Islam in contemporary Argentina: institutional strategies and ways of being in the national arena

• Main Author: Silvia Montenegro
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Colegio de México 2014-09-01
• Series: Estudios Sociológicos
• Subjects: Islam; Siglo XX; Argentina; Historia; Chiítas; Sunníes; Musulmanes; Emigración e inmigración; Árabes
• Online Access: http://estudiossociologicos.colmex.mx/index.php/es/article/view/52

This article analyzes the institutional transformations of some Islamic institutions in contemporary Argentina, emphasizing the relationship between different “ways of being” in the national arena and local religious field and the Identity projects of these groups. We start from recognizing the reconfiguration of the Islamic religion that during the first decades of the twentieth century was a ethnicized religion in the context of Arab immigration, but now is a religion in a pluralistic religious field that gradually admits the presence of converts. At the same time, this paper examines the emergence of new institutions created in the 80s, in order to analyze how some Sunni and Shiite communities negotiate their insertion and visibility in the public space and local religious field.