Hezbollah

Book Review of Augustus Richard Norton's book by Ahmad Imran The back cover gives us details on Nortor who is not only a West point US Army officer but also professor of International Relations ans Anthropology at Boston University, who has conducted research in Lebanon for three decades. Essenstially the book is simpathetic to Hezbollah by contending the US policy makers are wrong in defining the Hezbollah as a terrorist outfit since they have a legitimate constutituency that is deep rooted in social activism and involved in providing social services similar to Hamas. The book is crucial in that it opens the eyes of even ordinary Muslims to the great diversity of Lebanon. Most Muslims and Middle Easterners have a rose colored opinion of reality as Lebanon being yet just another Muslim majority nation. The book , thus, highlights the ethnic and religious diversity in Lebanon. The reader runs into the Armenians, Syriac, Morinites, Druze, Greek Orthodox ,Sunni, Shi'i, and the Chaldeans etc. The ordinary realities of the reader, established by popular media comes crashing down, since these outlets obsess about Hezbollah without adequate coverage of the Amal militia. (1) Chapters 1 and 2 do a good job of laying down the context and rasion d'ertre for Hezbollah. The book enabled the reader to get acquainted to some heavy weight Shi'ite clerics like Musa al Sadr ( 2), Baqr al Sadr, and the influential Lebanese cleric who sits in opposition to Hezbollah Sayyid Muhammad Hussain Fadlallah, whom, srtangely enough, Israel tried to assasinate while proverbially trying to dessimate Hazbollah resistence in 2006. Other Muslim readers may get confused by Imam Khomeini's Neo-Shi'ism versus the Imami (Imam al-Muntazar), only because of a lack of understanding of broader Shi'ism, but there are no doubts of Hezbollah's distinct origins in Political Islam or Islamism by proxy of Iran. Norton may rightfully think that although Hezbollah supposedly espouses power "on the basis of free and direct selection by the people" as articulated by document of "Downtrodden in Lebanon and the world", their treatment of fellow Shi'ites not members of Hezbollah make the claim somewhat dubious. What came as a great surprise, was the notion that most Shia cleric in Lebanon do not advocate the Shi'ite practice of self-flagellation but the faithful still do it anyways, a practice hence not advocated by Hezbollah following the fatwas of the Iranian Imam

Khamenei (not to be confused with Imam Khomenie). The party calls for blood donations during Ashura, and encourage people to take moral and ethical lessons from the martyrdom of Imam Hussain ( RTU). The politics in Lebaonon are very complicated, but what is clear is that not all in Lebanon have a love affair with Hezbollah, who is usually blamed for inviting the Israelis due to their rhetoric and actions. All know that Lebanon is out gunned, out maneuvered by the Zionist entity, however it does not serve the interests of the Labenese people to stoke the ire of Israel who has hereby dessimated the dynamic growth and development of Lebanon. The diversity of ethnic and religious groups were brought up on domestic scene, but others like Saudi Arabia, France, Syria, Israel make for a dizzying array of players jockeying for prominence. What helps Hebollah are the alleged Sunni Khwarijis who inflame anti-Shia sentiments by calling them Rawafid (rejecters). Ordinary Lebanese are thereby stuck between the modernists Khwarijis who have Saudi- American Neo-Liberal, NeoConservative proclivities and are thus resisted by modernist Qutbi Iranians and the Shia. It makes it very clear for all that what ails Lebanon and the rest of the Middle East are menifestations of modernity. The externalities of Modernity are being paid with blood, anarchy mayhem by Middle Easterners. All we seek is, hopefully, the calmer waters of Post-Modernity to somehow connect with the Pre-Modern. I would recommend the book to all. There is no doubt of the Islamist origins of Hezbollah given not all Shia venerate Hizbollah even in the Shia high density population sectors of Lebanon, which makes the popularity of Hezbollah in Sunni cirlces a strange phenomenon. Do Islamist menifestaions help Muslims? Its becoming clear that other menifestations of Islamism like Morsi, Erdogan and the Tunisian An-Nahda party are a drain on Muslim interests and a ugly smear against Islam. We find the symbol of Hezbollah to be a hideous Khwariji anthropomorphic bida'h (innovation) against Islam. Strangely what Norton did not cover in the book, was the Hizbollah's links to drugs trade and their links to AlQaeda.

1) http://countrystudies.us/lebanon/88.htm

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA351867 (Document of the Hazbollah Downtroddden of Lebanon and world)

http://www.palestinechronicle.com/old/view_article_details.php?id=15588 ( the new and ever evolving mission of Hezbollah) Hezbollah and Drugs 1) http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/12/14/143701402/hezbollahs-alleged-tiesto-south-american-cocaine-trade-detailed 2) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19327919 3) http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/uploads/Levitt20120900_1.pdf 4) https://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mesh/2009/03/hezbollah-narco-islamism/ 5) http://analysisintelligence.com/intelligence-analysis/iron-triangle-of-terror-iranhezbollah-and-los-zetas/ Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda 1) http://www.cfr.org/terrorist-organizations/al-qaeda-hezbollah-relationship/p11275 2) http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2005/10/the_iranian_pro.php