Arabs at a South American Border Remaking the Hemisphere

FAIN: FT-248802-16

John Tofik Karam
Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois (Champaign, IL 61801-3620)

A book-length study of Arab immigrants in the border region of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.

I am applying for a NEH Summer Stipend to complete my book, "Manifold Destiny: Arabs at a South American Border Remaking the Hemisphere." It asks "How did Arabs at the "tríplice fronteira" (tri-border) between Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina transform these Americas?" Arab traders and activists built a plural hemisphere and brought an end to the U.S. dominance enshrined in the doctrine of "manifest destiny." In the 1950s, Lebanese and Palestinians began settling on the Brazilian and Paraguayan sides of the tri-border. Starting in the 1970s, their economic and political networks consolidated Brazil’s clout over the once Argentine-dominated Paraguay. Since the 1990s, they leveraged this new sphere of influence in relation to Mercosul and U.S. impositions. Arabs served as transformative agents of this hemisphere whereby no single authority rules, collaborating and competing in the many-sided struggles among Brazilian, Paraguayan, Argentine, U.S., and other powers.

Media Coverage

Bercito on Karam, 'Manifold Destiny: Arabs at an American Crossroads of Exceptional Rule' (Review)
Author(s): Diogo Bercito
Publication: H-Net Review
Date: 10/1/2022
URL: https://networks.h-net.org/node/23910/reviews/11354164/bercito-karam-manifold-destiny-arabs-american-crossroads-exceptional

Book review of Manifold Destiny (Review)
Author(s): Raanan Rein
Publication: Journal of Latin American Studies
Date: 6/13/2022
Abstract: Book review of Manifold Destiny - https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-latin-american-studies/article/abs/john-tofik-karam-manifold-destiny-arabs-at-an-american-crossroads-of-exceptional-rule-nashville-tn-vanderbilt-university-press-2021-pp-334-3990-pb/34843A32DBC0DCC99F558BC645DA9679
URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-latin-american-studies/article/abs/john-tofik-karam-manifold-destiny-arabs-at-an-american-crossroads-of-exceptional-rule-nashville-tn-vanderbilt-university-press-2021-pp-334-3990-pb/34843A32DBC0DCC99F558BC645DA9679

Book review of Manifold Destiny (Review)
Author(s): Ken Chitwood
Publication: Latin America and Caribbean Islamic Studies Newsletter
Date: 6/5/2023
Abstract: In this erudite and elaborate ethnography, Karam has carefully crafted a narrative of how Arabs in the Tri-Border Region trouble our understanding of borders, global Islam, Brazil, Latin America, the Americas, the transnational Middle East, and American empire. Focusing on transnational projects, economic enterprises, as well political, cultural, and religious initiatives that cross national boundaries on a regular basis, (p. 2) Karam traces how Arabs came to terms with the exceptional rule of rival states and overlapping political, social, and military orders (p. 5) in Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina (p. 9). Specifically, Karam explores how Arabs embody and enliven “a semiperipheral America that neither led to nor derived from U.S. influence in the hemisphere.” (p. 10) Relying on a treasure-trove of detailed interviews with local interlocutors collected over multiple years and on all sides of the border(s), Karam’s work offers textured nuance to our understanding of what it means to
URL: https://www.lacisa.org/post/arab-muslims-at-american-borders

Associated Products

Manifold Destiny: Arabs at an American Crossroads of Exceptional Rule (Book)
Title: Manifold Destiny: Arabs at an American Crossroads of Exceptional Rule
Author: John Tofik Karam
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=082650132X
Primary URL Description: WorldCat entry (082650132X)
Publisher: Vanderbilt University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 082650132X

Simon Fraser University Presentation on "Manifold Destiny" (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Simon Fraser University Presentation on "Manifold Destiny"
Abstract: “I’m an American from the three Americas, more American than (George W.) Bush,” quipped Mohamad Barakat at the border where Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina meet. Since the mid-twentieth century, overwhelmingly Muslim Lebanese like Barakat have migrated to this crossroads called the tríplice fronteira in Portuguese, the triple frontera in Spanish, and the tri-border in English. This lecture and seminar will explore the transnational trade and activism of Muslim Lebanese across this borderland. In fulfilling what I call a “manifold destiny,” Muslim Lebanese are constitutive of, and constituted by, multiple centers of power in the hemisphere. They animate and endure various “state exceptions,” whereby states suspend laws or norms in allegedly “exceptional” circumstances which become part of the status quo. In trading and mobilizing under past authoritarian governments as well as present-day counterterrorist regimes, Muslim Lebanese face a similar fate in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century Americas.
Author: John Tofik Karam
Date: 03/18/2018
Location: Simon Fraser University
Primary URL: https://www.facebook.com/events/sfu-vancouver/dr-john-tofik-karam-manifold-destiny/1774438069531203/

Um excepcional destino americano : Os árabes na tríplice fronteira (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Um excepcional destino americano : Os árabes na tríplice fronteira
Abstract: “Sou americano das três Américas ... mais americano que o próprio George W. Bush", declarou Mohamad Barakat na fronteira onde o Brasil, o Paraguai e a Argentina se encontram. Como Barakat, milhares de libaneses, palestinos e sírios são agentes do que chamaria de um “destino excepcional”. O livro que estou terminando, sobre o que eu vou falar agora, examina os árabes frente aos regimes autoritários e contraterroristas. Eu argumento que os árabes tendem a aceitar, em vez de rejeitar, os termos excepcionais de vários governos num tipo de “destino” ou seja, sob circunstâncias não “de sua escolha e sim sob aquelas com as que defrontam diretamente...” como mantém um ditado já bem-divulgado. Desde meados do século XX até hoje, essa acomodação árabe na fronteira revela uma história hemisférica ainda inacabada de ordens excepcionais do nosso passado autoritário e do nosso presente contraterrorista.
Author: John Tofik Karam
Date: 08/20/2019
Location: Universidade de Brasília
Primary URL: https://mundoramanet.tumblr.com/post/187034430471/programa-de-p%C3%B3s-gradua%C3%A7%C3%A3o-em-ri-da-unb-promove
Primary URL Description: O Programa de Pós-Graduação em Relações Internacionais da Universidade de Brasília convida para a conferência de abertura do seu semestre letivo, sobre o tema “O excepcional destino americano : Os árabes na tríplice fronteira”, a ser proferida pelo Professor John Karam (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign – UIUC, Estados Unidos)

The Latin America and Caribbean Islamic Studies Newsletter (Blog Post)
Title: The Latin America and Caribbean Islamic Studies Newsletter
Author: John Tofik Karam
Abstract: In the interview that follows, I ask Karam to further reflect on some of these points and address some questions that might be particularly relevant to the LACISA community .
Date: 11/01/2022
Primary URL: https://mailchi.mp/3ff210612237/latin-america-caribbean-islamic-studies-newsletter-vol3-no1
Primary URL Description: In the interview that follows, I ask Karam to further reflect on some of these points and address some questions that might be particularly relevant to the LACISA community .
Website: Latin America and Caribbean Islamic Studies

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