Right on the money!
Br. Amir has some excellent thoughts on the “Hizbullah” bandwagon jumping that has been going on lately and reminds us of just who these people really are. It is a must read.
Much of this also stems from many Muslims adopting a Machiavellian (”enemy of my enemy is my friend”) attitude on this and many other issues.
Further, no one is denying that civilians are being killed, but according to many in the media, these guys have gone even further in their PR by staging events and parading dead bodies around for hours like pieces of meat.
Despite all this, few people seem willing to question Hezbollah’s motives, method or meaning. Muslim leaders across the Arab world have dutifully supported Hezbollah and even the so-called moderate Muslim leadership in Australia are calling for Hezbollah to be de-listed as a terrorist organisation. The principle reasoning for all this support seems to be that Hezbollah are killing Jews, rather than any nuanced or considered assessment of Hezbollah’s political and religious ideology. Yet, before even more Sunnis line up behind Hezbollah and start waving their flag (as many Muslims seem to have been doing at recent rallies), perhaps somebody should ask some questions; beginning with: what on earth are we supporting when we endorse Hezbollah as freedom fighters and heroes?
Of course, all of this doesn’t mean that we should not support the people of Lebanon, but it does mean that we should resist the temptation to climb blindly onto the Hezbollah bandwagon without fully understanding who these people are and what they believe in. It is possible to support the right of Lebanon to be free of occupation and for the war to end, without also throwing one’s endorsement behind Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah, and the efforts of some possibly apocalyptic Persians to project their power across the Muslim world.
The Muslims have drawn a false dichotomy in this conflict: “You are with Hizbullah or you are with the Israelis”. Anyone that critisizes Hizbullah for their excesses is dismissed automatically. For this reason it is painful to watch interviews of Muslims being asked at protests if they support Hizbullah’s excesses, and they refuse to denounce them.
Filed under: Sloganism over Reality
You may want to read an interview I have on my website at http://insomnia.livejournal.com/693016.html with an 18-year-old art student who is blogging from Beirut. She’s not a terrorist, and is absolutely opposed to attacks against both Israeli and Lebanese civilians, and also opposed to Hezbollah… but she also supports Hezbollah when they’re defending Lebanon from invaders, and indicates that the Lebanese are a lot more united behind Hezbollah than anyone gives them credit for.
Mark, I do not doubt that there is widespread support in Lebanon for Hezbollah, and I know that Nasrallah has become popular throughout the Muslim World; but as Amir and Tariq have pointed out, much of their support is based on the ignorance and desperation of Muslims who are ready to join any bandwagon. These are people who brag about not getting killed, while many civilians are dying, and then they parade the dead bodies through the street.
Human instinct takes over when bombs are dropping on your city and ideology goes out the window. Just look at how everyone rallied behind Bush after 9/11. You had straight up thugged out cats rockin American Flags…It is the same difference in the Lebanon, people will flock to the strongman when under attack.
More divide and conquer, what of Hezbullah humanitarian efforts?
how do you know that death squads in Iraq were not from idf? Who has the most to gain from breaking up the unity in Iraq?
How is it that Masjids that have stood for hundreds of years without being harmed now there are being destroyed?
This is more of the same, dis-information that the US & Isreal used just before they armed Saddam with weapons of mass destruction to use against Iran.
And then to blindly trust the “media” lol
When will Muslims wake-up!!!!!
Please do not follow the talking heads just because the media repeats a lie does not make that lie anymore truthful.
This has nothing to do with the Shia-Sunni divide, is about the oppressed and the oppressor.
Hezbullah, capturered uniformed millitary personnel, IDF bombed inhabited cities that is by definition terrorism.
Rasheed:
I’m not so much speaking of Lebanese Muslims as I am everyone else outside of Lebanon. Especially those in the West who are the ones jumping on the bandwagon. I think that Br. Amir was saying the same thing
Depends on what you call “jumping on the band wagon?”
I have always defended Hizb’Allah and I always will, the current actions do nothing more than prove the point I have always made. The first Muslim I ever knew was a Shi’ite from Southern Lebanon and his stories and experiences formed a major part of my thinking about the area and the politics.
I think a lot of Muslims and Arabs are happy that finally one group has made a successful military stand against the Israelis. I dont blame them, when all of your countries combined could not stand against them for more than a week or so at a time, I am sure it would feel good to see a Lebanese and Muslim force hold them back, at heavy cost, for weeks.
Look, the Israelis had this thing planned for a very long time. That is exactly why they were able to go into the attack in full swing, immidiately. I read an interview with an Israeli soldier, dont remember where, Guardian, The Times, whatever, where he said they had been planning this attack for sometime and would have attacked Lebanon later this year in any event.
The kidnapping was just a pretext. Look, Israel has violated Lebanese territory and airspace some 9,000 times since they left the country. This has included bombings, troops incurisions, kidnapping of Lebanese civilians, you name it. So to act like Hizb’Allah did what they did in a vacuum is to be just devoid of facts.
I watched speeches by Nasrallah, in Arabic, before they banned al Manar in the USA. He made it clear what he intended to do in 2006 and why. He stated openly in Arabic, I am sure MEMRI translated it, that 2006 was the year they were going to kidnap Israeli soldiers to force the Israelis to trade for Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners Israel holds. Keep in mind Israel holds, three I think, Lebanese held from the civil war times, as well as some 9,000 Palestinians, including hundreds of women and children under the age of 16, the majority of which are held without trial.
Israel knew exactly what was coming, and it has been reported that their leaders even got “permission” from the USA to do their attacks. They told the US it would be limited and they would be able to destroy Hizb’Allah in the space of a week.
What the Israelis found were a highly trained and motivated force, well equipped and ready to fight. One Israeli officer said he he turned a corner in Lebanon and came face to face with a soldier that had the same equipment he did, that the Hizb’Allah fighter looked like a Special Forces commando not some rag-tag Palestinian or Arab fighter.
As usual, the fighting in Lebanon is only partially about Lebanon. The reason that Israel was planning to attack Hizb’Allah before this even happened was that Israel wanted to strike a blow, a defeat at Iran, without actually having to hit Iran. Hizb’Allah was the natural target. The USA, for the same reason, supported the actions.
The problem with the Israelis is that they have been paying too much attention to the Americans. They thought that bombs and rockets could destroy Hizb’Allah “on the cheap.” But we see that didnt work any better in Lebanon than it did in Iraq. Now they are finding out they are facing a foe unlike any they have ever faced before.
The Israelis are a paper tiger because they have never had to fight a well trained and equppied foe. The Arab armies were always poorly trained, poorly equipped, and not well motivated. Hizb’Allah, fighting for their own villages and towns, are highly motivated, and as we have seen the Israeli tanks and naval ships burning, well equiped and trained as well.
For me the “jumping on the band wagon” you are talking about is okay. As a Muslim nothing makes me prouder and happier than to see Muslims, especially the Sunnis, ignore the threats and risks they face from their own dictators to come out in support of the Muslim Ummah.
What you call “jumping on the band wagon” I call “not stabbing your Muslim brothers and sisters in the back” which our Muslim Ummah is so good at doing. For once, it seems, everyone is standing behind our fellow Muslims who are struggling, even if it means putting their own lives at danger because of the risks they face from their pro-Western murderous dictators.
If Muslims got together more often, stood together more often, instead of stabbing each other in the back at the first opportunity, then maybe the Muslim Ummah wouldnt be in the crap situation it is.
If this action by Hizb’Allah does anything to further Muslim unity, I am ALL for it. I had an older lady, Afghani, come into my office the other day. We were talking about other stuff and then this issue came up. She had tears welling in her eyes when talking about how the suffering that the Muslims were going through in Lebanon was helping her to reevualate her own life and his devotion to God.
Lets remember that the root cause of this issue is Israel, its treament of the people in the area, and also Muslim disunity and it’s propensity for stabbing each other in the back. Lets keep the real enemy in sight here. It is the racially and religiously apartheid state of Israel.
There will never be ANY peace in the Middle East until all of the tyrants are removed, from Tel Aviv to Riyadh. Mark my words the tyrant in Tel Aviv is little different from the tyrant in Riyadh.
As a Muslim it is my duty to strive for justice and supporting the actions of Hizb’Allah and its struggle against exclusivist Israel is just that. Yes, civilians die and that is sad, but would you have put Hitler back as Chancelor of Germany because of civilian deaths? Would you rather being singing “God Save the Queen” here in America? How about “God Save the Queen” in Dublin?
The same arguements being used against Hizb’Allah are the same ones used against the IRA, Basque freedom fighters and others. It is strange to see someone support one of these groups, then twist their logic and their reasoning to then NOT support the other group, when the struggle is based on almost exactly the same principles.
As for me and my family? We are Muslims, we worship Allah and we support the Muslim ummah and support unity within that ummah against all who would come against it.
Allahu Akbar.
Asalaamu alaikum,
Hizbullah is not a Puppet (R. Aslan, alt.muslim)
I agree… I heard Sheikh Hamza Yusuf say something very similar and his conclusion about is here
as-salâmû `alaykum,
If there is a “Hizbullah bandwagon”, then there is a “Saudi bandwagon” as well. It appears that the author of this article as well as those who support his disavowal of Hizbullah at this sensitive time have jumped on the latter mentioned “Saudi bandwagon”.
I wish you all wouldn’t be having this discussion. The fact of the matter is that you are having it because you have the luxury to. Others do not.
Shaykh Salman al-`Awdah (may Allah preserve him) who is a bastion of reason and moderation amongst the melee of the mutli-headed Wahhabi chimera in the Saudi Kingdom said it best:
إننا نختلف مع حزب الله، وهو خلاف جوهري وعميق كما هو خلافنا مع الشيعة الذي لا يمكن أن يلغى، لكن هذا الوقت ليس وقت الخلاف والشقاق، فعدونا الأكبر هم اليهود والصهاينة المجرمين الذين لم يفرقوا في عدوانهم حتى بين الأطفال والمحاربين
“We disagree with Hizbullah and that is a core disagreement that runs deep which is our disagreement with the Shi`ah which can not be ignored. However, this is not the time for disagreement and division. For our adversary is greater and they are the Jews and the Zionists, the criminals who do not differentiate amongst their adversaries between the children and the combatants.”
The Wahhabis have faced humiliating defeat in each and every single combat they’ve ever been involved in in the past 200+ years since their inception without exception. Hizbullah is the first Arab and/or Muslim entity to defeat Israel since that nation’s inception and they are not even a regular army. If this turns the Wahhabis green with envy, then let them keep that envy to themselves. This is not the time for it. I’m not saying any of you fall in this category, but some of you certainly have fallen sway to the rhetoric of some of this category’s demagogues.
Allah and His Messenger know best. was-salâm
A lot of this anti Hizb stuff is coming from the Saudi end of the spectrum. I am sick of these Shi’a/Iranian conspiracy theories. They are just as stupid and ignorant as the Jewish conspiracy theories.
I am sick of those, who in this time of crisis, would rather attack other Muslims that they would unite with them against a COMMON enemy.
I have been accused on my blog of being a Shi’a spy, things of the like, even though it is funny considering I am married to a Saudi lady who is part of the family of the al waqf az-Zam-Zam.
I would rather attack the enemies of Islam, stand behind my Muslim brothers, than take sides, for whatever reason, with those who seek to end Islam, no matter what the sect.
Some of you might be caught up in inter sect issue, but your enemies want to end you regardless of sect. When they line you up, lock you up, kill you, they wont ask you what sect you follow. They will just put one in the back of the head if you are Muslim.
Bush didnt even know what Shi’a were, so it is clear that the enemies of Islam dont care. Islam-Sunni or Shi’a need to be entinuished, and that is all they care about.
I think all Muslims who are involved in intersect fighting should be marginalised and ostrasised by the rest of the Muslim community.
I have read your post and it is most interesting. My only question/critique I would put forth is this:
You criticize certain groups of Muslims who you said have a Machiavellian perception of the situation (I would also add Manichaean as well). But in a sense, and correct me if I’m wrong, it seems that you are guilty of the same false universal in that those that make a statement that they support Hizbullah (even if it is just viz-a-vie support for the Lebanese people) are in a “you’re with us/against us” scenario. Do I support Hizbullah? No, but then again, I’m not Lebanese or live in Lebanon or any part of the Arab world. It’s fine and well for me to speak on my condition as a Muslim living in the States, safe and far from the war zone. But if I were there, with someone dropping 1-ton bombs on my house and on my family, I might have a different attitude. I do agree with you and acknowledge your point about people jumping on band wagons. But just be careful you yourself are not putting the cart before your proverbial horse.
P.S. Don’t take this as hostility. I enjoy reading your blog.
Salaams.
Marqas:
wa alaykum as-salaam
When I say “jumping on the bandwagon” I’m really mostly talking about those in the West. One can support the Lebanese people from the West without waving “Hizbullah” flags and/or giving them blind support in interviews. I even heard an English language rap song on Air America where they were praising “Hizbullah”
Abu Sinan:
as-salaam alaykum
I can understand your point, but I, personally cannot get past the slander that I have read from these people about the Companions in the past. As I stated above, one can help and support the people without endorsing “Hizbullah”.
It is blind hatred of the Jews that has led some Muslims to invite the likes of David Duke to come speak in because he is speaking against the Jews.
If Hezbollah are anti-occupation and just want to defend Lebanon against a foreign invader (i.e. they are freedom fighters), then why did they support the Syrian occupation even though the majority of Lebanese (Sunni, Christian and Druze) wanted them to leave?