Descripción
Brazil, in the Federal Constitution of the Republic, makes reference to the secularity of the
State, guaranteeing everyone freedom of belief and the free exercise of such prerogatives. It
also determines that no one will be deprived of rights due to religious belief or philosophical or
political conviction. This is a characteristic feature of the Democratic State of Law, which has
in the legal system means for individuals to act when violated constitutional or legal
determinations. However, even with this support, discrimination and prejudice against Africanbased religions are still present in the social context, thus demonstrating that living in public
spaces is a daily struggle for respect and against intolerance. Intolerance is an attitude that is
based on prejudice, discrimination, pre-judgment, having a social, ideological, philosophical,
historically constructed, pervading power relations. Often it is presented in a veiled way,
remaining on the plane of subjectivity and, when explicit, several actions are triggered so that
the crime is typified. However, the position of the black movement aims for religious
intolerance to be framed as religious racism, according to Law 7.716 / 89. In view of this, the
present essay presents several aspects that permeate intolerance and, therefore,
methodologically, it is an approach that is both quantitative and qualitative. Regarding the
quantitative aspect, using as a data collection instrument the information provided by the
Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights (MMFDH) counted through dial 100 and also
the data provided through the Infopol/GACE/SDS System. And, the qualitative aspect being
based on documentary, bibliographic and field research, with interviews with the people of the
terreiro, as well as representatives of the Public Ministry, highlighting the municipalities of
Recife, Olinda and Jaboatão dos Guararapes. The analysis of the interviews is based on the
argumentation of the discourse following the French line based mainly on Pêcheux and Orlandi.
And, depending on the data, crimes are usually classified as religious feeling, qualified injury
or racism. However, the main reasons evidenced were: structural racism, the difficulty of
coexistence in public spaces, new mechanisms of criminalization, power relations and the
persecution of neo-Pentecostals.