Illustration- Hezbollah offered Lebanon’s Shiites weapons, foreign allegiance and destruction. A new generation offers them citizenship, reconstruction and a future within Lebanon.
Lebanon’s Shiites have another choice: A capable state, a national Army, genuine citizenship and Leaders whose allegiance belongs exclusively to Lebanon
By: Ali Hussein, Lebanese Political Analyst, Opinion
For decades, Hezbollah and the Amal Movement have claimed the exclusive right to speak for Lebanon’s Shiite community. They have controlled its parliamentary representation, dominated its institutions and treated dissenting Shiites as though they were traitors to their own identity.
But Hezbollah and Amal do not own Lebanon’s Shiites.
An increasing number of Shiite intellectuals, clerics, journalists and political activists are challenging that monopoly. They believe that Lebanon’s Shiites deserve something better than illegal weapons, endless wars, political isolation and allegiance to Iran.
They are not asking the community to surrender its dignity. They are asking it to recover its Lebanese identity, reconnect with the Arab world and place its future under the protection of a legitimate state.
Dr. Hadi Murad: Hezbollah No Longer Speaks for Every Shiite
Dr. Hadi Murad is one of the most outspoken Shiite critics of Hezbollah’s weapons and Iranian allegiance.
He argues that Hezbollah has sacrificed the lives, homes and future of Lebanese Shiites in wars conducted for Iran’s regional agenda. The people of southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley and Beirut’s southern suburbs have repeatedly paid the greatest price for decisions they did not make.
According to Murad, many Shiites who once trusted Hezbollah’s leadership now feel betrayed. Naim Qassem may continue speaking as though the entire community stands behind him, but growing numbers of Shiites appear unwilling to follow Hezbollah into another devastating war.
Murad also understands that opposition alone is insufficient. Shiites need a credible alternative offering security, reconstruction, employment, education and reintegration into Lebanon and the Arab world.
Even Subhi al-Tufayli, a Hezbollah founder who served as its first secretary-general from 1989 to 1991 before being expelled in 1998, later became a fierce critic of Iran and Hezbollah’s current leadership. He accused Tehran of exploiting sectarianism for its regional ambitions and condemned Hezbollah’s intervention in Syria. Tufayli’s own militant history prevents him from representing the new civilian leadership Lebanon’s Shiites need. His relevance here is strictly historical: his break with Hezbollah provides testimony from a founding insider about the organization’s subordination to Iran.
That warning from Hezbollah’s own past reinforces the urgency of building a different future.
Dr. Ali Khalifeh: Building an Organized Political Alternative
Dr. Ali Khalifeh, a Lebanese University professor and founder of the Taharror movement, is helping transform Shiite discontent into an organized political project.
Khalifeh rejects the argument that Hezbollah can retain its political organization while merely placing its weapons aside. He maintains that Hezbollah’s political and military structures are inseparable and remain ideologically and organizationally connected to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Through Taharror, Khalifeh advocates a modern, sovereign and liberal Lebanese state. He opposes Hezbollah and Amal’s monopoly over Shiite political representation and rejects the doctrine that Lebanon’s Shiites must place their political and religious loyalty in the hands of Iran’s supreme leader.
His message is clear: Lebanese Shiites can preserve their faith and identity without surrendering their country to a foreign regime.
Professor Mona Fayyad: A Courageous Intellectual Voice
Professor Mona Fayyad has been challenging Hezbollah’s domination for nearly two decades.
She warned early that Hezbollah’s weapons were not simply intended to confront Israel. They became an instrument of political intimidation and hegemony inside Lebanon.
Fayyad has also directly connected Hezbollah’s military decisions to the devastation suffered by its own constituency. Shiite families have been killed, displaced and impoverished, while their villages and neighborhoods have repeatedly been reduced to rubble.
She recognizes, however, that decades of fear, ideological conditioning and economic dependence cannot be undone overnight. The community needs reassurance that abandoning Hezbollah’s protection does not mean becoming defenseless.
Fayyad’s voice is especially important because the future Shiite leadership must include women, academics and independent thinkers—not merely another generation of traditional male politicians.
Sayyed Ali al-Amin: Shiism Does Not Require Allegiance to Iran
Sayyed Ali al-Amin, the former Shiite mufti of Tyre and Jabal Amel, offers the religious answer to Hezbollah’s political manipulation of the community.
For years, Hezbollah has attempted to equate opposition to its weapons with opposition to the Shiite community. Ali al-Amin exposes the falsehood of that argument.
He rejects Iran’s doctrine of Wilayat al-Faqih and insists that Lebanese Shiites owe their national allegiance to Lebanon—not to Iran’s supreme leader. He supports a civil state, coexistence among Lebanon’s communities and the transfer of Hezbollah’s weapons to the Lebanese Army.
His position demonstrates that one can be deeply committed to the Shiite faith while rejecting Hezbollah’s militarism and Iran’s political authority.
He offers a vision of Shiism rooted in faith, moderation, citizenship and respect for the state.
Sheikh Abbas Yazbek: Courage from the Heart of Baalbek
Sheikh Abbas Yazbek is another independent Shiite cleric who has openly challenged Hezbollah despite threats, intimidation and reported assaults.
As an imam, philosophy teacher and activist from Baalbek-Hermel, Yazbek speaks from inside an area that Hezbollah considers one of its principal strongholds.
He has called for a strong and just Lebanese state, exclusive state authority over weapons and renewed relations with Lebanon’s Arab neighbors. He also emphasizes coexistence and rejects the idea that a political party or militia can provide more lasting protection than legitimate national institutions.
His courage is a reminder that resistance to Hezbollah’s domination exists even in the communities where speaking publicly can carry the highest personal cost.
Ali al-Amin, Jad Akhawi and the Independent Shiite Media
Journalist Ali al-Amin, editor of the Janoubia website—not to be confused with the cleric Sayyed Ali al-Amin—has consistently exposed Hezbollah’s intimidation, its Iranian connections and the danger its weapons pose to the Lebanese state.
Journalist and organizer Jad Akhawi has also helped bring together emerging Shiite opposition figures around a powerful principle: the state must be the highest authority.
No weapons outside the state. No militia above the Army. No parallel government. No foreign power deciding when Lebanon goes to war.
These journalists and organizers are vital because political change begins by breaking the wall of fear and allowing Shiites to hear voices other than those approved by Hezbollah and Amal.
Researcher Hanin Ghaddar has contributed another essential element: the alternative must offer more than criticism. It must present a serious economic and social program for reconstruction, employment, investment and education in neglected Shiite regions.
Shiites Do Not Need Another Zaim
Lebanon’s Shiites do not need another armed strongman to replace Naim Qassem or another hereditary politician to replace Nabih Berri.
They need collective leadership.
Hadi Murad, Ali Khalifeh, Mona Fayyad, Sayyed Ali al-Amin, Sheikh Abbas Yazbek, journalist Ali al-Amin, Jad Akhawi and Hanin Ghaddar do not necessarily agree on every political question. Nor are all of them seeking elected office.
But together, they represent the foundations of an alternative: courage, intellectual independence, religious moderation, national sovereignty and exclusive state control over weapons.
Their greatest challenge will be to unite around a common program and take that program directly to the people of the south, the Bekaa and Beirut’s southern suburbs.
The alternative must promise more than disarmament. It must promise security under the Lebanese Army, reconstruction without political submission, jobs without party membership, education without indoctrination and dignity without endless warfare.
For too long, Hezbollah has told Lebanon’s Shiites that they must choose between its weapons and abandonment.
That is the great lie upon which its domination has been built.
The alternative already exists. It is now time for its voices to unite—and for Lebanon and the world to listen.
