[lbo-talk] On Islamic radicalism and the left by Don Hamerquist

[www.leninology. blogspot.com]

Doug wrote:> According to my interview with Rasha Salti <http:// > www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#060810>, that's not quite  > true. She says they've adapted themselves to Lebanon's complex,  > cosmopolitan political culture and are not aggressively theocratic.  > She also says that as a secular democrat, she's not their biggest  > fan, but even she admires the way they kicked Israel's ass. It's not  > like they're about to take over the government & impose shariah.This is correct.  Two decent books about it are "Hizb'ullah: Politics and Religion" by Amal Saad-Ghorayyeb and "Hezbollah: The Changing Face of Terrorism" by Judith Palmer Harik.  In both accounts, it is pretty clear that Hezbollah have long since abandoned any idea of achieving a pre-Mahdist Islamic State in Lebanon.  They have instead called for a non-confessional state, and political and religious pluralism.  I'm not even sure that the author is correct to describe Hezbollah as right-wing: they are neither progressive nor reactionary as far as I can tell, but rather tend toward conservatism or radicalism depending on the situation.Fadlallah's ideological development was certainly in the Islamist resistance to communism and socialism in Iraq, but Hezbollah's development from leftist movements curtailed any tendency toward outright aggressive reaction and sectarianism, or so I would guess.
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