Saifi paid a visit to the IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation. Meeting with IHH Vice President Murat Yılmaz, Saifi talked about the center’s activities in Brazil. Saifi indicated that increasingly more and more people were choosing Islam and added the center was working to contribute to the spread of Islam in Brazil.

Saifi said they were helping needy people, building mosques and schools as well as fighting against cultural assimilation of Muslims particularly in the city of Sao Paulo, which has a large Muslim population.

NUMBER OF MUSLIMS GROWING IN BRAZIL

Stating that Brazilian Muslims didn’t know much about Islam when he immigrated to Brazil in 1969, Saifi said, “When I immigrated to Brazil I realized that Brazilian Muslims didn’t know much about Islam and lacked adequate knowledge to practice it. Muslim women refrained from wearing headscarves outside. Today, this situation has completely changed. Brazilian Muslims practice their religion more accurately. Cultural assimilation has almost halted. The number of Christians converting to Islam is growing significantly. All these developments inspire hope about the future of Muslims in Brazil.” 

Saifi also talked about government policies regarding Muslims, saying they have good relations with authorities particularly the Brazilian president, which facilitates the center’s activities in the country.

“We hope the young Muslims generation in Brazil will perpetuate the charity activities we are carrying out now,” Saifi said, adding, “Brazil is a huge country with 8.5 million square-meter land and a population of 180 million people. We may not be able to convert all Brazilians to Islam, but we can make Muslims the majority group in Brazil. At this point, we want to benefit from the IHH’s experiences.”

IHH Vice President Yılmaz stated they will continue helping the partner organization the Center of Divulgation of Islam to Latin America, which is carrying out admirable activities in Brazil, in every field.