Points of View
The historical development of Shia Muslims in the Lebanon
Today Shia Muslims are the most numerous community in the Lebanon. For some time their actions have preoccupied the Arab world and the West. In this paper, we shall present the different stages this community has gone through, and examine what its place is now in the land of the cedar.
Greater Lebanon was proclaimed in 1920, but the Shia community was not officially acknowledged until 1926. Shia Muslims used to live in regions that had recently been attached to the Smaller Lebanon, formerly under direct control of the Ottoman empire, i.e. the South of the actual Lebanon and the Beqaa. These peripheral regions were economically, socially and culturally underdeveloped compared to Beirut and to the mountains. Such a disparity was still the norm after the Lebanon became independent in 1943. At Independence, power was distributed according to an agreement between Maronite Christians and Sunni Muslims. Thus the Shia community was sidelined not only on a socio-economical level, but also on a political one. At the time, Shia leaders were mostly traditional feudal headmen who generally did not care about the fate of the needy in their community.
At the end of the 1960s and in the early 70s, the situation had not improved, on the contrary. The establishment of Palestinian armed organisations in the South of the Lebanon led to Israeli incursions against the Fedayin in regions predominantly inhabited by Shia Muslims. As a consequence, a massive exodus toward the outskirts of the capital swelled the ranks of the Shia under-proletariat in Beirut. Those forced into exile were members of non religious parties, or left-wing ones, such as the Communist Party, the Communist Action Organisation or the Ba'ath party. Things changed in the 1960s: many Lebanese Shia ulemas arrived after having accomplished their religious training in Qom or in Najaf. They organised conferences, debates and meetings in charity offices and religious places in the regions with a high density of Shia Muslims.
Imam Musa al-Sadr quickly set himself apart from the other religious leaders by his political commitment. At the end of the 60s, he started spreading his influence on the Shia community by getting the Government to set up the Supreme Islamic Shi'ite Council in 1967. The aim of this institution was to affirm the Shia sociopolitical identity and presence. Musa al-Sadr went further and created the "Movement of the Disinherited", a popular group which had many aspirations. Its main goal was to fight against the socioeconomic underdevelopment that faced Shia Muslims living in the South, the Beqaa, and the suburbs of Beirut. Another aim of the movement was to keep the Shia population from the left wing parties, or the Arabist ones, or from Palestinian armed organisations. It also meant finding a replacement for the traditional political Shia headmen. The "Movement of the Disinherited" was the first means of sociopolitical expression and structure for the Shia Muslims of the Lebanon.
At the beginning of the 1970s, Amal, an armed militia that was supervised and trained by Fatah, was secretly created under the aegis of Imam Musa Sadr. With Amal, the Shia under-proletariat started to organise itself. With this movement and the policies of its leader, the Shia population started to become more aware of itself as a community, and this eventually led to the emergence of Hezbollah in the 1980s.
The Islamic Republic of Iran was created in February 1979. Its ability to export the Islamic revolution was the main catalyst for the development of a fundamentalist Shia sphere in the Lebanon. Very small Shia Islamic groups already existed when ayatollah Khomeiny came to power in Tehran, but they did not exist on a big scale. These groups were essentially the Rally of the Ulemas from the Beqaa, Islamic committees, and the Lebanese branch of the Iraqi Shia party "Al Daawa". After a merger between fundamentalist Shia groups, Hezbollah was founded in 1983 and it unveiled its political program in 1985.
As then, Amal and Hezbollah share the representation of Lebanese Shia Muslims, leaving no room for a third Shia voice. They pursue their policies hand in hand, consulting each other about every important decision and sharing common positions. This was also obvious in the summer, when Amal's leader, Nabih Berri, constantly took the defense of Hezbollah, or when five Shia ministers of the government resigned, they were from Amal and Hezbollah. The Shia community feels that the time has come for it to play a central role, hence a greater solidarity between its members. They plan to show the other Lebanese communities, as well as the international community, that they will no longer be left on one side.
-- Joseph Daher,
Research Assistant trainee
Translated into English by Marguerite Cornu, Research Assistant
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- Origin CERMAM
- http://www.cermam.org/en/logs/vue/the_historical_development_of/
- Publié le 19 March 2007