460 Resisting Publics
northeast); and economic and social capital (through social welfare insti-
tutions targeting only the Shi’i grassroots).
t should be noted that this period was one of continuing civil war I
in Lebanon, characterized by fragmented public spheres and “cantons”—
confessionalism-based mini-states. In the mid 1980s, the notion of estab-
lishing cantons along sectarian lines was high on the agenda of many
political parties, including the Christian ones. Hizbullah, however—
unlike, for example, the Lebanese Forces and the Progressive Socialist
Party^7 —did not seek the establishment of a mini-state with its own ports,
airports, taxation, and civil administration. Nor did Hizbullah call for
federalism. In 1986 Nasrallah stressed that Muslims have no right what-
soever to even entertain the idea of a Muslim canton or a Shi‘i canton or
a Sunni canton. “Talking about cantons annihilates the Muslims, destroys
their potential power, and leads them from one internal war to another,”
he said. “Only the Islamic state upholds their unity.”^8
n the 1990s, Hizbullah’s leading cadres took great care to ward off I
charges of the party being a state within the Lebanese state. Hizbullah’s
leaders, most notably Nasrallah and Hajj Muhammad Ra‘d, the current
head of Hizbullah’s parliamentary bloc, repeatedly stated that the party
never took part in the Lebanese Civil War and asserted that it has never
imposed (by force) its ideas, opinions, ideology, or political program on
anyone. Nasrallah has said that the party views the existence of eighteen
ethno-confessional communities in Lebanon as an asset and that the party
aspires to openness and dialogue among all Lebanese.
Hizbullah has repeatedly refused to be a social, political, judicial, or
security alternative to the Lebanese state and its institutions.^9 If nothing
else, said Hajj ‘Imad Faqih, a member of a mid-ranking cadre, perform-
ing functions of the state would eventually dirty the party’s hands, which
Hizbullah could ill afford, having spent years nurturing a reputation for
probity.^10 As such, and as will be further described in the next section,
Hizbullah’s entry as a major player in Lebanese politics has helped to
restore some kind of a coherent national public sphere, which, more or
less, had existed before civil war erupted in April 1975.