The Tri-border area is home to many Lebanese and other Mideast-folk. They remind me of the Irish in NYC and Boston supporting the IRA (in the past, anyway) or other ethnic groups supporting causes “back home.” You won’t find the locals thinking that their Arab neighbors in Foz or Ciudad are anything other than upright citizens. What goes on behind the scenes, of course, may be support for terrorism. Interesting, though, how little one experiences any semblance of a terrorist network, or whatever it is, when dealing with locals.

Islam in South America? Maybe. But Pentecostal and Evangelical movements in the region are creating a new kind of Christian, with a special attraction to the gospel of prosperity. South American religious experience is taking on something of an ‘American’ characteristic. I’m noting this as a pretty good thing, a corrective to an Iberian, fatalistic, and class-ridden church.

Islam is a handy and supple weapon, as Saddam, numerous Muslim leaders, and now Chavez have discovered or re-discovered.