O Islam na Região Nordeste do Brasil: reversões, hibridismos e tensões religiosas na ummah muçulmana sunita em Itabaianinha-SE

Abstract

This study presents the results of the research that has as its conceptual object exchanges, fluxes and circulations and as an empirical object the presence of Islam in Sergipe, notably with the Islamic Association of Itabaianinha - ASSITA. The empirical focus of this study is the township of Itabaianinha, located in eastern Sergipe and dominated by religious traditions such as Roman Catholic Church and various evangelical denominations. The Christian predominance causes some tensions whenever another alternative arises for the occupation of sacred territories. As a theoretical approach, the schemes around Marcel Mauss' systems of total benefits were used and for the ethnographic work, the interpretationist precepts of Clifford Geertz's symbolic anthropology were applied. In this way, a survey of the doctrinal and historical aspects of the Islamic religion was carried out with the aim of seeking analyzes of ethnological value in the ethnographic evidence, without losing focus of the integrative epistemology of the Sciences of Religion. We carried out eight incursions into the field of activity from November 2020 to January 2022, with participant observation, when we had the opportunity to follow in loco some religious ceremonies, ritual processes, using partially structured interviews with reverted Muslims, recordings of videos, photographic records, as well as informal conversations with non-Muslim passersby. This methodology aimed to investigate the social reach of the Islamic religion in the community of Itabaianinha. For this purpose, the researcher's experiences of this environment and the contact structures established in this journey were used. It can be seen that the Islamic religion gathers its believers around a community for the worship of Allah that has several attributes or names: Source of Love (Al Wadud), the Holy (Al Quddus), the One (Al Ahad), Source of Peace (As-Salam). However, his name par excellence is Allah, the central Link of his faith and religious practices. It can also be seen that the collective reversal of a group of evangelicals changed the religious and cultural configuration of the locality, which even caused tensions and conflicts in the Muslim ummah, which, paradoxically, grew both in the number of believers and in areas for the congregation. Therefore, the township of Itabaianinha becomes as the newest center of the Islamic religion in the Northeast region.