Qassem: Hezbollah inspired by Wilayat al-Faqih

BEIRUT: Hezbollah’s war with Israel and its intervention in Syria stem from a moral view inspired by the controversial Wilayat al-Faqih doctrine, the party's deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem argued Thursday during a signing of his book titled, “The Modernizing Wali.”

Under the Wilayat al-Faqih doctrine, which was introduced in Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the supreme ayatollah, or highest religious authority, has final say in political as well as religious matters.

Hezbollah has remained evasive about its adherence to Wilayat al-Faqih and its level of support for the establishment of an Islamic state in Lebanon inspired by that doctrine.

“ Hezbollah has abided by the general guidelines of Wilayat al-Faqih,” Qassem said, which allowed the party to “distinguish between right and wrong."

He said that it was Hezbollah’s moral compass that had driven them to war with Israel and takfiris in Syria.

“ Hezbollah realized from the start that America is an imperial entity whose main interest is ensuring the continued existence of the state of Israel,” said Qassem, arguing that the party’s war with Lebanon's southern neighbor was meant to prevent it from controlling the region.

Justifying the party's intervention in Syria, Qassem said Hezbollah pre-emptively sensed the takfiri threat and was facing the danger in Syria in order to protect Lebanon and the resistance.

“ Hezbollah has achieved great feats that minimized the takfiri threat to Lebanon,” he said, and had it not been for the party’s “holy jihad in Syria,” Lebanon would have seen more takfiris “erecting checkpoints in Beirut, and spreading their killing and crime."

“ Hezbollah is committed to the thesis of Wilayat al-Faqih both in its Islamic understanding and its practical application,” he added.

Qassem said that he had written a book about the famous doctrine “because a generation of young people did not witness the beginning of the [Iranian] revolution, and have not seen its intellectual, political and ideological, social and ethical foundations.”

These people, argued Qassem, must be provided with concise material that briefs them on the idea of Wilayat al-Faqih.

The book deals with 26 themes discussed in the doctrine, said Qassem, clarifying that he had chosen samples he saw as suitable “for intellectuals and those who want to know about the mandate of Waliyat al-Faqih.”