Strolling through the leafy campus of American University of Beirut on a balmy late May evening, I can easily believe I am in Southern California. The buildings are Victorian-era sandstone; the students linger in shorts and T-shirts; a long street of fast food joints and bookstores faces the front gates. But as with most things in tiny, troubled Lebanon, all is not as it seems. Stolid College Hall, built in 1871, was blown up in 1991. The bomber has never been found and the building and clock tower were rebuilt to the same specifications in 1999. With the June 7 election results in and a narrow victory for the moderate Sunni-Christian coalition over the coalition dominated by Hezbollah, Lebanon may have dodged a bullet that would have put the secular, outward looking Lebanon represented by American University of Beirut in jeopardy. The defeat of Hezbollah not only gives hope for moderation in the region, it prevents a critical beachhead for an Iranian push for power within the Islamic world generally.
Hezbollah's radical credentials are well known. A designated terrorist organization, Hezbollah asserts it will never recognize Israel and instigated the devastating 2006 war with a cross-border raid, killing and kidnapping Israeli soldiers. Despite the devastation both to Southern Lebanon and the Shia suburbs of Beirut, Hezbollah emerged in a stronger position, having taken on Israel and survived intact and also by displaying its extensive social service network, treating the wounded in its hospitals and giving large cash payments to those displaced by the war. Like Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah has won support by providing government services more efficiently and with less corruption than the central government. All of this bodes ill for Israel, as it is likely to have an implacably hostile government on its Northern border and on the Mediterranean.
But Hezbollah's ambitions are far more wide-reaching. Hezbollah is the stalking horse for a distinctive Shia pan-Islamic ideology developed by Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran. Its manifesto declares that it is part of a worldwide Muslim "umma" or community linked by radical Shia fundamentalism. Hezbollah takes both its vast funding and ideological direction from Tehran. Weapons and cash flow through Syria, a Sunni-majority country governed by the Assads, nominally secular, but of the Alawite community, an offshoot Shia sect. A victory in Lebanon would have been a critical victory for Iran and its vision of pan-Shiism over the Sunni establishment in Riyadh and Cairo. Although Sunnis are 85% of the world's Muslims, the so-called Shia crescent encompasses some of the world's most important territory. By overthrowing the Sunni minority government of Saddam Hussein, the United States empowered a new Shia dominated Iraq, more closely allied with Iran that we would like to admit. A Shia majority in Bahrain is governed by a Sunni monarchy. There is a large Shia community in Kuwait. And although Sunnis dominate Saudi Arabia and Wahabi theologians consider the Shia infidels, Shias are in the majority in the Eastern province, which is where the oil is.
The United States and its Sunni allies must recognize that Lebanon is more than just a strategic keystone, surrounded by Israel, Syria and the Mediterranean. It is the first incubator for a new brand of pan-Islamism led by Tehran. As Iran moves ineluctably toward joining Israel as the two nuclear powers in the region, it also is moving to become a political powerhouse as well through an old-fashioned combination of money and social services, shrewd alliance building in a fractious area and a religious-ideological message to the millions of have-nots in the region. Iran is promoting to Muslims worldwide an aggressive alternative vision to the conservative monarchies of the Gulf. A Hezbollah victory would not have led only to the closing of the Lebanese mind and the end of 150 years of secular open inquiry in Lebanon. It may also have been be the first, critical skirmish in an intra-Islamic struggle with great consequences for the rest of the world.
The narrow victory of the Sunni led March 14 coalition should not be a cause for excessive confidence. Hezbollah becomes a much larger and important player. It continues to build support through the provision of social services throughout Lebanon and by catalyzing Lebanese opposition to Israel borne of powerlessness under long Israeli occupation and the devastating 2006 war. If the Lebanese government cannot deliver economic prosperity and political stability, Hezbollah remains the only alternative and behind it stands Iranian ambitions for the region and for leadership in the Islamic world.
Jordan Times interview:
" ...we have huge concerns that the Americans could give concessions to the Iranians which would undermine our security and be unacceptable to us…. Our basic demand is that America should not give concessions on the Iranian nuclear program and its interventions in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine."
Mustafa Alani, Dubai-based Gulf Research Center
Iran's "inadmissible attitude, solely directed towards Morocco" was a sign of its desire to "alter the religious fundamentals of the kingdom, to attack the roots of the Moroccan people's ancestral identity,"
Three Gulf countries warned Qatar that they will reduce their level of representation to its minimum at the coming Doha summit if Iran is invited to attend"
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/03/15/68463.html
Morocco still imports 26% of its oil from Iran.
Clearly they state that they have no desire to turn Lebanon to an Islamic state.
Being Lebanese, they grew up in a multi-confessional, multi-lingual society that defines the very essence of Lebanese-ness.
To want an Islamic Lebanon is tantamount to wiping out Lebanon. If the Hizb understands this,
Why don't you Mr. writer?
"We are often asked: Who are we, the Hizballah, and what is our identity? We are the sons of the umma (Muslim community) - the party of God (Hizb Allah) the vanguard of which was made
victorious by God in Iran.
There the vanguard succeeded to lay down the bases of a Muslim state which plays a central role in the world.
We obey the orders of one leader, wise and just, that of our tutor and faqih (jurist) who fulfills all the necessary conditions: Ruhollah Musawi Khomeini. God save him!"
'Nough said.
From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezbollah#Hezbollah.27s_Shi.27a_Islamic_doctrine
LOOK UNDER: Hezbollah's Shi'a Islamic doctrine
"Although Hezbollah originally aimed to transform Lebanon into a formal Faqihi Islamic republic, this goal has been abandoned.[9] Nasrallah has been quoted as saying, "We believe the requirement for an Islamic state is to have an overwhelming popular desire, and we're not talking about fifty percent plus one, but a large majority. And this is not available in Lebanon and probably never will be."[10] Doubts, however, remain.[41][42] Since that time, Hezbollah has transformed from a revolutionary movement to a socio-political movement of Lebanese Shi'a and has accepted the multi-cultural situation of Lebanon. This transformation is known as "Lebanonization".[43] However, Hezbollah is not satisfied with the multi-confessional quotas under the Ta'if Accord, under the pretext that the Shia's position in the state is lower than its proportion of population. Hezbollah favors a one-person-one-vote system, but does not intend to force it onto the other minorities."
Remember ModernTimes1, just because you put a sentence in quotes doesn't make it authentic. Always provide a link please.
In any case, while we should respect the results of the election, we should also understand very well that Christians are not 50% of the Lebanese and allocating them 50% of the seats in the Lebanese Parliament does not conform to the normal definition of "democracy" (one man one vote).
If seats were apportioned according to population, the Christians would have one half of their current allocation. And the results of the election would be quite different.
Or if districts were not gerrymandered and allocated by religious sect, the results would be quite different.
It's not a good long term strategy to base one's foreign policy and alliances on unrepresentative systems.
Hezbollah grew out of the politically marginalised and poor Shia of Southern Lebanon and Beirut and as the writer says providing them with many social services that previously had not been available, this was then followed by an increasing political influence in the country during which time they have shown themselves to be pragmatic in many of their actions and willing to work with other parties. What they won't tolerate though is attempts by other factions to try and bully them..
But the writer then presents us with this alleged 'hidden agenda' controlled out of Iran to create.a Shia crescent running through the Middle East. If you are Shia in a Sunni dominated region you are naturally going to have mutual interests, but Hezbollah's primary reason for close ties with Iran is one of necessity because the U.S. has designated them a terrorist orginisation, and so no one else will deal with them.
In the writer's eyes its radical intentions are shown to be proved by the 2006 war, but Hezbollah and Israel are always bickering in the 'disputed' southern border areas, with both sides at fault
I suspect that if a serious long term effort is made to engage with them we will get a lot further than our current blinkered position.
Lebanese Shi'ah who wanted to study Islam often went to schools in Iran and Iraq.
And families moved between the two. Musa alSadr was born in Qum Iran - his family, prominent Lebanese Shi'ah scholars were there. (This was during the time of the Shah).
One of the problems we have as a nation is distinguishing between alliances and control. If anyone out there thinks that Hizb controls the FPM or Tashnaq (who were allied with it in the election), then I'd guess they also think that Roosevelt told Churchill and Stalin what to do during WW2 and that they willingly followed.
"We obey the orders of one leader, wise and just, that of our tutor and faqih (jurist) who fulfills all the necessary conditions: Ruhollah Musawi Khomeini. God save him!"
Fact:Hezbullah organized mass rallies against REAL Lebanese patriots demanding Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon.
Our basic tilt in the area is clear and long standing.
The Arabs as you say are not idiots and they understand this.
It's only the rubes back home who don't.
That's right. They understand Iranian threat.
S"audi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal called on Tuesday for a joint Arab strategy to deal with the "Iranian challenge" at a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in the Egyptian capital.
"In order to cement Arab reconciliation we need a common vision for issues that concern Arab security and deal with the Iranian challenge," including its nuclear drive, he said.
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/03/03/67644.html