Posted on 02/24/2003 1:16:58 PM PST by knighthawk
By opening up to Western audiences and calling for a reconsideration of Islamic rhetoric and principles, Hizbullah is attempting to reintroduce itself as a representative of a moderate Islam of the future, distant from the atavism and political agendas of other fundamentalist groups.
In a recent speech he gave in the Bekaa last week, the party’s secretary-general, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said that it was unacceptable to make “generalizations and categorizations that would involve millions of Europeans who preceded the Islamic world in rejecting a war waged against it.”
He said that opening up to millions in Europe and America should be given priority, and deemed it unforgivable to talk about “the Crusader West or a Crusader war.”
He also criticized “mujahedeen movements here and there resorting to lying and maneuvering in order to obtain power and control."
According to Hizbullah’s commander in the South, Nabil Qaouk, the mass demonstrations that have taken place in Europe and America against a US-led war in Iraq, in addition to the resistance US and British war plans met at the UN Security Council, are events that should not be overlooked.
“Tens of millions of people went to the streets and criticized American terrorism,” Qaouk said during a telephone interview with The Daily Star.
“We need to re-evaluate the situation taking into consideration these masses, because we don’t want to provide free services for the United States,” he said, in reference to Islamic groups in the region that brand all Westerners as imperialists and/or infidels.
He also said that the demonstrations were clear proof that the impact of a possible war against Iraq would not fall on Arabs and Muslims alone.
He said that at these dangerous times when the United States is launching a war against the region, some “Islamic speech has indirectly helped the United States promote its projects to control the world.”
“It is crucial that we identify our strengths and avoid providing the Americans with excuses to legitimize their attack,” he said. He also said that the “first victim of the US will be the Security Council and international legitimacy.”
He added that while at the political level Hizbullah is a Shiite party, the party is very representative of the demands and longings of all Arabs.
“The representation of the party and of the sayyed (Hassan Nasrallah) goes beyond the Shiite community and expands to include Muslims of both sects across the Arab world,” Qaouk said.
He also said that Israeli attempts to play on sectarian strings in Lebanon and isolate Hizbullah as a radical fundamentalist group fighting a war against Christianity and Judaism have failed, as have US attempts to represent the party as a terrorist group.
The US State Department has long considered the resistance group a terrorist organization, mainly as a result of attacks against American targets during Lebanon’s civil war and pro-Israel lobbying efforts in Washington.
“We are not the enemies of the American people; we are not enemies of Judaism and Christianity … In fact our experience in Lebanon showed us that betrayal doesn’t belong to a religion. There are traitors in all religions,” he said.
He added that the US did not spare any effort to place Hizbullah on the European list of terror organizations and individuals. “But that didn’t work either,” he said. The European Union has resisted US efforts to place Hizbullah on its blacklist of terrorist organizations.
Qaouk said Nasrallah’s participation in the Francophone summit in Beirut last year in the presence of European presidents and foreign ministers was ample proof of Europe’s understanding of the resistance group’s motives and methods.
According to Hassan Krayyem, a political science professor at the American University of Beirut, Hizbullah with its pragmatic and flexible leadership is definitely distinguishing itself from some, more truculent Sunni fundamentalists and could be representing its own reading of the situation as a moderate, forward-looking Islamic group.
“This could mean better relations with the West, and mostly with Europe, and a better image for the party at the international level,” Krayyem told The Daily Star. He added that this could be a chance for Hizbullah to erase its previous image of hostility and terror, and take it one step further in moving away from the “Islamic resistance” to being a Lebanese party capable of playing a vital political role.
He also said that Hizbullah’s new language could also represent a reflection of the internal debate taking place in Iran between the conservatives and the reformist concerning opening up to the West, at a time when there is a prevailing consent on the necessity of moving away from the radical line of 1979. Iran has long funded Hizbullah.
With some exceptions in both cases, Krayyem said that worldwide Shiite movements are tending to be more progressive, while Sunni movements are becoming in general increasingly conservative in their fundamentalism. By adopting this new language, Hizbullah is becoming increasingly progressive.
“This is a new language for Hizbullah,” he said.
He also said that a distinction should be made between what Hizbullah says on the one hand and the words of Shiite cleric Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, often described in Western media as the spiritual leader of the group.
“Fadlallah’s position is not new, he has always called for a modern interpretation of Islam, and called on the religion to develop according to the realities of the age,”Krayyem said.
;^)
Perhaps one day these folks will understand the difference between blowing up pizza parlors and military installations.
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