Shiʻite Lebanon
Subtitle: transnational religion and the making of national identities
By: Roschanack Shaery-Eisenlohr.
Series: History and society of the modern Middle East; History and society of the modern Middle East series
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2008
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 288
ISBN-13: 9780231144261; 9780231513135
Subjects: Shīʻah -- Lebanon; Shiites -- Lebanon -- Political activity; Lebanon -- Politics and government -- 1990-; Lebanon -- Ethnic relations
Description: By recasting the relationship between religion and nationalism in the Middle East, Roschanack Shaery-Eisenlohr proposes a new framework for understanding Shi'ite politics in Lebanon. Her study draws on a variety of untapped sources, reconsidering not only the politics of the established leadership of Shi'ites but also institutional and popular activities of identity production. Shaery-Eisenlohr traces current Shi'ite politics of piety and authenticity to the coexistence formula in Lebanon and argues that engaging in the discourses of piety and coexistence is a precondition to cultural citizenship in Lebanon. As she demonstrates, debates over the nature of Christianity and Islam and Christian-Muslim dialogue are in fact intertwined with power struggles at the state level. Since the 1970s, debates in the transnational Shi'ite world have gradually linked Shi'ite piety with the support of the Palestinian cause. Iran's religious elite has backed this piety project in multiple ways, but in doing so it has assisted in the creation of a variety of Lebanese Shi'ite nationalisms with competing claims to religious and national authenticity. Shaery-Eisenlohr argues that these ties to Iran have in fact strengthened the position of Lebanese Shi'ites by providing, as is recognized, economic, military, and ideological support for Hizbullah, as well as by compelling Lebanese Shi'ites to foreground the Lebanese components of their identity more forcefully than ever before.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [261]-274) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction : claiming cultural citizenship in Lebanon, from margin to center; title: The nation in the making; title: Two nations and one state : Shiʻite and Maronite Lebanon; title: Schooling and the creation of Lebanese Shiʻite public identity; title: Transnational debates and local struggles; title: Shiʻite piety and the Palestinian cause : the history of a discourse; title: The politics of Shiʻite authenticity since 1982; title: Iranian cultural politics in Lebanon; title: Epilogue.