Research identified the most common offenses, violence and attacks made against African-based religions on the internet
Ogilvy Brasil, together with Eixo Benguela, a collective to promote racial diversity and in partnership with the Data Intelligence and Social Media areas of the agency, launched a study on religious intolerance on social networks this Friday (21), Day of Combat. to Religious Intolerance.
According to Nancy Silva, content strategy manager at Ogilvy, and a member of the Eixo Benguela collective, the main mission of the study is to raise awareness of the importance of healthier debates and more respect for faith.
“Faith is a very intimate choice and a right that must be exercised freely,” said Nancy Silva, content strategy manager at Ogilvy and a member of the Eixo Benguela collective.
“We came to the conclusion that most conversations about religious intolerance on the internet are stimulated by news or situations involving violence, attacks and crimes, especially in relation to religions of African origin. These conversations, combined with racial prejudice and the polarized climate of the networks, only strengthen the cycle of violence,” said Nancy.
The research identified the most common offenses, violence and attacks made against African-based religions on the internet and religions such as Candomblé and Umbanda stood out for the volume of mentions.
The terms most negatively associated with them were “back to the sea, offering”, with 34,164 mentions, and “chuta que é macumba”, with 53,742 mentions, in the period from 2018 to 2021. The word macumbeiro was mentioned more than a million times (1,321,128) in the same period.
Through the Cloud of Words related to the term “religious intolerance” in social networks, the research also identified that the theme is directly linked to subjects such as “racism”, “crime”, and other related words, such as “respect” and “rights”. .
In addition to mapping direct offenses and main terms related to religious intolerance, the study also observed the most used emojis in conversations about African-based religions.
The drum emoji, for example, was mentioned 2,090 times in quotes referring to “atabaque” or the priest “Ogan”. The white dove emoji was mentioned in 1,1176 conversations with reference to the deity Oxalá. The orisha Oxossi is represented by the bow-arrow emoji in 969 conversations. Other Candomblé entities were also represented by emojis, such as Iansã (ray); Oxumaré (rainbow), Exu (trident + top hat), among others.
As a way of informing potential victims about their rights, the survey also brings information from public bodies, the Federal Constitution and the Penal Code that support people in relation to their right to express their faith.
“The Day Against Religious Intolerance has never been discussed as a date for reflection. Even because we discovered through people’s interest in Google searches that there is a lot of doubt to understand the term ‘religious intolerance’. The proposal with the study is to bring the conversation in a constructive and educational way, inspiring a more respectful and empathic exchange. Faith is a very intimate choice and a right that must be exercised freely, as guaranteed by the constitution”, concluded Nancy.
The date was created in Brazil to honor all people who, like Mãe Gilda, priestess of the Ilê Axé Abassá de Ogum, were victims of verbal, physical and patrimonial violence.
According to data from the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights, police reports on religious discrimination totaled 261 records in the second half of 2020. Candomblé leads the list of victims (23%), followed by Umbanda (14%), Catholicism ( 14%) and Spiritism (12%).
