MOORISH HISTORY AND ISLAM IN BRAZIL

One of the keys to researching Moorish history is the understanding that the terms "muslim" and "islam" when applied to Africans, especially in the Western Hemisphere, is a code word for Moor.  This is a result of the Spanish Inquisition, which never truly ended.

Muslim slaves in 18th century's Bahia, Brazil

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Cabral did not discovered Brazil; a half of the slaves brought to the Americas must well have been Muslims; the Quilombo of Palmares followed Muslim orientation; Portugal and Spain were Muslims by 800 years until just two years before Cabral having arrived at Brazil ...

This, not to mention that the Reformation had Muslim support ... In short: the history of Brazil and the Americas is undergoing an amazing revision that is still not entirely known even by the Latin American academy and deeply involves the Muslims. This and more is approached through a variety of media in: http://www.martinsbenperrusi.com/crbst_41.html

Original Article Here:
Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas
Muslims' love for education continued in slavery wherever possible. Gilberto Freyre, the Brazilian scholar is quoted as saying "in the slave sheds of Bahia in 1835 there were perhaps more persons who knew how to read and write than up above, in the Big Houses [of slave owners]".

What happened to these Muslims when slavery was officially over? Diouf does report narratives recorded as late as the 1940s about how Islam was practiced by some African-American descendants of slaves in the islands of the North Carolinas. Steven Barboza (1993) also mentions that in 1910 there were some 100,000 African Muslims in Brazil.

Wikipedia, Islam in Brazil
Islam in Brazil was first practiced by African slaves. The early Brazilian Muslims led the largest slave revolt in Brazil, which then had the largest slave population of the world. The next significant migration of Muslims was by Arabs from Syria and Lebanon. The number of Muslims in Brazil according to the 2000 Brazilian census was 27,239^[1], or 0.00016% of the total population. According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life's 2009 report, that number had grown to 191,000^[2], or 0.096% of the total population.

History

Capoeira or the Dance of War by Johann Moritz Rugendas, 1835

The history of Muslims in Brazil begins with the importation of African slave labor to the country. Brazil obtained 37% of all African slaves traded, and more than 3 million slaves were sent to this one country. Starting around 1550, the Portuguese began to trade African slaves to work the sugar plantations once the native Tupi people deteriorated. Scholars claim that Brazil received more enslaved Muslims than anywhere else in the Americas.^[3]

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.^[4]."