OS DESAFIOS JURÍDICOS DA LIBERDADE RELIGIOSA NO BRASIL: o conflito entre a laicidade do Estado e a proteção das minorias religiosas

Abstract

This monograph investigates the contemporary legal challenges of religious freedom in Brazil, based on the growing conflict between the constitutional principle of state secularism and the rise of fundamentalist political-religious projects that threaten the rights of minorities. The research, of a qualitative nature, was based on interdisciplinary bibliographic review and documentary analysis, dialoguing with authors from the sociology of religion, anthropology, psychology, political science and decolonial thought. The work demonstrates, initially, that religious freedom is a fundamental right rooted in the very biopsychosocial nature of the human being. It then analyzes the Brazilian legal-constitutional framework, identifying the tensions generated by the advancement of political proselytism and ideologies such as dominionism, which seek the theocratic capture of the State. The central thesis maintains that violence against religions of African origin transcends the category of "religious intolerance", configuring itself as religious racism, a phenomenon sustained by the ideological triad of Christian hegemony, dogmatism and fundamentalism, and operationalized through epistemological racism. Data from Disque 100 reveal a 323.29% increase in complaints between 2021 and 2024, with 45.9% of attacks directed at Afro-Brazilian religions, which represent only 1% of the population. In response, coordinated legal solutions are proposed in the Legislative, Executive and Judicial spheres, focusing on the criminalization of religious racism, the protection of Afro-Brazilian cultural heritage and the promotion of an active and protective secularism, capable of guaranteeing peaceful coexistence and effective protection of all religious traditions.