Religious intolerance complaints skyrocket in Brazil

On October 12, Brazilian Catholics celebrate Our Lady of Aparecida, the country’s patron saint. In 2022, President Jair Bolsonaro visited the basilica in Aparecida — Brazil’s most popular pilgrimage site — on the national holiday, a day which fell in the middle of what was arguably the nastiest presidential campaign in recent memory.

The president’s followers caused a ruckus and booed Archbishop Orlando Brantes when he said, during mass, that Brazil needed “to slay many dragons” such as hatred, hunger, and unemployment. There were several fights and instances of intimidation among the crowd.

This was one of several episodes of religious intolerance that occurred in Brazil during the election period. Reports involving online violence against religions and beliefs had the biggest rise this year compared to the 2018 election, according to Safernet, an NGO that receives complaints of human rights crimes on the internet. 

The entity, the most prominent anti-hate speech watchdog, received 1,084 complaints of religious intolerance four years ago, against 3,818 until last October 31 – a growth of 252 percent. Cases of LGBTQ-phobia and misogyny have also increased by 60 and 25 percent this year, according to the survey.

Data released by Safernet shows that the total number of complaints rise exponentially in election years. Compared to 2021, when there was no vote, xenophobia increased by 821 percent and religious intolerance by 522 percent.”

Elections have become fertile ground for hate speech, which feeds on prejudices already rooted in people’s imagination,” says Juliana Cunha, director of special projects at Safernet.

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