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Connecting the Community: Islamic Media and Institutions in Argentina
Abstract
Despite being home to the largest Muslim population in Latin America (PewResearchCenter 2015), little research focuses on Islamic identities and Muslim life in Argentina (except Montenegro 2015). This is a surprising lacuna, especially given the attention to presumed terrorist activity on the “Triple Frontier” between Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay (Anzit Guerrero 2006; Caro 2012). Moreover, controversy swirls around former Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirschner’s relationship with Iran, especially after the death of public prosecutor Alberto Nisman investigating the matter. Emergent research on Middle Eastern communities in Latin America looks mainly at immigration (Alfaro-Velcamp 2007) and ethnic identity (Civantos 2005; Karam 2007), but less at religion, religious identities, and religious politics so critical to transnational Muslim identities today. Drawing on several years of fieldwork, this paper focuses on how Islamic media and institutions connect Shi’a, Sunni, Druze, Isma’ili, and Alawite communities inside Argentina, across Latin America, and with the larger Muslim Umma. Argentina is the home to Latin America’s first Islamic television station AnnurTV, in addition to Radio TV Almahdi in Tucumán and innumerable websites and organizations (like PrensaIslamica, “an alternative to media hegemony”). Buenos Aires boasts Latin America’s largest mosque El Centro Cultural Islámico Custodio de las Dos Sagradas Mezquitas Rey Fahd that has a Muslim school, built by former president Carlos Menem, of Syrian extraction. The mosque’s location—in the city’s most expensive neighborhood—speaks to the Muslim community’s visibility. The venerable El Centro Islámico de la República Argentina also has its own school Colegio Omar Bin Al Jattab, newspaper Voz de l’Islam (Voice of Islam), and radio program. Moreover, Muslim women like Masuma Assad de Paz play visible roles in public debates in the national press, the blogosphere, and the international media. Assad de Paz, president of the Unión de Mujeres Musulmanas Argentinas (UMMA), maintains an active website with hundreds of articles on Islam and women in Islam. In Europe, debates rage over the role of Muslim minorities, focusing on how Muslim identities threaten secular life and governance (e.g., Bowen 2011; Fernando 2014; Jouili 2015). Yet Latin American negotiates “a third way” (un tercer camino) distinct from U.S. and European secularisms, forged through political identities calling for solidarity across the Global South. As one Chilean journalist observes, Latin America is outside “a new world order in occidental countries living in constant war with Islam” (Lizama 2009).
Discipline
Media Arts
Geographic Area
Islamic World
Sub Area
Middle East/Near East Studies