Abstract
Following the theoretical discussion of the previous chapters, the study now moves from a comparative analysis of normative theory to the empirical examination of the case study of Hezbollah.1 This chapter will bridge the previous theoretical analysis of Islamism with the subsequent empirical inquiry into the interaction between Islamist politics and international norms. The following pages will provide a discussion of the origins of Hezbollah and its foundation in Lebanon, which will provide the basis for analyzing the impact of international norms on its political identity, especially pointing out how its Islamist profile has been modified by the liberal assumptions that underlie the international normative system.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Augustus R. Norton, Hezbollah: a short history, Princeton studies in Muslim politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007);
Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, Hizbu’llah: politics and religion, Critical studies on Islam (London; Sterling, VA: Pluto Press, 2002);
Judith P. Harik, Hezbollah: the changing face of terrorism (London; New York: I.B. Tauris, 2004);
Waddah Shararah, Dawlat Ḥizb Allah: Lubnān mujtam’an Islamiyan, 4th ed. (Beirut: Dar al-Nahar, 2006);
H.E. Chehabi et al., Distant relations: Iran and Lebanon in the last 500 years (Oxford, London: Centre for Lebanese Studies; in association with I.B. Tauris, 2006), pp. 201–30;
Ahmad Nizar Hamzeh, In the path of Hizbullah, 1st ed., Modern intellectual and political history of the Middle East (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2004);
Nairn Qassem, Hizbullah: the story from within, Updated ed. (London: Saqi, 2010); Hizbullah: the story from within, trans. Dalia Khalil (London: Saqi, 2005); see also the original in
Arabic, Na’em Qāsim, Hizbu Allāh: al-Manhaj, al-Tajriba, al-Mustqbal [Hezbollah: method, practice and future]. (Beirut: Dar al-Hadi, 2004).
Dominique Avon and Anaïs-Trissa Khatchadourian, Hezbollah: a history of the “party of god,” trans. Jane Marie Todd (Cambridge, MA: London: Harvard University Press, 2012);
Magnus Ranstorp, Hizb’allah in Lebanon: the politics of the western hostage crisis (London: Macmillan Press, 1997); Adham Saouli, “Lebanon’s Hizbullah: the quest for survival,” World Affairs 166, no. 2 (2003);
Joseph Elie Alagha, Hizbullah’s identity construction (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2011).
Faleh A. Jabar, The Shi’ite movement in Iraq (London: Saqi, 2003), p. 79.
Amatzia Baram, “The Radical Shi’ite Opposition Movement in Iraq,” in Religious radicalism and politics in the Middle East, ed. Emmanuel Sivan and Menachem Friedman, SUNY series in Near Eastern studies (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1990), p. 96.
Hanna Batatu, “Iraq’s underground Shī’a movements: characteristics, causes and prospects,” Middle East Journal 35, no. 4 (1981): p. 586.
Hanna Batatu, “Shi’s Organization in Iraq: al-Da’wah al-Islamiyah and al-Mujahidin,” in Shi’ism and social protest, ed. Juan Ricardo Cole and Nikki R. Keddie (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986), pp. 178–9.
Among those who left Iraq and Najaf in particular as a result of Saddam repression, there were key members of Hezbollah such as the future Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah who was a student in Bāqir al- Ṣadr’s Hawza under the tutorship of Abbās al-Mūsawī , also founding member and former secretary general of Hezbollah. Khatib, Lina, Dina Matar, and Atef Alshaer, The Hizbullah Phenomenon: Politics and Communication (London: Hurst, 2014), pp. 157–8.
Laurence Louër, Transnational Shiapolitics: religious andpolitical networks in the Gulf, Series in comparative politics and international studies (New York; Paris: Columbia University Press; in association with the Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Internationales, 2008), p. 4.
At a later stage, Grand Ayatollah al-Khu’y would have designated Fadlallah as his wakīl (official religious representative) in Lebanon. Jamal Sankari, Fadlallah: the making of a radical Shi’ite leader (London: Saqi, 2005), p. 49.
Fouad Ajami, The vanished Imam: Musa al Sadr and the Shia of Lebanon (London: Tauris, 1986), p. 25. Jawad nonetheless does not confirm this information and claims that they were only distantly related. Sa’ ad Jawad (professor of the University of Baghdad), in discussion with the author, October 12, 2012.
Fawwaz Traboulsi, A history of modern Lebanon (London; Ann Arbor, MI: Pluto, 2007), p. 178.
The foundation of the Movement of the Dispossessed was also in collaboration with the prominent Christian Bishop Gregoire Haddad who was inspired by the South American Liberation Theology. Elizabeth Picard, “The Lebanese Shi’a and political violence,” UNRISD Discussion Paper, no. 42 (1993): pp. 18–20.
Fouad Ajami, “Lebanon and its inheritors,” Foreign Affairs 63, no. 4 (1985): p. 788.
Augustus R. Norton, Amal and the Shi’a: struggle for the soul of Lebanon, 1st ed., Modern Middle East series (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1987), p. 101.
Robert Fisk, Pity the nation: Lebanon at war (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), pp. 468–70. Ranstorp reports that these forces were from the al-Quds Regiment of the Guardians and were redeployed from the Iran-Iraq front as a consequence of Israel’s invasion.
Magnus Ranstorp, “The Hizballah training camp of Lebanon,” in The making of a terrorist: recruitment, training, and root causes, ed. James J. F. Forest (Westport, CT: Praeger Security International, 2006).
Nicholas Blanford, Warriors of God: inside Hezbollah’s thirty-year struggle against Israel, 1st ed. (New York: Random House, 2011), p. 35.
Five planes of troops were transferred to Lebanon; the troops were drawn from Baseegee and the Dhul-Faqir Brigades, both elite brigades of the Revolutionary Guards. Manal Lutfi, “The making of Hezbollah,” al-Sharq al-Awsaṭ, May 18, 2008. 56. Fawaz A. Gerges, Journey of the jihadist: inside Muslim militancy, 1st ed. (Orlando, FL: Harcourt, 2006), p. 85.
Hala Jaber, Hezbollah: born with a vengeance (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), p. 80.
Joseph Elie Alagha, Hizbullah’s documents: from the 1985 Open letter to the 2009 Manifesto (Amsterdam: Pallas Publications, 2011), p. 40.
Copyright information
© 2014 Filippo Dionigi
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Dionigi, F. (2014). The Rise of Political Shi‘ism in Lebanon. In: Hezbollah, Islamist Politics, and International Society. Middle East Today. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137403025_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137403025_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-48688-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-40302-5
eBook Packages: Palgrave Intern. Relations & Development CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)