (and may still hold) a chair in Sociology of the Middle East at the University of Buenos Aires – and also a journalist in Argentina, where he is a noted commentator, as well as an author who has written many books on the Mideast. While, he may not be that well known in America, he is famous among Latin, Jewish, and Arab circles – a major hitter in the formation of public opinion in the Latin World.
I translated (poorly) one of his commentaries which was broadcast on Argentina’s government affiliated Channel 7. If you want, you can click the auto-translate option to see how poorly I did.
Posted on YouTube around 8 years ago
I cannot over-emphasize Brieger’s influence. I have seen a right-wing Zionist websites tear Brieger down, and have communicated with left-wing Jews who love him.
The so-called “extremist” Masada2000 [a very right wing pro-Israeli site, which is now taken down] had listed Pedro Brieger as a self-hating Jew.
Again, that is for you to decide. You might start by reading some of his books, which are available on Amazon (Click Here), albeit in Spanish.
In 2006, Brieger claimed that the Israeli government tried to pressure the Argentine government (against) him and his broadcasting.
Pedro Brieger’s Facebook page: (Click Here).
His official webpage has been discontinued after 2016.
Listen to that tune! It is haunting to the core. The melody was published by Francisco Tárrega in 1896, about the Alhambra in Granada, Spain – the capital of the last Moorish outpost in Spain.
The Alhambra is a World Treasure to this day. Tourists are stunned by its intricacy and beauty – the Arabic calligraphy on its walls is breathtaking.
One is reminded how the last Moorish/Arabic ruler in Granada, Boabdil – that was what the Spanish called him; the Arabs knew him as Muhammad XII of Granada – cried after his defeat, when he looked back on Granada and realized he had to leave the Alhambra. Legend has it that his mother supposedly told him …
“You weep like a woman for what you could not defend like a man?”
Talk about a toxic mother!!!
I do not care if it is politically incorrect to say this, but that mother seriously deserved a slap for that. That was brutal.
The Arabs remember this defeat to this very day, and call it “The Tragedy of Andalusia.”
The conquering Catholic royals, Ferdinand and Isabella, were so enamored of the Moorish architecture that they chose to be buried in Granada, not the expected Christian capital.
There is a tension in Spanish culture – and to a lesser extent in Portuguese culture – between European and Arabian civilization. The Portuguese liberated all their territory by 1249. The Spanish allowed Granada to linger on under Islamic control for another 243 years, until 1492, but only as a vassal state.
Yes, Granada was reduced to vassalage – having to pay tribute to Spain – but it was still there, and so the effect of Arab rule is stronger in Spanish culture.
Sections of the Iberian Peninsula had been under Islamic rule for 781 years (711 to 1492). Such a long duration has cultural, genetic, political, and linguistic consequences.
While the Spanish were happy to be rid of Muslim tyranny – and it was tyranny, do not kid yourselves – they realized that something had been lost as well – and hence the Spanish fascination with Alhambra, and Arabic culture in general.
And so the story of Muslim rule, and the Reconquista to free Spain, lingers on in the Spanish imagination the same way the civil war lingers on in the American. Everyone knows the good guys (Spain/the North) won, but the losing side (the Moors/the Confederacy) have been glamorized out of all reality.
About 8% of the Spanish language is Arabic in origin. Look at these two words to see where the Spanish term differs from other European languages – and know that Spanish has thousands of such Arabic words.
Arabic
Spanish
English
French
Italian
German
‘azraq
azul
blue
bleu
blu
blau
zeit
aciete
oil
huile
olio
Öl
The linguistic effect on Spanish in enormous. On Portuguese, too.
Genetically, the effect is there, though not enormous. The Spanish have between 2% and 10% North African admixture. Though part of that admixture may be due to pre-Islamic, pre-Roman Carthaginian DNA. In 1609, Spain expelled all Muslims from its country, including some who had converted to Catholicism, so whatever Arabic genetic input had occurred during Moorish rule was probably reduced somewhat.
STILL, THE GENETIC EFFECT IS THERE, EVEN IF LIMITED
The Albu(r)querque region of Iberia likely derived its name from the Arabic (the area was occupied by the Moors for centuries) Abu al-Qurq (land of the cork oak; Spanish: pais del alcornoque), which in turn may have been derived from the Latin `albus quercus’ (white oak) as the trunk of the cork oak is white after the outer layer has been exposed. Note that the seal of the Spanish city of Alburquerque bears the design of an oak. (The other main theory is that the name derives from al-burquq, the plum.)
This Arabic influence was brought to the New World – and that does not even include the Moriscos who came with the Conquistadores.
There are echoes of this Arabic influence which carry over to Latin America. Argentina’s gauchos may be, in part, derived from Moriscos who fled the Inquisition to Latin America.
A full treatment would require a very large book, not a post on a website.
January 24, 2024 – Edited: replaced a dead video link.
