A report by the US State Department on religious freedom in the world refers to a meeting between President Jair Bolsonaro and a representative of the German far right.
The document, produced annually by Washington, examines the world religion problem and provides a detailed report of the situation in each country. In the chapter devoted to Brazil, the Joe Biden government listed a number of attacks on religious minorities in the country, and did not neglect to mention the meeting with Bolsonaro, which, to the surprise of Brazilian diplomats, caused anomaly in different capitals of the world. .
“In July (2021), President Jair Bolsonaro met with Beatrix von Storch, Member of Parliament for Germany and legislator from the Alternative Party for Germany (AfD),” the document says.
US State Department, “Representatives of CONIB (Confederação Israelta do Brasil) criticized Storch’s reception, saying that the AfD is a party that condescends to Nazi atrocities and the Holocaust. “However, according to media reports, Storch’s official visit is about Nazism or the Holocaust. It didn’t involve any discussion.”
The document is released a week before Bolsonaro leaves for the Americas Summit in Los Angeles. Biden and Bolsonaro should have had their first meeting on this occasion. The reference is on the list of cases of attacks on religious minorities in the country.
Considered toxic, the Alternative for Germany (Afd) party has not only been welcomed by controversial regimes, dictatorships, and human rights violators, but also began to be watched in its homeland under suspicion of trying to destabilize democracy.
Although the photo was off the agenda and was published after the end of the trip, it was met with surprise and disappointment regarding Brazil in German diplomatic circles. Some newspapers in the main cities of the European country also covered the meeting in disbelief. The column found that Itamaraty was not consulted about the visit and that the meeting took place without diplomatic knowledge.
Bolsonaro’s party is the first one still under surveillance by Germany’s domestic intelligence service since 1945. The reason: a dubious attempt to undermine Germany’s democratic constitution.
The AfD managed to get into the Bundestag in 2017 and won votes from the opposing section of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to take in more than one million immigrants.
With monitoring, the intelligence system will be able to eavesdrop on calls and conversations involving AfD members and scrutinize party finances.
The Central Council of Jews in Germany welcomed the decision. “The AfD’s destructive policies are undermining our democratic institutions and discrediting democracy among citizens,” the group wrote.
Beatrix von Storch, vice-president and party leader with Bolsonaro, has a complicated past. On the one hand, she is the grandson of Adolf Hitler’s finance minister for 12 years and was convicted of war crimes by the Nuremberg Tribunal. His other grandfather was no less known to the Nazi leadership and was part of the SA, a paramilitary militia.
Another name referenced in the US State Department document is former congressman Roberto Jefferson. On her Instagram, the bolsonarista linked the Jewish community with infanticide. “Baal, an evil god, the Canaanites and Jews sacrificed children to gain his sympathy. History repeats itself today,” the politician wrote.
The Americans once again emphasized how CONIB expresses itself, pointing out that Jefferson’s action was a crime of racism. A few months later, the former MP was accused of “being a member of an anti-democracy criminal organization,” according to the State Department’s report.
Afro-Brazilian religions
The Biden executive document does not neglect to highlight other disturbing trends regarding religious freedom in Brazil.
“According to press reports, anecdotal evidence, and other sources, social respect for practitioners of minority religions – particularly Afro-Brazilian religions – remained weak and attacks on terreiros continued,” he said.
“According to the National Human Rights Secretariat of the Ministry of Women’s, Family and Human Rights, 581 calls reporting religious intolerance came to the National Human Rights Hotline during the year, corresponding to 566 notifications in 2020,” she said.
Americans still deny how the federal government created the National Register of Religious Organizations, a voluntary database of religious leaders and organizations eligible to receive federal funding and take action in partnership with the Department of Women, Family and Human Rights.
However, the text quotes Edin Sued Abumanssur, professor of social sciences and leader of the Pontifical Catholic University Working Group on Protestantism and Pentecostalism, when questioning the initiative. “The program replicated the pre-existing databases of religious organizations and suggested that the creation of the new database was an attempt to gain support from the churches in the run-up to the 2022 presidential election.”
source: Noticias
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