Joseph Alagha. The Shifts in Hizbullah's Ideology: Religious Ideology, Political Ideology and Political Program.

• Author: Kane, Ousmane
• Position: Book review

Joseph Alagha. The Shifts in Hizbullah's Ideology: Religious Ideology, Political Ideology and Political Program Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2006, 380 pages. Paper, no price indicated.

Hizbullah came into being in Lebanon in 1978, but it started to attract international media attention in 1982, when one of its militants detonated his car in the Israeli military headquarters of Tyre in occupied Lebanon, killing himself as well several dozen Israeli soldiers. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Hizbullah militants consolidated their jihadi reputation by performing the most dating and deadly military operations, including the Beirut Barracks and the United States Embassy Bombing in 1983 which claimed the lives of 350 people. This and other operations had caused Hizbullah to be included in the roster of terrorist organizations of the US State Department. However, Hizbullah's history is not just about hostage taking or suicide bombing. It social networks provides services to the disenfranchised regardless or their religious affiliation in Lebanon. Its Al-Manar satellite TV and Nur satellite radio station reach millions of people in the Middle East. Its military wing which received logistical support from Iran and Syria is the first Arab army to have resisted Tsahal, which, as we know, won resounding victories against the combined armed forces of Jordan, Egypt and Syria in all Arab Israeli wars. Hizbullah is also a political party which was represented in government and parliament in Lebanon. The dissertation of Joseph Alagha attempts to shed light on this complex movement, in particular it explains the shifts in Hizbullah's ideology.

After one solid introductory chapter which surveys the history of Hizbullah to 2005, the author structures his analysis around three main axes: the first addresses the formation of the religious ideology of Hizbullah as a nascent Islamist movement in Lebanon from 1978 to 1984, the second is devoted to the analysis of its political ideology as Hizbullah engaged the Lebanese political system from the mid-1980 to 1990; and the third discusses the political program of Hizbullah from 1991 to 2005, when it became incorporated into mainstream Lebanese politics.

In the discussion of the religious ideology, the author addresses in great detail the doctrines from which Hizbullah drew inspiration, including the fundamentals of the Shiite faith, the theory of the guardianship of the Jurisconsult (wilayat faqih) as...