Hezbollah: "chaos more oppressive than tyrannical or illegitimate governments"

This morning's Financial Times claims: Hezbollah is trying to "bring down the government"[1] in Lebanon.

Anyone who's read peer reviewed studies of Hezbollah might think otherwise.

For example, take professor Amal Saad-Ghorayeb's study Hizb'ullah: Politics & Religion (Pluto Press 2002). she quotes the Shia Islamist and Hezbollah's take on Sharia (Islamic law), saying that Hezbollah views "chaos" as more oppressive than a tyrannical or illegitimate regimes. Hezbollah's leaders reasons for their view is basically that "chaos" will lead to civil war and that's the worst possible outcome, and that all Party activity is to avoid provoking the kind of actions that may lead to civil war (pp. 22 - 24).

This applies to their views on Lebanon and beyond. for example, she cites Hezbollah leaders calling on the Islamists in Egypt not to take up arms against the oppressive Egyptian State, they call for dialogue between the two instead (p.24). The exception to this view is when the "umma" (Islamic communiy) is mortally threatened, as in the case with Israeli invasions of Lebanon and the wholesale Israeli carpet bombing of Lebanese civilians.[2]

Even in domestic matters, Hezbollah is said to have sought mediation, not violence. In his In The Path of Hizbullah (Syracuse 2004)[3] Nizar Hamzeh, another professor that used to teach at the American University in Beirut and now teaches at it's sister college in Kuwait, has written that in areas Hezbollah controled during the Lebanese civil war, where Sharia was imposed, Hezbollah Islamic mediation officials sought to persuade the local clans to abandon the tribal custom of "a tooth for a tooth" and accept a negotiated settlement instead. so in murder cases, Hezbollah mediators would plea with the victim's family not to seek the death(s) of the killer or the killer's family member(s). Hamzeh writes that they usually proposed a financial compensation instead. for poor famillies, Hezbollah even paid the amount out of Party funds.

In general, if anyone thinks that Hezbollah wants to "bring down" the government and impose an Islamic State on all Lebanese (and, in some crazy corners, on Israelis, Palestinians, Syrians, etc), they may wish to read an article on the Federation of American Scientists' website, translated from an August 10, 2006 article in the conservative Iranian publication Ya Lesarat Ol-Hoseyn. In it Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's general secretary ("the Che Guevara of the Arabs"[4]) states:

Notes

1. "...leaders of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority have suggested that the assassination of Mr Gemayel was an attempt to bring down the government."

"Mourners gather ahead of Gemayel funeral," The Financial Times, By Ferry Biedermann in Beirut, Last updated: November 22 2006 11:07
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/a41f2178-7a19-11db-8d70-0000779e2340.html

this morning's Financial Times article about yesterday's assassination of a Christian Phalange party politician, was full of silly accusations, which cited no evidence, but suggested that Hezbollah is trying to "bring down the government". It also mentions that Lebanese right wingers, supporters of the Christian Phalange party are now "galvanized," "outraged" and "angry."

Now, an average reader who hasn't had the time to read the scholarship (understably so)
on Hezbollah and it's aims, methods, statements, etc. might be easily misled to believe that, since they're Islamists, then naturally we don't need any evidence to make serious accusations against them in a major Western newspaper. It's a little disturbing, if unsurprising, to see a major Western newspaper fail to mention these known facts on Hezbollah in its reporting. The same mistake was made during the Cold War Re: anyone in the "third world" to the left of Washington. Now, they're lumping all Arabs/Muslims into one big mess they think is called "Al-something"

2. "Fatal Strikes:Israel..s Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon"
Human Rights Watch
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/lebanon0806/

3. http://www.syracuseuniversitypress.syr.edu/fall-2004-catalog/path-hizbullah.html

4. "Nasrallah: from humble roots to Arab hero," The Daily Star, 09.05.2006, Rym Ghazal, Daily Star staff
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=75244