ATLANTA, USA, Oct 01 (IPS) – There is no question that Hassan Nasrallah was a powerful speaker. He could hold millions of fans in rapt attention—even adulation—with his deep voice, logic, passion, and wisdom.
Now that he’s gone, Lebanon’s powerful Shi’ite organization Hezbollah is much weaker—or so experts say. While that is true in a short-term operational sense, it may not be so in the long run. Nasrallah is more powerful dead than alive.
The reason is that from its beginning until now martyrdom has a unique place and power in Shi’a Islam. Many historical martyrs from Ali, the Seventh Century son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad and the first Shi’a Imam, to the latest messiah-like figure, Ayatollah Khomeini (1902-1989) are still revered, celebrated, and invoked. for help today.
They are very similar to Catholic saints, except for their greater power to inspire and motivate their followers even centuries later.
Consider the annual commemoration of Ashura on the tenth day of the month of Muharram, mourning the martyrdom of Husayn, the third Shi’a Imam, who died in Karbala, Iraq, in AD 680. Ashura, and especially the death of Husayn, embodies the eternal struggle for good against evil, which is why it remains a major force in Shi’a Islam today.
No one should take this love of justice, shared by millions, for granted.
Until recently Ashura in Shi’a Islam depicted thousands of naked men flogging themselves with knives, swords, or sharp whips until blood flowed mourning the death of Husayn.
Controversial within Islam and now banned in its worst forms in Iran and South Lebanon, chain whips are used, but bloody processions continue in several other places.
Nasrallah’s death will inevitably inspire a similar devotion to sacrifice, leading to more martyrdom. In that sense, Shi’a Islam is uniquely equipped among the world’s religions to increase mourning for the martyrs and change political-cum-military power.
Go to Iran and you will see displays of quiet mourning and unbridled religious fervor. Visit the huge mosque dedicated to Khomeini which attracts hordes of pilgrims. Read the hagiographies written about him, which make him not just a messiah, but something like an angel from heaven.
What else could be the result of such dedication but to stick firmly to the goal of avenging the bloodshed of the saints and the holy messengers of God?
But “Hezbollah is a terrorist organization,” some will say. Try telling that to the hundreds of thousands of civilians who fled this month’s Israeli bombing of South Lebanon, or to those who have endured a year of nightly terror under Israeli bombardment in Gaza.
US President Biden has said that killing Nasrallah provides “some measure of justice,” but fear today is an equal opportunity tool used by both sides.
The history of Israeli terrorism in Lebanon is much greater than that of the combined forces fighting Israel. It goes back at least forty years to their first major war and occupation of Beirut and South Lebanon in 1982. The IDF killing of 106 children at a school in Qana, South Lebanon in 1996 is one such example.
At this point, neither side seems to have thought about the teaching of the greatest martyr of all: “Blessed are the peaceable.” Today’s Middle East is still stuck in a cycle of revenge. By weakening Hezbollah, Israel has sown the seeds of its future problems. The first rule of digging is, if you’re in a hole—stop digging.
James E. JenningsPhD is the President of Conscience International www.conscienceinternational.org and the Executive Director of US Academics for Peace. He brought medical aid to the Palestinians during the siege of Beirut and Gaza under heavy Israeli occupation and bombing.
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© Inter Press Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
