462 Resisting Publics
At the same time, Hizbullah continued gradually integrating into the new
national public sphere emerging as a result of the civil peace.
n May 1991 Hizbullah elected Sayyid Abbas al-Musawi as secre-I
tary general. In his political program, Sayyid Abbas initiated the infitāh.
policy of dialogue, especially with the Christians, for example, by taking
the initiative and visiting the Maronite Patriarch. On 16 February 1992,
an Israeli helicopter assassinated Sayyid Abbas, his wife, and his son. Two
days later, Nasrallah was elected secretary general and Shaykh Na‘im
Qasim was elected deputy secretary general,^12 posts they have both held
until the current day.
fter Ayatollah Khamina’i selected Nasrallah and Yazbik as his A
religious deputies in Lebanon in May 1995, Hizbullah consolidated its
financial resources. Since then, the one-fifth tithe [khums] imposed on
those Lebanese Shi‘a who follow Khamina’i as their authority of emula-
tion [marji‘], as well as their alms [zakat] and religious [shar‘ῑ] monies
have poured directly into Hizbullah coffers instead of being channeled
through Iran, as had previously been the case. Since 1982 this money
stream had already allowed Hizbullah to found an efficient network of
NGOs and social welfare institutions, including the Martyr’s Association,
the Association of the Wounded, the Association of Lebanese Prisoners,^13
the Islamic Resistance Support Association, the Institution of the Good
Loan, the Association of Islamic Health, the Institution of Construction
and Development, the Association of the Relief Committees of Imam
Khumayni, and the Association of Islamic Pedagogy and Education.
Hizbullah also built its own media and research institutions. Its weekly
mouthpiece al-‘Ahd, established in 1984, was renamed al-Intiqad^14 in
2001; it founded the journal Baqiyyat Allah in 1991 with the aim of incul-
cating Islamic values and culture. Its think tank, the Consultative Center
for Studies and Documentation (CCSD), and the al-Nour satellite radio
station were both founded in 1988. The flagship al-Manar^15 satellite TV
channel, the only channel belonging to an Islamist movement in the
Middle East, was watched by 12 million people in 2007.^16
ebanon’s 1992 parliamentary elections mark the turning point in L
this second phase of Hizbullah. Although Hizbullah initially regarded
the Lebanese political system as unfair and unjust, the party’s integration
through electoral politics brought it additional political legitimacy and a