Report registers increase in cases of religious intolerance in Brazil

The II Report on Religious Intolerance: Brazil, Latin America and the Caribbean, a publication organized by the Center for Articulation of Marginalized Populations and the Observatory for Religious Freedoms, with support from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Brazil, shows an increase in cases of religious intolerance in the country.

According to data from Hotline 100 portal of the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights, 477 cases of religious intolerance were registered in 2019, 353 cases in 2020, and 966 cases in 2021.

“One can observe that 2020 was the year in which the lowest number of cases of religious intolerance was registered, among the years analyzed in the report. One of the possible reasons for the decrease in cases is that 2020 was marked by the consolidation of the COVID-19 pandemic, a fact that imposed a series of restrictive measures of circulation and sociability that may have contributed to a lower number of cases of religious intolerance in this period,” the report reads.

African matrix

The data indicate that religions of African matrix, even being a minority, they are the most affected ones by intolerance. In 2020, 86 cases of intolerance against such religions were reported, and 244 cases in 2021.

According to the report, the states in the Southeast of the country, the most populous ones, have registered the highest number of cases, as opposed to the states in the North and Midwest, which recorded fewer cases.

Unspecified accusations

“It is also worth noting the large number of reports of religious intolerance classified as undefined, with 103 cases recorded in 2020 and 234 in 2021. This category of data does not clarify which religious belief the victim belongs to, limiting the interpretation of the data and pointing to the need for improvement of the reporting channel Hotline 100,” the study reads.

In an article published in the report, babalawô (male priest of Afro-Brazilian religions) and PhD professor in Comparative History at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Ivanir dos Santos, and law professor at the Cândido Mendes University in Rio, Mariana Gino, state that in Brazil, Latin America or the Caribbean, cases of these human rights violations have been growing “frighteningly.”

“Religious intolerance and racism are entrenched in everyday social, cultural, political, and economic relations. And this intolerance has presented itself as one of our greatest contemporary challenges in the face of the possibilities for promoting and strengthening religious tolerances and equities. As we can see, through the narratives and historical facts, we are educated within colonial constructions that make any constructions towards diversities and tolerances impossible,” the researchers wrote.

The survey was released as part of the National Day Against Religious Intolerance, celebrated on Saturday (Jan, 21). The date was introduced in Brazil by federal law in 2007, after the death of Gildásia dos Santos e Santos, a priestess known as mother Gilda. She had her house and terreiro (temple of Afro-Brazilian religions) invaded by a group from another religion. After persecutions and verbal aggressions, mother Gilda died of a fulminant heart attack.