Hezbollah: Please don’t confuse us with Islamic Republic!
Jun 12th, 2007 by City boy
Hamed Beheshti, an Iranian blogger in Beirut claims that when he was at a dinner with Dr. Hossein Rahal, the spokesman for Hezbullah, the Iranian guests there told Rahal about the popularity Hezbollah has gained since the last summer’s war with Israel, mainly between some Iranian youth who apparently wear t-shirts with pictures of Hassan Nasrullah (the secretary general of Hezbollah).
Apparently when Rahal heard this, he quickly cried out:
Please do something so the [Iranian] people don’t confuse the Lebanese Hezbollah with the fringe groups active in Iran with similar names! [Ansar-e Hezbollah] In Iran these groups force religion on to people but religion should flow itself in to the society to have it’s real effect; Making religion compulsory does not make sense!
Ansar-e Hezbollah are an unofficial force by the Islamic Republic made up of Basiji militants who follow “the path of the Imam” and crush the “morally corrupt” in the society. They are well known for brutally attacking and literally crushing the Tehran student uprising in July 1999.
So there it goes, Islamic Republic is considered fundamentalist even to the likes of Hezbollah!
I really found it interesting that Hizbullah would say this to Iranian guests. I would certainly expect this in public statements exposed to the majority of the Lebanese people but I was (pleasantly) surprised to hear that this is what they are saying even to their Iranian friends.
Several times Lebanese Shi’ite (who are mostly pro-Hizb) have said many things to the effect that they are ‘not as extreme’ as the Iranian regime and although they have a strong relationship with Iran they are quite different from the regime… and indeed they are not. Remember, Hizbullah lives in a pluralist country that not too long ago was a majority Chrsitian country and now seems to be divided into 3 roughly equal-sized parts (Sunni, Shi’ite, and Christian). To be forceful and imposing would mean terrible things!
Also, as a Lebanese I was very surprised to discover that Persian Shi’ites are no where near as religous as Lebanese Shi’ites…
This is an excellent post. Even Hizballah tries to distance itself from the crazy mullahs in Iran.
BTW, with your permission, I will be stealing this post in its entirety…LOL
Marc, it looks like you are surprised a lot
Thanks Serendip, ghabele shoma ro nadareh