My car breaks down and the Brazilian revolt
Great! Damn clutch is roached!
[Stuck and pulled over near an intersection that I barely made through.]
1. What’s wrong?
2. Clutch is gone.
1. Okay so what do we do?
[Called the towing company. Tow truck guy comes after 20 minutes.]
2. So where you from?
3. Brazil, you?
2. Pakistan. You look Arabic.
3. Tell me about it. I get it all the time.
2. No man I’m serious. Are you Christian?
3. Yeah.
2. No man. We need brothers like you.
[Everyone smile’s]
2. You know there are Latino Muslims?
3. Yeah. I grew up with some.
2. In Brazil?
3. Yeah
2. Serious?
3. Yeah Amin, Sami, Hussaini
2. Yeah those are Muslim names.
3. Yeah a popular name there with them is like Cure.
2. Oh yeah. hmmm
3. Yeah they came way back, like their grandparents and that from Lebanon.
2. So do they pray and all?
3. We these guys didn’t really talk much about it. Not sure.
2. I did some research on Muslims there and they actually came during the slave trade originally. Wait let me google it.
[Search up “Muslims in Brazil”]
2. See, there’s this mosque here in Foz do Iguaçu.
3. Foz do Iguaçu? Yeah I’ve bin there.
2. And look, this section in Bahia about the Malê Revolt.
3. Oh Bahia, yeah bin there too.
2. It says that this was the largest slave revolt in all of the Americas. Wow.
Malê Revolt
The Muslim uprising of 1835 in Bahia illustrates the condition and legacy of resistance among the community of Malês, as African Muslims were known in 19th-century Bahia. The majority of the participants were Nago, the local designation for ethnic Yoruba. Many of the “Malês” had been soldiers and captives in the wars between Oyo, Ilorin and other Yoruba city-states in the early part of the 19th century. Other participants included Hausa and Nupe clerics, along with Jeje or Dahomean soldiers who had converted to Islam or fought in alliance with Muslims.[6]”
Beginning on the night of January 24, 1835, and continuing the following morning, a group of African born slaves occupied the streets of Salvador and for more than three hours they confronted soldiers and armed civilians.[7][8]
Even though it was short lived, the revolt was the largest slave revolt in Brazil and the largest urban slave revolt in the Americas.[9] About 300 Africans took part and the estimated death toll ranges from fifty to a hundred, although exact numbers are unknown. This number increases even more if the wounded who died in prisons or hospitals are included.[8] Many participants were sentenced to death, prison, whippings, or deportation. The rebellion had nationwide repercussions. Fearing the example might be followed, the Brazilian authorities began to watch the malês very carefully and in subsequent years intensive efforts were made to force conversions to Catholicism and erase the popular memory of and affection towards Islam.[10] However, the African Muslim community was not erased overnight, and as late as 1910 it is estimated there were still some 100,000 African Muslims living in Brazil.[11]
Reference: Islam in Brazil