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Shia Imam: Save Lebanon from Iran's Death Grip

(Newsweek) Sheikh Abbas Al-Jawhari - Like many from Lebanon's Shia community in 1985, I joined Hizbullah as a young man, inspired by the revolutionary fervor radiating out of Iran that called for our people to take up arms against Israel and the West. But after seeing Lebanon go through decades of conflict, corruption and spiraling poverty, my vision for my community and country have evolved. As an imam of the Shia community in Lebanon, I say that the biggest threat to Lebanon and the Middle East is the radical ideology of Iran's regime. The only way to secure a long-term peace in Lebanon is to actively roll back the Iranian regime's control of our country. Our hopes have been subverted by an ideology that is dedicated to violence and the suppression of freedoms. During a visit to Tehran, I heard from Iranian Shia themselves about the lack of freedom and equality in their society, the nepotism and privileges granted to the relatives of the regime and those close to it. The revolution has forsaken the people it claimed to represent, and it has dragged its society back into the Dark Ages. In Lebanon, too, Hizbullah has turned what was a beautiful country into a mafia state. American and French diplomats should know that the Shia community deserves and desires peace, and to live free from the influence of foreign regimes that force us into an endless and pointless conflict. My call to choose peace over Iran has almost cost me my life on several occasions at the hands of Hizbullah. The writer is a Shi'ite Imam based in Baalbek, Lebanon.
2024-12-01 00:00:00
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