“Terreiro politics” against religious racism and “christofascist” politics

Abstract

The present article discusses the processes of political and social mobilization of the Afro-religious in the face of the religious racism and “christofascist” politics deployed by groups with an Evangelical-Pentecostal profile. Based on ethnographic research conducted since 2008 in Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Aracaju and Maceió, the article analyzes how these mobilization strategies are constituted in a modality of “terreiro politics” as a means of “doing politics”, delimiting public identities, and debating accusations of increased and growing symbolic and concrete violations of Afro-based religions. The article also discusses how the categories intolerance, racism and genocide are part of a civic grammar that seeks to charge the State – most particularly the police and the judiciary – and push it to guarantee of rights in face the face of growing religious extremism characterized by narratives and actions aimed at building political agendas fueled by religious dogmas (“christofascism”), which result in violent acts against afroreligious terreiros.