Hisballah, A Primer

July 31, 2006
Emailed to me from a friend.

Hizballah, the Shi'i Islamist movement whose militia is fighting the Israeli
army in south Lebanon, has been cast misleadingly in much media coverage of
the ongoing war. Much more than a militia, the movement is also a political
party and a provider of social services. Not a creature of Iran and Syria,
Hizballah arose to battle Israel's occupation of south Lebanon from
1982-2000 and, more broadly, to advocate for Lebanon's historically
disenfranchised Shi'i Muslim community. While it has many political
opponents in Lebanon, Hizballah is very much of Lebanon.

"Hizballah: A Primer," by Lara Deeb, is now available in Middle East Report
Online:
http://www.merip.org/mero/mero073106.html

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Middle East Report Online is a free service of the Middle East Research
and Information Project (MERIP).