Amal and the Shi'a: The Struggle for the Soul of Lebanon

By Augustus Richard Norton. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1987. 222 pages, $25.00 (cloth), $10.95 (paper).

Reviewed by As'ad Abukhalil

There exists a vast body of literature on Lebanon and its civil war. Augustus Norton's book about the Shi'a of Lebanon, however, is one of the most significant contributions to the study of that embattled land since Michael Hudson's 1968 work, The Precarious Republic. The book is the fruit of painstaking research and fieldwork by the author in south Lebanon in the early 1980s. His sober treatment is much needed at a time when the West has become obsessed with Arab "terrorism," which is very often equated with Shi'ism. Norton's analysis of the radicalization of the Shi'ite community is objective yet sympathetic. He traces the socioeconomic and political origins of Shi'ite political movements without utilizing the jargon of "terrorism." His personalized narrative adds an interesting dimension to a scholarly treatment of a complex subject.

Norton Pinpoints Shi'ite Resentment

The value of the book lies in the author's ability to focus on socioeconomic factors underlying the sectarian conflicts and political power struggles raging among and within Lebanese confessional communities. Instead of reinforcing the popular stereotypes of Shi'ites as intrinsically anti-Western and violent, Norton studies the evolution of the Shi'ite community within the context of Lebanese sectarian politics. He offers a vivid description of the poverty and official neglect of the Shi'ite-inhabited regions of Lebanon. The writer shows how the Shi'ite community was radicalized by these two factors by and many years of resentment of a political system unable to and unwilling to open doors of legitimate political participation and economic opportunities. The author rejects the urban/rural divide as an expansion of Shi'ite radicalism and argues persuasively that, due to Lebanon's small size, urbanization encompassed most of its inhabitants, including the Shi'ites. He also point out that urbanization does not necessarily mean a decline in traditional ties and sectarian consciousness.

As a shrewd observer of Lebanese politics, the author should not have considered Karim Pakraduni, a leading figure of the Lebanese Forces, a reliable source on the late Imam Musa Sadr. Pakraduni was not close to Sadr, and he distorted the views of both the Imam and of Kamal Jumblat, neither of whom were alive when Pakraduni wrote his book, Lost Peace, on which Norton relies. Pakraduni depicts the views of deceased Lebanese leaders as close to his own right-wing extremist opinions. Consequently, Norton is unable to understand the degree to which Sadr was loyal to the Syrian regime of Hafez Al-Assad.

The author's claim that the Shi'ites rallied to the support of the Lebanese army after clashes erupted between PLO fighters and regular army troops in the early 1970s is untrue. At that time, most Lebanese Shi'ites were themselves members of the various PLO organizations and many of them died fighting within the ranks of PLO groups.

Moderation versus Militancy

The author also mischaracterizes the nature of "the race" between ostensibly secular (mainly leftist) political parties and the Amal movement in the early 1970s to mobilize the Shi'ite community in Lebanon. Rather than a competition between "secular creeds and a distinctly sectarian movement," it was a race between moderation and militancy. As Norton himself observes, the leftist parties of Lebanon were, and still are, sectarian in membership. They were addressing a Shi'ite community conscious of the widespread discrimination against it by using attractive slogans and promises of change. The Shi'ites were, for example, attracted initially to communist organizations not out of a fascination for the theories of Marx and Lenin, but in order to focus the attention of the Lebanese state on their demands by threatening it with a more radical system that would address their grievances.

Notwithstanding such minor criticisms, Norton's book is enjoyable and illuminating reading for both the novice and the specialist. In an area where "foreign" experts are often dismissed as naive, Norton proves to be a keen observer of Lebanese politics. The author had the patience to question almost everything he was told, so as not to be unduly influenced or deceived by any faction. This is why he comes across in his book as a thoughtful and evenhanded observer of the forces behind the rise in Shi'ite political power in Lebanon. Finally, his chapter on Israel's brutal and heavy-handed treatment of the Shi'ites in south Lebanon is essential reading for anybody interested in understanding the underlying causes of Shi'ite radicalism in that war-torn country.

As'ad Abukhalil, a PhD student in Georgetown University's Department of Government, is a free-lance consultant on Middle East affairs.