Islamic Dawa Party in Lebanon

Islamic Dawa Party in Lebanon (Arabic حزب الدعوة الإسلامية "Ḥizb al Daʿwa al-Islāmiyya") was a Shia fundamentalist or Islamist Shia party in Lebanon. A twin party of the larger Islamic Dawa Party of Iraq, it was founded by Najaf Iraq-schooled Shia clerics returning to Lebanon. ["al-Shira", 15 March 1986] Its spiritual guide was Shiekh Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah.

Likes its Iraqi twin, Dawa was said to "emphasize extreme secrecy and underground activity, in alignment with traditional Shi'i doctrine of protecting the community against persecution." [Ranstorp, Hizb'allah" (1997) p.27-8] An indication of the closeness of the two parties is that several Lebanese took part in the 1983 Iraqi al-Da'wa bomb attack on six Kuwaiti, American and French targets in Kuwait. Islamic Dawa in Lebanon is also thought to have been behind the assassination of the French ambassador to Lebanon, Louis Delamare (59) on September 4, 1981. The attack was thought to be in retaliation for France's granting sanctuary to deposed Iranian president Abolhassan Bani Sadr against the wishes of the Islamic Republic of Iran. ["French Ambassador is Slain in Beirut," John Kifner, "New York Times," September 5, 1981, p.5]

Following the Iranian Revolution the "more radical Najaf-educated clergy" of Lebanon, with the Iran "active encourage [ment] " of Iran, turned away from the party believing the "the secretive and underground nature of the party" hinderd its effectiveness. [Ranstorp, Hizb'allah" (1997) p.30]

It would later become a "core component in the establishment of the Hezbollah movement in 1982" and by late 1984 it had merged with that radical but more open Shia "umbrella group" along with other Lebanese Islamist groups - Islamic Amal, Dawa, the Hussein Suicide Squad, Jundallah (Soldiers of God) and the Islamic Students Union). [Wright, "Sacred Rage", (2001), p.95] "The legacy of the Lebanese al-Da'wa party had and continues to have, a strong impact on the ideology, direction and organisational structure" of Hezbollah. [Ranstorp, Hizb'allah" (1997) p.27-8]

References

Bibliography

*Ranstorp, Magnus, "Hizb'allah in Lebanon : The Politics of the Western Hostage Crisis", New York, St. Martins Press, 1997