Rio de Janeiro--Brazil's image as a religious melting pot has been shaken in recent weeks by a series of hate crimes, raising alarm over growing intolerance amid a surge in Evangelical Christianity.
Brazilians are known for fusing African, European and indigenous beliefs into a diverse array of colorful local traditions.
But that syncretism has recently come under fire in a wave of attacks on practitioners of spiritualism and Afro-Brazilian religions.
Earlier this month, Gilberto Arruda, a well-known medium popular with the stars, was found murdered, his hands bound and face swollen, at a spiritual center in Rio de Janeiro.
Arruda, 73, was known for practicing "spiritual surgery," and claimed to be able to receive the spirit of a World War II German doctor.
The tomb of the country's most famous medium, Chico Xavier, was also vandalized in Minas Gerais state.
Several days earlier, also in Rio de Janeiro, an 11-year-old girl, Kailane Campos, was hit in the head with a stone when two men assaulted her family on its way home from a Candomble service, an Afro-Brazilian religion whose practitioners dress in white for ceremonies.
The family said the men waved a Bible at them and shouted "Devils!" and "Jesus will return!" before hurling a stone and wounding the girl.
Mayor Eduardo Paes apologized "in the name of all Rio citizens" and warned that the city, which is gearing up to host the 2016 Olympics, risked damaging its image of tolerance.
"Diversity is Rio's brand. It's unacceptable for people to be attacked because of their religion," he said.
AFP
