Alagha 48121.t is worth mentioning that the abolition of political sectarianism is stipu- I
lated in Article 95 of the Ta’if Agreement. But all that has been achieved
to date is Parliament’s 2004 establishment of a committee that is supposed
to pave the way for a “National Body for the Abolishment of Political
Sectarianism.”
22.e Maronite bishops’ declaration cautioned against deleting politi- Th
cal sectarianism from legal texts before erasing it from the minds of the
Lebanese people, which could only be accomplished through an intensive
educational process stressing coexistence and mutual respect. Daily Star, 5
February 2004.
23.l-Safir A , 11 June 2005. Hizbullah: al-Muqawama wa-l-Tahrir [Hizbullah:
Resistance and Liberation] (Beirut: Edito International, 2006), 3:178–87.
Hizbullah: al-Muqawama wa-l-Tahrir is a thirteen-volume encyclopedia on
the party.
- See the group’s Web site at http://www.14march.org/.
- UNSC Resolution 1559 called for the Lebanese state to have absolute
monopoly over the use of force and to disband and disarm all militias,
which is an indirect reference to Hizbullah and the Palestinian factions
in Lebanon. See Shaykh Ja‘far Hasan ‘Atrisi, Hizbullah: al-Khiyar al-As‘ab
wa-Damanat al-Watan al-Kubra [Hizbullah: The Difficult Choice and
Lebanon’s Greatest Guarantee] (Beirut: Dar al-Mahajja al-Bayda’, 2005),
309–311; and Rif‘at Sayyid Ahmad, Hasan Nasrallah: Tha’ir min al-Janub
[Hasan Nasrallah: A Rebel from the South] (Cairo: Dar al-Kitab al-‘Arabi,
2006), 215–230.
26.oseph Alagha, “Hizbullah After the Syrian Withdrawal,” J Middle East
Report 237 (Winter 2005): 34–39. - See Nasrallah’s interview with al-Safir, 29 July 2005.
- Al-Safir, 17 August 2005.
- Al-Safir, 7 June 2005. Nabulsi is not a Hizbullah member but rather a local
influential cleric revered by Hizbullah. It is worth mentioning that when
five Shi‘i ministers—including the two from Hizbullah—suspended their
membership in the Lebanese cabinet in December 2005, it was Nabulsi,
not Nasrallah, who issued a fatwa barring any other Shi‘a from joining the
cabinet in their absence. (See Lebanese daily newspapers of 12 December
2005.) - Sayyid Ahmad, Hasan Nasrallah, 231–232.
- Hizbullah: al-Muqawama wa, 3:148–157.