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DE RUEHSO #0498/01 1291600
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 091600Z MAY 06
FM AMCONSUL SAO PAULO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5013
INFO RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 6157
RUEHRG/AMCONSUL RECIFE 2900
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO 7072
RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION 2552
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RUEHMN/AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO 1957
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 0278
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RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT 0032
RUEHDM/AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS 0026
RUEHTV/AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV 0188
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUMIAAA/USCINCSO MIAMI FL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 SAO PAULO 000498 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/BSC, NEA/ELA, AND DRL/IRF 
NSC FOR CRONIN 
SOUTHCOM FOR POLAD 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL KPAO KISL KIRF SOCI SCUL BR
SUBJECT: SAO PAULO'S ARAB COMMUNITY: DIVERSITY AND DIVISIONS 
DIMINISH POLITICAL CLOUT 
 
REF: A) Sao Paulo 360 
 B) 04 Sao Paulo 850 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY. 
 
------- 
SUMMARY 
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¶1.   (SBU) While the Lebanese Christian community in Sao Paulo is 
active in politics, the Arab community in general (Muslim and 
Christian) lacks political clout at the national level.  In fact, 
our conversations with a number of Christian and Muslim leaders of 
Sao Paulo's large Middle Eastern community (mostly Lebanese and 
Syrian), suggest there is neither a cohesive Christian nor Muslim 
political interest group or voting bloc in Brazil.  To the limited 
extent that Muslims are politically active, they tend to support the 
governing Workers Party (PT) and other leftist parties.  This 
reflects the diversity and divisions within both of their 
economically important but religiously and politically divided 
communities.  GoB officials often attempt to justify some of their 
more controversial positions and policies on Middle East matters as 
a response to the political demands of the Brazil's Muslim 
community.   However, neither the Christian nor the Muslim community 
appears to be keenly interested in the Middle East political scene. 
This begs the larger question of what is driving the Brazilian 
government's sometimes controversial and contradictory policies in 
the Middle East.  END SUMMARY. 
 
----------------------------------------- 
CONSULATE REACHES OUT TO ARAB COMMUNITY LEADERS 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Following up on our recent meeting with leaders of the 
Lebanese Christian community during the visit of Congressman Issa 
(Ref A), consulate officers met separately with three other 
prominent leaders of Sao Paulo's Arab community: Federal Deputy 
Ricardo Izar, grandson of Lebanon's first Consul in Sao Paulo; Raul 
Tarek Fajuri, an influential Arab publisher; and Said Mourad, a Sao 
Paulo state legislator who claims to be the only elected Muslim 
official in the state of Sao Paulo.  Although these contacts 
represent different sub-groups of Sao Paulo's large Arab community, 
they share similar views of the openness of Brazilian society to 
people from other cultures and the comfortable place Arabs have in 
this cultural melting pot. (NOTE: The Lebanese Consul General in Sao 
Paulo estimates that the Arab community in Brazil, based mostly in 
this consular district, consists of some seven million Christians 
and one million Muslims.  Both the Christian and Muslim communities 
are divided along sectarian religious lines; the Christian community 
includes Maronites and members of other Eastern churches; among the 
Muslims, Sunnis outnumber Shias, though reliable numbers are hard to 
come by.  Also, it appears that a rift has developed between these 
two communities since the assassination of Lebanese former PM 
Hariri.  END NOTE.) 
 
-------------------------------------- 
"ARABS" AND LEBANESE, CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Poloff and Political Assistant visited Federal Deputy 
Ricardo Izar at his campaign headquarters in an upscale neighborhood 
in south-central Sao Paulo.  Izar, a member of the Brazilian Labor 
Party (PTB), recently gained prominence due to his chairmanship of 
the Chamber of Deputies' Ethics Council, which has attempted to 
discipline Deputies implicated in the political corruption scandal. 
His views on the current domestic political situation and upcoming 
elections will be reported septel.  When asked to talk about his 
association with the Arab community on the national and state level, 
Izar grew enthusiastic.  He said his grandfather ("that's his 
picture on the wall there"), had fled Lebanon due to persecution by 
the Ottoman Turks and eventually settled in Brazil; he was appointed 
in 1918 by Lebanon's French occupiers as the country's 
 
SAO PAULO 00000498  002 OF 004 
 
 
representative to Sao Paulo's growing Lebanese community.  Like our 
other interlocutors, Izar said Lebanese and Syrian Muslims are of 
more recent provenance, residing mostly in Foz do Iguacu (Parana 
state) and on the outskirts of major cities, where they sell 
furniture.  The Muslim community is fragmented, he said, and not 
politically influential; each mosque and beneficent society tends to 
represent some parochial interest, and there is little common 
orientation.  Izar characterized one mosque in the Bras neighborhood 
of eastern Sao Paulo as radical in its political orientation. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) While there are many links between the Arab Christian and 
Muslim communities in Brazil, they are not all that close to each 
other.  By way of example, Izar noted that the Mount Lebanon Club - 
"the best club in Sao Paulo, no, in all of Brazil" - a center of 
Lebanese community social activity, did not have a single Muslim 
member.  He commented in passing that the Lebanese in Brazil did not 
like to be referred to or thought of as "Arabs" - there was a 
linguistic affinity with Arabic-speakers, but not an ethnic or 
cultural one.  There were of course important links between the 
Lebanese and Syrian communities, as illustrated by the highly 
regarded Syrio-Lebanese Hospital in Sao Paulo, whose Board had 
members of both communities (again, all were Christians).  There are 
43 Federal Deputies of Arab descent, he noted, but only one - Jose 
Janene (Progressivist Party from Parana, the last remaining Member 
to face expulsion for his role in the public bribery scandal.  NOTE: 
Izar expressed confidence that, despite the recent exoneration by 
the Plenary of numerous Deputies, Janene will in fact be expelled. 
End NOTE.) - is a Muslim.  Another, Jamil Murad (Communist Party of 
Brazil from Sao Paulo), "is not even sure what his background is, 
but he's close to the Muslim community."  To the extent that they 
are active in Brazilian politics, Izar said Muslims tend to be 
affiliated with President Lula's Workers Party (Partido dos 
Trabalhadores - PT) or parties further to the left. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Some members of the Brazilian Lebanese Christian 
community, Izar said, are so completely assimilated or integrated 
that they retain only a vague sense of their Middle Eastern 
heritage, and no interest in the politics of the region.  He himself 
was active in the Brazil-Lebanon Parliamentary Group, and had 
attended the 1998 inauguration of Lebanese President Lahoud.  Izar 
expressed disagreement with many aspects of the current government's 
Middle East policy, and said he had taken the Foreign Minister to 
task over it, but had not accomplished much. 
 
--------------------------------------------- 
ARAB PUBLISHER DENIES PERSECUTION, DOWNPLAYS MIDEAST TIES 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Poloff and Information Officer (IO) recently met with 
publisher Raul Tarek Fajuri in the offices of CHAMS magazine, a 
leading Arab monthly based in Sao Paulo with a circulation of 
approximately 10,000.  The magazine, launched by Fajuri's late 
Lebanese Christian mother, caters to both the Muslim and Christian 
Arab communities and reports on major political and social events. 
With a focus on institution openings and ribbon-cutting, benevolent 
society functions, high-profile weddings, and the visits of 
prominent religious and secular dignitaries from the Middle East, 
the magazine is popular in Sao Paulo's Syrian and Lebanese 
communities. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) According to Fajuri, neither the Christian nor Muslim Arab 
community finds itself the target of discrimination or persecution 
in Brazil.  He noted that the general openness of Brazilian society 
results in acceptance of ethnic Arabs of any religion.  Fajuri 
pointed out that Arab immigrants, particularly Lebanese and Syrian 
Christians from the post-World War I immigration wave, have been 
highly successful in Brazilian business and society (see Ref B for a 
broader discussion of Arab immigration to Brazil).  Furthermore, 
widespread intermarriage has softened the lines between Syrian and 
Lebanese, Muslim and Christian.  However, Fajuri observed that new 
arrivals are far more likely to retain ethnic and social ties to the 
Levant and the rest of the Middle East. He also said social 
 
SAO PAULO 00000498  003 OF 004 
 
 
divisions among members of the various churches of Eastern 
Christianity have all but disappeared in Brazil. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Fajuri stated that Arab-Brazilians who have been in Brazil 
for a few generations have little in common, except religion, with 
their ancestral homeland.  They remain largely uninterested in 
political activity here in Brazil or in political developments in 
the Middle East. (NOTE:  Fajuri's opinion differs from that 
expressed in Ref A by leaders of the Brazilian Lebanese Christian 
community, who said that although Lebanese nationals resident in 
Brazil are not eligible to vote in Lebanese elections, they are very 
interested in developments in the Levant, as well as Brazilian 
policy toward the region, particularly since the assassination of 
former PM Hariri.  END NOTE.)  Fajuri averred that newer immigrants, 
particularly Muslims, are much more likely to travel back frequently 
to their homeland, to own land and have family ties there, and to 
follow more closely political developments in their countries of 
birth. 
 
------------------------------------------ 
MUSLIM POLITICIAN ECHOES VIEWS BUT EVINCES PARANOIA 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶9. (SBU) Poloffs and Political Assistant also met recently with Said 
Mourad, the only Muslim elected official in the Sao Paulo state 
legislature.  Ironically (and reflecting the irrelevance of party or 
religious labels in Brazil), Mourad is one of two representatives of 
the Social Christian Party (PSC) in the Sao Paulo State Legislative 
Assembly.  Mourad won office in 2002 under the banner of the 
rightist Party for the Re-edification of the National Order (PRONA), 
but subsequently switched to the Liberal Front Party (PFL) and from 
there to the PSC.  (COMMENT: Three parties in less than four years 
is a bit extreme, but party-hopping is not uncommon in Brazil, where 
political parties often lack a clear identity and ideology.  For 
example, according to his Chamber of Deputies official biography, 
Deputy Izar, during his 43-year career, has been affiliated with 
nine different political parties, including two different stints 
(1963-66, 1989-93) with the Liberal Party.  END COMMENT.) 
 
¶10. (SBU)  Having served as state deputy for almost four years, 
Mourad claims to be the only elected Muslim in state politics, and 
refers to himself as the informal leader of the "Peace Group," 
comprised of himself and eleven politicians of Arab (and Christian) 
descent.  While Mourad does not appear to be an "up and coming" 
young politician on the state scene (and appears unlikely to win his 
re-election bid), he illustrates the lack of political clout of the 
Arab community or the existence of a solid voting bloc among 
Brazilian Muslims.  Mourad stated that he represents the Muslim 
community but does not articulate any specifically pro-Muslim 
agenda 
 
¶11. (SBU) Mourad echoed Fajuri's remarks about the openness of 
Brazilian society and the general lack of prejudice experienced by 
members of the Arab community.  He stated emphatically that Muslims 
do not feel harassed in Brazil, nor are they prevented, by 
government or society, from freely practicing their faith.  At the 
same time, he voiced some of the paranoia that is occasionally 
expressed among Brazilian Muslims regarding closer government 
scrutiny of Arab activities (particularly in the Tri-border area 
shared by Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay).  For instance, he claimed 
that "intelligence and security groups," including the Mossad, 
watched and followed him and harassed his family.  Mourad also 
complained about what he considers the negative and distorted 
representation of the Arab world in the Brazilian media.  He claimed 
that the press portrays Arabs as "terrorists."  Seeking to counter 
this alleged bias, Mourad said he escorts groups, including fellow 
State Deputies, to religious services at local mosques and to other 
Islamic events. 
 
------------------------------------- 
COMMENT: DUBIOUS GOB CLAIMS OF MUSLIM VOTING BLOC 
------------------------------------- 
 
SAO PAULO 00000498  004 OF 004 
 
 
 
¶12. (SBU) GoB officials often attempt to justify some of their more 
controversial positions and policies on Middle East matters as a 
response to the political demands of the Brazilian Arab community. 
These officials claim they want to avoid stirring up, offending or 
alienating this putatively politically influential community. 
However, the commentary of these three prominent Arab Brazilians, 
along with our previous conversations with Lebanese Christian 
leaders (Ref A), suggest there is no strong or cohesive Arab 
Christian or Muslim voting bloc in Brazil.  (The Arab-Brazilian 
Chamber of Commerce, whose members include the Ambassadors of Arab 
League nations with diplomatic representation in Brazil, is actively 
engaged in promoting Arab culture and has close ties to the Foreign 
Ministry, but its political activity and influence are limited.) 
Moreover, mainstream political commentators and analysts post has 
spoken to have stated that ethnicity and religion in Brazil tend not 
to influence political orientation to a great extent.  Even the more 
dominant Lebanese Christians do not constitute a monolithic 
political bloc.  In fact, the broader Arab community - Christian or 
Muslim - may share certain interests and affinities, such as an 
attachment to the homeland, but these sub-groups do not appear to be 
keenly interested in the Middle East political scene.  This begs the 
larger question of what is really driving the Brazilian government's 
sometimes controversial and contradictory policies in the Middle 
East.  END COMMENT. 
 
¶13.  (U) This cable was coordinated with Embassy Brasilia. 
 
MCMULLEN