Sheikh Fadlallah: ‘Pride of Lebanon’

Posted on February 16, 2012 |

In 2010 – Atlanta-based CNN senior editor, Octavia Nasr, a Lebanese-American Christian, was fired for publishing a Twitter message in which she showed her respect for the Lebanese cleric, Grand Ayatullah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, who passed away in Beirut on July 4, 2010. Octavia Nasr, being a senior editor with the Islamophobe CNN network – was certainly no supporter of Muslim cause. She was never respected in the Arab world – but her dismissal proved once again that in the US a journalist is allowed only to praise Jewish and Christian religious leaders, no matter how racists they maybe towards Islam and Muslims – but you must believe that all Muslim religious leaders are a bunch of terrorist unless they’re sell-outs willing to salute the Zio-facism.

Sayyed Muhammed Hussein Fadlallah (1935-2010), a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), was born into a Lebanese Shia family living in Najaf, Iraq. He studied Islamic theology in Najaf before settling in Lebanon in 1952. He was involved in interfaith dialogues and encourage mutaual understandings between Muslims, Christian and Jews. Sheikh Fadlallah was untiring campaigner for equility between genders based on Holy Qur’an and the Prophetic traditions.

Sheikh Fadlallah had dedicated his adult life in interpreting Islamic jurisdiction, education and social works. Though he supported resistance groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine and Iran – but never joined any of them or any political party. CIA and Mossad wrongly portrayed him as ‘spiritual leader’ of Lebanese Islamic Resistance group Hizbullah and tried to assassinate him in 1985 via a 440-lb car bomb. The Sheikh escaped the bombing which killed 80 innocent people.

Sheikh Fadlallah was against suicide-bombing but never accepted military resistance against foreign occupiers of Muslim lands (Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Kashmir, Philppines, Chechyna, Bosnia, etc.) as terrorism – but permitted by Islamic jurisdiction and international law. However, he refused to call such actions ‘Islamic Jihad’.

Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah continues to serve Lebanon

In 1995, former president Bill Clinton froze Sheikh Fadlallah’s assets in the US. In 2006, Israeli Jews bomb his house in south Beirut, but he was not in the house at that time. Oops! Mossad missed.
Franklin Lamb PhD, who is doing reserch in Libya, paid rich tributes to the Grand Ayatullah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah in a recent article published in Al-Manar TV.

I entered the Mosque and sat on a bench near the burial chamber (Maqam) of Ayatollah Fadlallah. I reflected on what he meant to Muslims and Christians in Lebanon and to all people of good will around the world and to me personally. I had the honor to meet with him several times and count his son Ali, who has succeeded him in much of his work, as my friend. As I sat close to the Maqam, I was surprised to see members of our community still arriving to his resting place, lean forward and speak privately to him and pledge to follow his progressive teachings, fatwas, and examples. Some, inspired by his life’s work took vows to become better people in their relations with others.

From all across the region delegations arrived and every Lebanese political and religious leader attended except the small minded Maronite Cardinal Patriarch Sfeir who took umbrage at Fadallah’s positive views about one person-one vote democracy. Sayyed Fadlallah did not favor Lebanon being ruled by the current archaic French colonial legacy of parceling out political power based on the undemocratic confessional formulae of the 1943 Paris installed National Pact.

His passing shocked and saddened the region and the loss of his advocacy of dialogue, respect and unity among all religions is incalculable. Justice for Palestine and ending the Zionist occupation was part of his unwavering lifelong work. Some media outlets, reported that shortly before he died, and upon being asked by a medical attendant a few days ago if he needed anything, he replied, “Only the end of the Zionist occupation of Palestine.”

May Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah forever rest in Peace.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian  
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah continues to serve Lebanon

Franklin LambDahiyeh, South Beirut

Al-Manar
Graphics by Alex

Rushing to an appointment last Saturday and passing the Mohammad Hussein Fadallah Hassaniyeh (Mosque), which for many in my immediate Dahiyeh neighborhood is the religious institution we feel most connected to because of its long and continuing history of social and religious work in our community.

The author with Grand Ayatollah Fadallah

Nearly 18 months after the July 4^th, 2010 death of Lebanon’s preeminent Islamic scholar, the Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, but seeming more like three months ago, the ‘Fadlallah Hassaniyeh’ is an ever active beehive of social work and religious study and truly a working people’s institution.

It is also the manifestation of Sayed Fadlallah’s achievement’s for and commitments to all in our community, Shia, Sunni, Christians and non-believers.

Unaware that it was the 12^thday of the lunar month of Rabih el Awwal, the Prophet Mohammad bin Abdillah’s birthday, I was surprised by all the activity saturating the surrounding streets and the hundreds of school children in celebratory clothes doing various activities enjoying the festivity with their families.

Suddenly a gaggle of pre-teen friends from our neighborhood ran up to me and pulled me to the front of the vast ornate Fadlallah Mosque and to the tables in front where children were distributing small cloth wrapped candies in celebration. When night descends, which is early these days, the children might be given fireworks by their parents as was common in the past. Yet given so much uncertainly these days in the region and in Lebanon, even relatively mild explosive noises cause my neighbors to hustle their flocks inside and avoid balconies and windows until they understand what the noise was all about.

By then too late for my appointment, I postponed it and entered the Mosque and sat on a bench near the burial chamber (Maqam) of Ayatollah Fadlallah. I reflected on what he meant to Muslims and Christians in Lebanon and to all people of good will around the World and to me personally. I had the honor to meet with him several times and count his son Ali, who has succeeded him in much of his work, as my friend. As I sat close to the Maqam, I was surprised to see members of our community still arriving to his resting place, lean forward and speak privately to him and pledge to follow his progressive teachings, fatwas, and examples. Some, inspired by his life’s work took vows to become better people in their relations with others.

I also still recall vividly his funeral and the untold thousands who came to our neighborhood to join his funeral procession on July 6, 2010.

Friends carried his body around our neighborhood. They then marched to the spot of 1985 CIA-Saudi assassination attempt, which killed 90 mainly school children and women and wounded more than 250, before returning to Imam Rida Mosque where he was laid to rest. Tens of thousands of mourners gathered at the mosque for prayer services before the funeral procession.

From all across the region delegations arrived and every Lebanese political and religious leader attended eccept the small minded Maronite Cardinal Patriarch Sfeir who took umbrage at Fadallah’s positive views about one person-one vote democracy. Sayeed Fadlallah did not favor Lebanon being ruled by the current archaic French colonial legacy of parceling out political power based on the undemocratic confessional formulae of the 1943 Paris installed National Pact.

His passing shocked and saddened the region and the loss of his advocacy of dialogue, respect and unity among all religions is incalculable. Justice for Palestine and ending the Zionist occupation was part of his unwavering lifelong work. Some media outlets, reported that shortly before he died, and upon being asked by a medical attendant a few days ago if he needed anything, he replied, “Only the end of the Zionist occupation of Palestine.”

I recalled the morning of 4^th of July, Zeinab, the nurse on duty at the blood donor’s clinic at Bahman Hospital, a block from my home in Haret Hreik, had just instructed this observer to remain sitting for five minutes and to drink the juice she gave me before I returned to south Beirut’s blazing sun.

A companion and I had each just donated a pint of blood in response to an appeal from friends who worked in the Translation Office of Lebanon’s much loved Fadlallah. He had been hospitalized for the past 12 days but on Friday his stomach bleeding had increased dramatically, related to complications from a liver problem he had been treated for over the past several years. Sayeed Fadallah also suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure.

As we waited, Zeinab returned, tears in her eyes, and simply said, “The Sayeed has passed away.” And she disappeared. So did my Shia hijabed companion, and as it seemed, everyone from the floor.

I decided to walk down the stairs to the main level and could hear sobs from hospital staff on each floor, now seemingly darkened with each level eerier than the preceding one as I descended.

As I left the main entrance of Bahman hospital, I was thinking about some of the more than a dozen meetings I had the honor to attend with Grand Ayatolah Fadlallah and some of his staff over the past three years. Such as those who regularly visited him from the Washington DC based Council for the National Interest and one visit that I had arranged for former President Jimmy Carter.

Suddenly there was movement for two blocks in front and along the side streets adjacent to Bahman, a state of the art and science Hospital operated by Fadlallah’s Al Marbarrat Charity. This hospital was among hundreds of civil buildings in Haret Hreik and South Beirut, that Israel had bombed in July of 2006. The Fadlallah home was also reduced to rubble.

“How did these guys get here so fast” I wondered, for it was only minutes since the Majaa (religious guide) to millions in the Middle East had died. Some security units, dressed in black shirts, caps and trousers, walkie talkies in their left hands, others in civilian clothes, quickly placed traffic barriers in the area. They politely asked that all vehicles including motorcycles be relocated a least two blocks away.

Some, from their appearance, obviously war toughened fighters, wept and consoled men and women who began arriving at the hospital to pay their respects, first in two and three’s and then streams.

The loudspeakers from the Hassanaya Mosque, where every Friday Fadlallah for the past nearly 20 years, delivered sermons to tens of thousands of faithful, Muslim and Christian alike, began broadcasting religious music and Koranic verses to our shocked and grief stricken neighborhood. During the night of the 27^th day of Ramadan, known as Laylat al-Kadr, (according to the Al Kadar Sura in the Koran, this is the day that the Angel Gabriel came down from heaven and the beginning of the revelation of the Koran) more than 50,000 filled Fadlallah’s Mosque and surrounding streets.

“The father, the leader, the marjaa, the guide, the human being is gone. “Sayyed Fadlallah has died this morning,” senior aide Ayatollah Abdullah al-Ghurayfi told a hastily called news conference, at the hospital, joined by the late cleric’s sons, Sayyed Ali Fadlallah and Jaafar, who, like nearly everyone else in attendance, could not hold back tears.

The sweltering evening of July 5^th, an American delegation was given by his family and Hezbollah security the rare honor of viewing the body of Lebanon’s senior Shia cleric inside his Mosque near where he would be buried at 1:30 p.m. the following afternoon. The group met a wide spectrum of Lebanon’s political and resistance leadership but were not joined by anyone from the US Embassy since their government will boycott Lebanon’s national day of mourning and the burial of this Washington branded “Terrorist.”

James Carter meets M.H. Fadallah Photos:
“fplamb for the Sabra-Shatila Foundation”

It was in 1995, that then President Bill Clinton, at the urging of AIPAC and facing a re-election campaign, so designated him. Former President Carter promised during a visit in June of 2009 that he would contact President Obama immediately about this travesty but was unable to have his name removed before the Sayeed’s death.

The American delegation paying their respects included residents of New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, California, Hawaii and Oregon, a Catholic Priest and two nuns, some of whom were in Beirut as participants in the delayed Lebanon flotilla to help break the siege of Gaza. They felt they were the true representatives of their country, not their Embassy, thought by some to be in Lebanon to promote Israel’s agenda, not American interests.

Ever misleading the public with respect to the Middle East, the main stream western media began a thousand reports with the words, ““A fiery anti-American critic died.” It is nonsense of course. Fadallah was very pro-American in the sense that he often extolled the founding American principles and his relationship with the American people was valued by both. Barely two weeks before his death he left his sick bed to meet with a group of Americans from Washington DC, against the advice of his Doctors, and he urged them to work to preserve the founding principles on which their country was founded and to encourage dialogue between Muslims, Christians and Jews and to end the occupations of this region.

Like the rapidly growing number of American critics of US policy in the Middle East, many of his Fadlallah’s Friday prayer sermons denounced arming and supporting serial Israelis aggressions.

For more than 50 years, he worked at “modernizing” the Shari’a and rendering it accessible to modern day youth, addressing their concerns, expectations and fears in a fast-changing world. He was truly the Mufti of the youth and of women, their guide who never oppressed their dreams and always simplified rulings. He was available for questions regarding the most taboo of social and political subjects. He was also the enemy of stalemate and a rejecter of tradition in its inflexible sense. He insisted on subjecting all ideas to discussions, debates and reassessments and was much more interested in human beings than doctrines.

His followers revered him for his moderate social views, openness and pragmatism. Fadlallah issued religious edicts forbidding female circumcision, condemning domestic violence-even allowing women to wear cosmetics and finger nail polish which some clerics opposed, and insisting that women could physically resist abusive husbands. He strongly supported female-male equality. He rejected the blood-letting at Ashoura events and like Hezbollah encouraged his followers to donate blood to the Red Crescent Society instead of cutting themselves. He also opposed the call to “jihad,” or holy war, by Osama bin Laden and cruised the Afghan Taliban, which he viewed as a sect outside Islam and he was among the first to condemn the 9/11 attacks. Fadlallah opposed ‘suicide attacks” but distinguished the right of an individual to sacrifice himself as a weapon during asymmetrical warfare by aggressors.

Fadlallah supported the Islamic revolution in Shiite Iran, and advocated armed resistance to Israel. In 2009, again during a meeting with Americans, including Jews, Fadlallah, whose family came from the southern Lebanese village of Ainata, reiterated his call for a Muslim-Jewish dialogue as part of interfaith efforts aimed at bridging the gap among various religious, rejecting any offense against Jews or Christians in any Arab or Muslim country. But he emphasized to the delegation the importance of a Muslim-Jewish dialogue away from Zionist influence, stressing that Jews need to be freed from the cycle of world Zionism and Israel should be confronted because of its occupation of Arab lands.

He welcomed the election of Barack Obama in the US, telling the Wall Street Journal in 2009 that“some of Obama’s statements show that he believes in the method of dialogue”.He added: We don’t have a problem with any American president, but our problem is with his policy that might affect our strategic interest.” He later told visitors of his disappointment at President Obama’s Middle East policy, accusing him of being “under pressure” from Israeli supporters and “not a man who has a plan for peace”.

Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah had a widespread reputation for piety and scholarship through his teaching and the more than 40 books and treatises he wrote. He established religious schools and foundations, clinics and libraries as part of the charitable Al Marrarat Foundation

In summary, Mohammad Hussein Fadallah was too moderate, progressive and too effective a spokesman advocating for the deprived to be tolerated by the US administration and Israel. Both required more stereotypical radical Muslim clerics to smear the region. The Mossad is believed to have targeted him more than half a dozen times including during the July 2006 Israeli attack.

A generation was inspired by Sayeed Fadallah and listened to him and studied his voluminous writings. Two generations feel the emptiness of his passing away.

Mohammad Hussein Fadallah was a rare man of an angel’s wit, mirth and singular learning. A marvelous man of gentleness, lowliness and affability. Sometimes when defending the rights of Muslims,Christians, Jews and all people of faith or non-believers of good will, his countenance was changed by a sad gravity and his smiling eyes darkened. For to his core, Grand Ayatollah Fadlallah believed in the right and responsibility to resist injustice and occupation.

He was a man for all seasons whose conscience and piety would not allow him to be idle as long as the poor and downtrodden remained dispossessed and voiceless or his beloved Lebanon and Palestine was occupied. For this, and for no other reason he was placed and kept on the US Political Terrorism list as a Specially Designated Terrorist (SDT) in the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control and his American charitable assets confiscated.

Like Thomas More, Fadlallah rejected offered inducements and bribes including T list removal from Washington if he followed the Kings wishes and stop support to the Lebanese National resistance. He wore his nonsensical Terrorist label as a badge of honor as his daily good works mocked and marked the list keepers with shame and cowardice for squandering American founding principles and for funding, arming and providing diplomatic cover to the Zionist colonial project that stole Palestine.

Each month since Sayed Fadlallah’s passing brings deeper understanding about the greatness of this public servant and the value of his achievements. Following Arbeen, the Muslim 40 day period of mourning for the departed, I visited with two of Fadallah’s close associates who wondered whether the future without his leadership would lead to his social service agency, the Mabarrat, having to cut back on its 30 schools, medical facilities, and social service agencies. They were worried that with his parting, his life’s work might become diminished and growing demands in the community could not be met.

This morning I was advised by a key aide of the late Ayatollah Fadlallah that the Marbarrat, thanks to Fadlallah’s administrative skill, planning and foresight is strong, expanding and will long serve our community.

May Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah forever rest in Peace.

Franklin Lamb is doing research in Lebanon. He is reachable c\o fplamb@gmail.com

He is the author of The Price We Pay: A Quarter-Century of Israel’s Use of American Weapons Against Civilians in Lebanon.
He contribute to Uprooted Palestinians Blog

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• Franklin Lamb's Tribute to Ayatollah Fadlullah

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian  
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

How Free Is The West's "Free" Media?

Via Free Thought Manifesto

"Any criticism of Israel is immediately denounced as anti-semitism....So, we have established two rules of western journalism: it is open season on Muslims and Islam, and criticism of Israel is forbidden."

By Zafar Bangash
(Saturday, August 7, 2010)
Courtesy Of "Media Monitors"

Hardly a day passes by without Muslims being told to grow up and accept western standards of freedom of expression and thought. Some western commentators have gone so far as to claim that they have the “right” to offend — Muslims, that is. Thus, the Danish cartoonist has the right to depict the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in the most vile manner; western newspapers have the right to publish these cartoons and Muslims must learn to live with the West’s freedom of speech. It is a cherished right of journalists and people in the west, we are told. So not only denouncing but also offending Muslims is a right in the west.

The same right, however, does not extend to those criticizing the crimes perpetrated by the Zionist State. Any criticism of Israel is immediately denounced as anti-semitism. In June, Helen Thomas, the 89-year old veteran journalist, the bane of 10 US presidents and their press secretaries, was fired from her job because she made an off-the-cuff remark to a rabbi telling him: “the Jews must get the hell out of Palestine.” True, Ms. Thomas’s choice of words was unfortunate; not all Jews are Zionists but rabbi David Nesenoff’s underhanded method of recording her comment and uploading it to his website, rabbilive.com, was equally contemptible. The Zionists and their rightwing allies went ballistic. Ms. Thomas had to go. She was fired from her job after an illustrious 62-year career in journalism.

So, we have established two rules of western journalism: it is open season on Muslims and Islam, and criticism of Israel is forbidden.

In July, we learned another rule: you cannot praise a Muslim leader/scholar or you will lose your job. Following the death of Shaykh Seyyed Fadhlallah in Lebanon on July 4, Octavia Nasr, senior editor of CNN’s Middle East affairs, wrote on her twitter: “Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah… One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot.” Again, the Zionists and their allies went ballistic. They inundated CNN with complaints.

Did CNN stand up for freedom of expression that it and so many others had proclaimed so loudly over the offensive Danish cartoons? Nasr, a Lebanese Christian, had to go. The dirty job of firing her was assigned to one Parisa Khosravi, Senior Vice President of CNN International Newsgathering. Of Iranian origin, Khosravi was recruited precisely because she would carry out the orders given to her. She would not dare fire a reporter spouting venom against Islam, Muslims or the Islamic Republic. In an internal memo, Khosravi wrote: “I had a conversation with Octavia this morning and I want to share with you that we have decided that she will be leaving the company” after 20 years of service. So there!

An almost identical salvo of missiles was fired at Frances Guy, Britain’s ambassador to Lebanon, for writing about Shaykh Fadhlallah on her blog: “When you visited him you could be sure of a real debate, a respectful argument and you knew you would leave his presence feeling a better person.” Immediately, the internet went viral and an Inquisition was launched against her with the Israeli Foreign Ministry leading the diplomatic charge with its spokesman saying, it would be “interesting” to know what the British Foreign Office thinks of her remarks. Ambassador Guy was forced to remove the comments from her blog but the veteran British journalist Robert Fisk was so irked by the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s comment that he wrote in his own column: “Personally, I would be far more ‘interested’ in what the Israeli Foreign Ministry knows of the British passports its government forged in order to murder a man in Dubai not many months ago” (The Independent, July 10, 2010).

So now we have the third commandment of the West’s “free” media: though shalt not praise a Muslim leader, ever.

We are forced to ask: where are all those chest thumping “defenders of the freedom of the press” who told the almost two billion Muslims not so long ago to grow up and appreciate the West’s cherished freedom of expression?

Posted by CavalierZee at 8:00 PM  

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Fadlallah and the Western media's dangerous complicity

Matthew Cassel, The Electronic Intifada,

Hundreds of thousands took to the streets of Beirut's southern suburbs to mourn the death of Ayatollah Fadlallah. (Matthew Cassel)

There is a lot to say about Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the Lebanese Shia Muslim cleric who passed away on 4 July 2010 at the age of 75. Unfortunately, much of what there is to say is being left unsaid for more of the same sensationalist reporting on this region and its people.

Fadlallah was a progressive Shia cleric, known for his defense of armed resistance and women's rights. He was outspoken against Israel's 22 year occupation of south Lebanon and cheered attacks against it. In 1985 the CIA is thought to have been behind a massive car bomb that attempted to take his life -- it missed the Ayatollah killing 80 other Lebanese civilians and injured hundreds more. However, his support for resistance didn't end with the Israeli invaders; Ayatollah Fadlallah also said that women have the right to use violence to resist domestic abuse.

The day after his death, Nasawiya, a feminist collective in Lebanon, wrote a post on Facebook telling Fadlallah: "Your feminist voice will be missed." The post linked to an obituary by journalist Zeinab Yaghi writing in Arabic for the Lebanese daily As-Safir where she wrote of Fadlallah: "Women used to see him as a father" and that he "encouraged women to work."

He was a leader for many Shia Muslims in Lebanon and elsewhere around the world. In Lebanon, a country divided along strict sectarian lines, he was a truly unique religious figure for the respect that he garnered from people of other faiths and the secular alike.

Most headlines in English-language media outlets have wrongly linked Fadlallah to Hizballah, the Shia Islamic resistance and political group in Lebanon. It is said that Fadlallah influenced some of Hizballah's founders along with numerous other young Shias in the years leading up to and during Hizballah's formation in the early 1980s.

But in Lebanon it is widely known that, despite their mutual respect for each other, Fadlallah and Hizballah did not work together and even disagreed on many issues. Some of these fundamental differences stem from Hizballah's close relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran, whereas Fadlallah had long opposed the Ayatollah Khomeini-inspired clerical leadership of the country after its 1979 revolution.
This intentional mistake of linking Fadlallah to Hizballah should come as little surprise from a media that too often chooses sensationalism over accuracy when covering Lebanon and the region. As a journalist and photographer working in Lebanon, I know that European and US media are rarely interested in political or religious topics when the focus is not Hizballah. Ayatollah Fadlallah's importance had little to do with Hizballah, and that was clear on 6 July 2010 when hundreds of thousands took to the streets to mourn his death.

Breaking from this sensationalist coverage was a blog post on the British government's website by Frances Guy, the British ambassador in Lebanon (whose positions I've criticized in the past), which contained the following:

"The world needs more men like [Fadlallah] willing to reach out across faiths, acknowledging the reality of the modern world and daring to confront old constraints. May he rest in peace. "

It was a very kind tribute to a religious leader based on Guy's experience learning about Fadlallah and meeting him in Beirut. She even succeeded in not mentioning "Hizballah" once. I would happily link to the post had it not been removed "after mature consideration" by the UK Foreign Office who thought that Guy was being a bit too laudatory of a person who died under the "Hizballah leader" headlines. (Fortunately, what goes on the web stays on the web and you can find her post cached here.) Guy later wrote a new post expressing regret for ever writing the tribute:

"I have no truck with terrorism wherever it is committed in whoever's name. The British Government has been clear that it condemns terrorist activity carried out by Hizballah. I share that view."

Similar to Guy, Octavia Nasr, CNN's senior editor of Mideast affairs, also offered her admiration for Fadlallah after his death over the social networking site Twitter:

"Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah.. One of Hizballah's giants I respect a lot."

Nasr, a Lebanese-American journalist who has worked with CNN for 20 years, later wrote an article regretting her tweet which was then removed; in her article she was sure to remind us which side she is on, using the words "terror" or terrorist" five times. I've followed her work with CNN and know that her reporting would hardly upset anyone in any recent US administration. Yet the one time she does, she loses her job as a result.

These blatant acts of censorship by western governments and media prove that showing an accurate or nuanced picture of the Middle East is not high on their agendas. After all, an accurate picture would show that western-waged and backed wars in this region are far from just, and therefore it's easy to understand how resistance to them is widely supported. Not only did Fadlallah support resistance, but he also challenged the stereotype many have in the west of Islam as a religion intolerant of women's rights.

Fadlallah was a leader that anyone even slightly familiar with this region could easily respect. The censored coverage of his passing in the west proves the complicity of our media with our government's deadly and oppressive policies in the Middle East.

Matthew Cassel is based in Beirut, Lebanon and is Assistant Editor of The Electronic Intifada. His website is http://justimage.org.

Robert Fisk: CNN Was Wrong About Ayatollah Fadlallah

Robert Fisk:

11/07/2010 The Independent
Saturday, 10 July 2010

Al-Manar.com.lb is not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.

I might have guessed it. CNN has fired one of its senior Middle East editors, Octavia Nasr, for publishing a twitter – or twatter in this case, I suppose – extolling Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah of Lebanon, calling him "one of Hizbollah's giants whom I respect a lot".

Well, he wasn't Hizbollah's man, but no matter. He was definitely a giant. A man of immense learning and jurisprudence, a believer in women's rights, a hater of "honour crimes", a critic of the theocratic system of government in Iran, a ... Well, I'd better be careful because I might get a phone call from Parisa Khosravi, who goes by the title of CNN's "senior vice president" – what these boss types do or what they get paid for their gutless decisions I have no idea – who said this week that she had "had a conversation" with Nasr (who'd been with the company for 20 years) and "we have decided that she will be leaving the company".

Oh deary, deary. Poor old CNN goes on getting more cowardly by the hour. That's why no one cares about it any more. That can't be said about Fadlallah. The Americans put it about that he had blessed the suicide bomber who struck the US marine base in Beirut in 1983, killing 241 service personnel. Fadlallah always denied this to me and I believe him. Suicide bombers, however insane we regard them, don't need to be blessed; they think they are doing God's duty without any help from a marja like Fadlallah. But anyway, Washington used Saudi money to arrange a car bombing to assassinate Fadlallah in 1985. It missed Fadlallah. But it killed more than 80 innocent people. I do wonder what Ms Khosravi would have thought of that. No comment, I guess.

And now it turns out that the British ambassador to Lebanon, Frances Guy, has written on her personal blog that Fadlallah was a man she respected and most enjoyed meeting in Lebanon. What possesses these personalities to have blogapops all over the place I have no idea. But Ms Guy has incurred the anger of the Israeli foreign ministry, whose spokesman says it would be "interesting" to know what the British Foreign Office thinks of her remarks. Personally, I would be far more "interested" in what the Israeli foreign ministry knows of the British passports its government forged in order to murder a man in Dubai not many months ago.

But it just goes to show that Fadlallah – who was also a poet – can get people's backs up, even in death. When my friend and colleague Terry Anderson was kidnapped in Beirut – at almost seven years underground, he qualified as the longest-held hostage – I went to see Fadlallah, whom Anderson had himself recently interviewed. "He was in my home and he was under my protection," he said to me. "I regard him as my friend."

This remark might have been what kept Terry alive: by extraordinary chance, Terry was back in Beirut this week with a party of students, although I always wondered if his visit to the southern suburbs of the city was what got him nobbled.

In those days, we journos called Fadlallah Hizbollah's "spiritual mentor", though that wasn't true. He did support the Lebanese resistance during Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and he was a fierce opponent of US policy in the region – like almost everyone else in the world, including the US, it seems – and he demanded an end of Shia blood-shedding ceremonies at Ashura (when Shias mourn the killing of the Prophet's grandson).

I went to see Fadlallah again with kidnapping much on my mind. I was heading off to Baghdad and sought his guidance on how to avoid being abducted. He listened kindly to me and announced that I should see a close Shia Muslim religious friend of his in the Iraqi capital. This I did. And was escorted to Najaf and Karbala by an associate of the friend who sat in his religious clothes in the front of the car, reading the Koran all the way. "I was very worried for you," Fadlallah's friend said when I returned. So now you tell me, I exclaimed.

But there was a further reason for Fadlallah's help. For every hour I was in the Iraqi holy cities, I had to meet a Shia clergyman, each of them former students of Fadlallah. And each of them would hand me a vast pile of writings and documents – their accumulated sermons over the past 10 or 15 years. To each I promised to pass their papers to Fadlallah. And thus it was that, a month later, a suspicious-looking Fisk turned up in the southern suburbs of Beirut with two massive suitcases. Fadlallah greeted me with a huge smile. He knew what the bags contained. Fisk had been a courier for more jurisprudence than he could imagine. And Fadlallah knew what his colleagues in Najaf and Karbala were talking about.

I couldn't, frankly, care less what senior vice president Khosravi of CNN thinks of this story – though spare me one of her "conversations" – nor do I care what the Israeli foreign ministry thinks. Nor British ambassadors, for that matter. But I do believe that Fadlallah was a very serious and very important man whose constant sermons on the need for spiritual regeneration and kindness did more good than most in a country constantly flooded in a rhetoric bath. Hundreds of thousands attended his funeral in Beirut on Tuesday. I am not surprised.

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'Al Faqih' Dawood Schenker: "Trouble in Lebanon"

Via Friday-Lunch-Club

'Sheikh Afif al Nabulsi'

For Washington, the death this week of Lebanon's most prominent and respected Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, was a bittersweet moment.

In 1983, Fadlallah, a vocal proponent of suicide bombings, .... Yet his death now paves the way for a more militant, Iranian-influenced strain of Islamic ideology to gain ground in Lebanon.

Fadlallah represented the most credible moral, political, and theological alternative to Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite militia......

To Hezbollah, the departure of Fadlallah is an opportunity to co-opt local Shiites -- traditionally aligned with quietist Iraqi religious leaders -- to the more militant ideology espoused by Iran's supreme leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The effort to shift the orientation of the community will take time, but should Hezbollah succeed, it will strengthen Tehran and further erode Washington's influence in the region. (Schenker must be under the illusion that Lebanon's Shia's were equally divided between those supporting Hezbollah and the 6 or 7 who supported Ahmad al Assad, Uqab saqr & Ghazi Youssef!)

Fadlallah was a marja, the most senior rank in the Shiite clerical hierarchy. ......With Fadlallah gone, and Sistani nearly 81, Iran and Hezbollah hope to nudge Lebanon's Shiites toward Tehran and Khamenei.

But this is a long term project. In the short term, Hezbollah seems poised to elevate a sympathetic local cleric to fill the vacuum. Sheikh Afif Nabulsi, a former student of Fadlallah who was among the founders of Hezbollah, is a leading contender in this scenario. Not only does Mr. Nabulsi have close ties to Tehran, he recently visited Damascus where he was feted by top Syrian intelligence official Muhammed Nassif. ......has also already demonstrated his bona fides to Hezbollah. ...... But even if no local marja emerges, in the absence of Fadlallah, Hezbollah and its Iranian patrons will benefit. Without a spiritual guide, religious Lebanese Shiites will choose between Sistani and Khamenei. And with Hezbollah as Khamenei's local campaign manager, it is all but assured that Tehran will strengthen its foothold in Lebanon.

Perhaps an Iranian takeover of Lebanese Shiite religious institutions was inevitable....... Since 2003, Iran has been cultivating Moqtada al-Sadr in Iraq, and when the octogenarian Sistani passes from the scene, it is all but assured that Tehran will try to install Sadr in his stead. ..... How ironic, though, that Fadlallah -- a man who Washington labeled a terrorist in 1995 -- stood as the last bulwark against near total Iranian hegemony in Lebanon.

Posted by G, Z, or B at 12:04 PM

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UK Bows to Israel Pressure, Takes Down Ambassador's Obituary to Sayyed Fadlullah

Al-Manar

10/07/2010 After the cases of CNN anchorwoman Octavia Nasr and veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas had made headlines, it was now the turn of Frances Guy, Britain's ambassador to Lebanon, to lose her right to voicing out a personal opinion.

While Nasr was sacked for having expressed her admiration for the late Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlullah on her personal blog and Thomas for having called on Jews in the world to stop colonizing Palestine, the British ambassador in Beirut aroused anger in Tel Aviv for having commemorated the renowned Sayyed Fadlullah as a decent man.

In an obituary she also wrote on her personal blog, Frances Guy wrote that she left the presence of Sayyed Fadlullah, who died Sunday, feeling a better person. "Lebanon is a lesser place the day after, but his absence will be felt well beyond Lebanon's shores," she said. "The world needs more men like him, willing to reach out across faiths."

In a statement Friday, Britain's foreign office said the ambassador "expressed a personal view" on Sayyed Fadlullah and did not reflect an official government position. The blog, it said, was taken down.

"While we welcomed his progressive views on women's rights and interfaith dialogue, we also had profound disagreements - especially over his statements advocating attacks on Israel," the statement said.

Guy, who has been British ambassador to Lebanon since 2006, explained her views in a new blog posted Friday. "The problem with diplomatic blogging is that you risk being anodyne or controversial," she wrote. "Clearly in the last few days I have been the latter. This was not my intent. My comments on the late Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlullah have now been removed because they were leading to confusion about British policy.”

"I would like to be clear. I have no truck with terrorism wherever it is committed in whoever's name. The British government has been clear that it condemns terrorist activity carried out by Hezbollah. I share that view."

Guy said Friday that she understood her words had offended people. "The blog was my personal attempt to offer some reflections of a figure who, while controversial, was also highly influential in Lebanon's history and who offered spiritual guidance to many Muslims in need," she wrote.

"I recognize that some of my words have upset people. This was certainly not my intention. I am sorry that an attempt to acknowledge the spiritual significance to many of Sheikh Fadlullah and the views that he held in the latter part of his life, has served only to further entrench divisions in this complex part of the world."


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Britain's Ambassador Takes down Obituary to Sayyed Fadlullah after Criticism

Guy in a meeting with Late Sayyed Fadlullah,/ Archives

09/07/2010

After she sparked anger in Israel by praising the late Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlullah, Britain's Ambassador to Lebanon Frances Guy has taken down an obituary entitled "The Passing of Decent Men" from her internet blog.

The British Foreign office said on Friday the article was removed. "After mature consideration, we took the blog down."

Earlier late Thursday, a Foreign Office spokesman said that "the ambassador expressed a personal view on Shiekh Sayyid Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah describing the man as she knew him."

"We welcomed his progressive views on women's rights and interfaith dialogue but there were also areas where we had profound disagreements, especially over his statements advocating attacks on Israel."

In her obituary Guy described Fadlullah as the politician in Lebanon she enjoyed meeting most.
"When you visited him you could be sure of a real debate, a respectful argument and you knew you would leave his presence feeling a better person," she wrote.

"That for me is the real effect of a true man of religion; leaving an impact on everyone he meets, no matter what their faith."

"Sheikh Fadlullah passed away yesterday. Lebanon is a lesser place the day after but his absence will be felt well beyond Lebanon's shores."

"The world needs more men like him willing to reach out across faiths, acknowledging the reality of the modern world and daring to confront old constraints. May he rest in peace!"

The Israeli government said it was astounded that an official representative of the British government had not remembered the devastation caused by fighters loyal to Fadlullah.

Israel's foreign ministry spokesman denounced the ambassador's comments.

"Fadlullah was an inspiration to the hostage takers, suicide bombers and warmongers of Hezbollah," Yigal Palmor said. "But the British ambassador thinks he was a man of peace and the world needs more of him, and the British ambassador is an honorable woman."

In London Foreign policy experts said Guy's comments showed blatant disregard for the Foreign Office's traditional allies in the Middle East.

"It is very surprising that a representative of HMG would take such a controversial stance. Hizbollah, to put it mildly, is not on the side of the British government's interests or values in that part of the world," Alan Mendoza, of the London think-tank, the Henry Jackson society, said.

"We know from experience that interventions like this only embolden Hezbollah," Mendoza added.
HMG refers to "Her Majesty's Government", a formal title for the Government of the UK.

Grand Ayatollah Fadlullah died Sunday after a long illness and many people and figures from Lebanon and all over the Arab and Muslim world took part in his funeral on Tuesday.

In America a CNN Senior Editor for Middle East Affairs Octaivia Nasr lost her job on Wednesday after she expressed her sadness for the death of the Late Sayyed Fadlullah by posting a simple note on Twitter.

In her note, Nasr said: "Sad to hear of the passing of Sayed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah..One of Hezbollah's giants I respect a lot…"

Nasr later apologized for her tweet, but CNN's senior vice president for international newsgathering, Parisa Khosravi, said Wednesday that Nasr's credibility had been compromised.

Lebanon ambassador sparks anger over blog

By Andrew Woodcock, Press Association

Friday, 9 July 2010

Britain's ambassador to Lebanon has sparked anger in Israel by praising a man regarded by many as the spiritual mentor of Hezbollah, it emerged today.

An obituary to Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah - entitled "The Passing of Decent Men" - has been taken down from ambassador Frances Guy's internet blog after attracting criticism.

The Foreign Office today said the article was removed "after mature consideration".

Fadlallah, who died last week, was regarded as a key figure in the founding of Hezbollah in 1982, but both he and the militant group denied he was its spiritual leader.

He was revered as one of Shia Islam's highest religious authorities and won support from many Muslims for his anti-American stance and his support for the Islamic revolution in Iran. But he condemned the 9/11 terror attacks and had relatively progressive views on the role of women in society.

Hezbollah's military wing is proscribed in the UK as a terrorist organisation. It is thought to have been behind a spate of suicide bomb attacks on US forces and kidnappings of Westerners including Terry Waite and John McCarthy in the 1980s, though it has denied involvement.

More recently it has become a powerful political and military force in Lebanon and was at the centre of a war with Israel in 2006 after kidnapping and killing Israeli troops.

Ms Guy's obituary described Fadlallah as the politician in Lebanon she enjoyed meeting most.

"When you visited him you could be sure of a real debate, a respectful argument and you knew you would leave his presence feeling a better person," she wrote. "That for me is the real effect of a true man of religion; leaving an impact on everyone he meets, no matter what their faith.

"Sheikh Fadlallah passed away yesterday. Lebanon is a lesser place the day after but his absence will be felt well beyond Lebanon's shores.

"The world needs more men like him willing to reach out across faiths, acknowledging the reality of the modern world and daring to confront old constraints. May he rest in peace."

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor was quoted in the Jerusalem Post as saying: "Sheikh Fadlallah was behind hostage-taking, suicide bombings and other sorts of wanton violence, but Ambassador Guy said he was a man of peace, and Ambassador Guy is an honourable woman."

A Foreign Office spokesman in London today said: "After mature consideration, we took the blog down."
* blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/guy/

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Franklin Lamb's Tribute to Ayatollah Fadlullah

Franklin Lamb's Tribute to Ayatollah Fadlullah

Al-Manar.com.lb is not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.


Mohamad Hussein Fadlullah

(11/16/1935—7/4/2010)

by Franklin Lamb

"Throughout my life, I have always supported the human being in his humanism and I have supported the oppressed. I think it is the person's right to live his freedom and it is her and his right to face the injustice imposed on each by revolting against it, using his practical, realistic and available means to end the oppressor's injustice toward him, whether it is an individual, a community, a nation, or a state; whether male or female."

Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, perhaps sensing his imminent death, during his last dialogue with the Washington DC based, Council for the National Interest at his home on June 2, 2010

Today, his family and hundreds of thousands in his community buried Lebanon's senior Shia cleric, Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah in South Beirut. May he forever rest in peace.

His passing shocked and saddened the region and the loss of his advocacy of dialogue, respect and unity among all religions is incalculable. His support for the current campaign to obtain civil rights for Lebanon's Palestinian refugees will make that struggle more difficult. Justice for Palestine and ending the Zionist occupation was part of his unwavering lifelong work.

Some media outlets, reported that shortly before he died, and upon being asked by a medical attendant a few days ago if he needed anything, he replied, " Only the end of the Zionist occupation of Palestine."

On the morning of 4^th of July, Zeinab, the nurse on duty at the blood donor's clinic at Bahman Hospital, a block from my former home in Haret Hreik, had just instructed this observer to remain sitting for five minutes and to drink the juice she gave me before I returned to south Beirut's blazing sun.

A companion and I had each just donated a pint of blood in response to an appeal from friends who worked in the Translation Office of Lebanon's much loved senior Shia cleric, Sayeed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah. He had been hospitalized for the past 12 days but on Friday his stomach bleeding had increased dramatically, related to complications from a liver problem he had been treated for over the past several years. Sayeed Fadallah also suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure.

As we waited, Zeinab returned, tears in her eyes, and simply said, "The Sayeed has passed away." And she disappeared. So did my Shia hijabed companion, and as it seemed, everyone from the floor.

I decided to walk down the stairs to the main level and could hear sobs from hospital staff on each floor, now seemingly darkened with each level eerier than the preceding one as I descended.

As I left the main entrance of the hospital, a bit numbed I was thinking about some of the more than a dozen meetings I had the honor to attend with Grand Ayatolah Fadlallah and some of his staff over the past three years. Such as those who regularly visited him from the Washington DC based Council for the National Interest (cnionline.org), and one that I had arranged for former President Jimmy Carter.

Suddenly there was movement for two blocks in front and along the side streets adjacent to Bahman, a state of the art and science Hospital operated by Fadallah's Al Mabarrat Charity. This hospital was among hundreds of civil buildings in Haret Hreik and South Beirut, that Israel had bombed in July of 2006.

"How did these guys get here so fast" I wondered, for it was only minutes since the Majaa ( religious guide) to millions in the Middle East had died. Some security units, dressed in black shirts, caps and trousers, walkie talkies in their left hands, others in civilian clothes, quickly placed traffic barriers in the area. They politely asked that all vehicles including motorcycles be relocated a least two blocks away.

Some, from their appearance, obviously war toughened fighters, wept and consoled men and women who began arriving at the hospital to pay their respects, first in two and three's and then streams.

The loudspeakers from the Hassanayn Mosque, where every Friday Fadlallah for the past nearly 20 years, delivered sermons to tens of thousands of faithful, Muslim and Christian alike, began broadcasting religious music and Koranic verses to our shocked and grief stricken neighborhood. During the night of the 27^th day of Ramadan, known as Laylat al-Kadr, (according to the Al Kadar Sura in the Koran, this is the day that the Angel Gabriel came down from heaven and the beginning of the revelation of the Koran) more than 50,000 filled Fadlallah's Mosque and surrounding streets.

"The father, the leader, the marjaa, the guide, the human being is gone. "Sayyed Fadlallah has died this morning," senior aide Ayatollah Abdullah al-Ghurayfi told a hastily called news conference, at the hospital, joined by the late cleric's sons, Sayeed Ali Fadlallah and Jaafar, who, like nearly everyone else in attendance, could not hold back tears.

The sweltering evening of July 5^th, an American delegation was given by his family and Hezbollah security the rare honor of viewing the body of Lebanon's senior Shia cleric inside his Mosque near where he would be buried at 1:30 p.m. the following afternoon. The group met a wide spectrum of Lebanon's political and resistance leadership but were not joined by anyone from the US Embassy since their government will boycott Lebanon's national day of mourning and the burial of this Washington branded "Terrorist." It was in 1995, that then President Bill Clinton, at the urging of AIPAC and facing a re-election campaign, so designated him. Former President Carter promised during a visit in June of 2009 that he would contact President Obama immediately about this travesty but was unable to have his named removed before the Sayeed's death.

The American delegation paying their respects included residents of New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, California, Hawaii and Oregon, a Catholic Priest and two nuns, some of whom were in Beirut as participants in the delayed Lebanon flotilla to help break the siege of Gaza. They felt they were the true representatives of their country, not their Embassy, thought by some to be in Lebanon to promote Israel's agenda, not American interests.

Ever misleading the public with respect to the Middle East, the main stream western media began a thousand reports with the words, ""A fiery anti-American critic died." It is nonsense of course. Fadallah was very pro-American in the sense that he often extolled the founding American principles and his relationship with the American people was valued by both. Barely two weeks before his death he left his sick bed to meet with a group of Americans from Washington DC, against the advice of his Doctors, and he urged them to work to preserve the founding principles on which their country was founded and to encourage dialogue between Muslims, Christians and Jews and to end the occupations of this region.

Like the rapidly growing number of American critics of US policy in the Middle East, many of his Fadlallah's Friday prayer sermons denounced arming and supporting serial Israelis aggressions.

For more than 50 years, he worked at "modernizing" the Shari'a and rendering it accessible to modern day youth, addressing their concerns, expectations and fears in a fast-changing world. He was truly the Mufti of the youth and of women, their guide who never oppressed their dreams and always simplified rulings. He was available for questions regarding the most taboo of social and political subjects. He was also the enemy of stalemate and a rejecter of tradition in its inflexible sense. He insisted on subjecting all ideas to discussions, debates and reassessments and was much more interested in human beings than doctrines.

As the Beirt Daily An-Nahar, editorized this morning, "Sayyed Fadlallah is a unique guide who will be missed by Lebanon and the Arab and Islamic worlds. A long time will pass by before we see the surfacing of someone so tolerant and open-minded who has so much faith in mankind and a wish to cooperate with all the attempts and efforts deployed during the days of friction with all the forces and elites."

His followers revered him for his moderate social views, openness and pragmatism. Fadlallah issued religious edicts forbidding female circumcision, condemning domestic violence-even allowing women to wear cosmetics and finger nail polish which some clerics opposed, and insisting that women could physically resist abusive husbands. He strongly supported female-male equality. He rejected the blood-letting at Ashoura events and like Hezbollah encouraged his followers to donate blood to the Red Crescent Society instead of cutting themselves. He also opposed the call to "jihad," or holy war, by Osama bin Laden and cruised the Afghan Taliban, which he viewed as a sect outside Islam and he was among the first to condemn the 9/11 attacks. Fadlallah opposed 'suicide attacks" but distinguished the right of an individual to sacrifice himself as a weapon during asymmetrical warfare by aggressors.

Fadallah supported the Islamic revolution in Shiite Iran, and advocated armed resistance to Israel.

In 2009, again during a meeting with Americans, including Jews, Fadlallah, whose family came from the southern Lebanese village of Ainata, reiterated his call for a Muslim-Jewish dialogue as part of interfaith efforts aimed at bridging the gap among various religious, rejecting any offense against Jews or Christians in any Arab or Muslim country. But he emphasized to the delegation the importance of a Muslim-Jewish dialogue away from Zionist influence, stressing that Jews need to be freed from the cycle of world Zionism and Israel should be confronted because of its occupation of Arab lands.

He welcomed the election of Barack Obama in the US, telling the Wall Street Journal in 2009 that "some of Obama's statements show that he believes in the method of dialogue". He added: We don't have a problem with any American president, but our problem is with his policy that might affect our strategic interest." He later told visitors of his disappointment at President Obama's Middle East policy, accusing him of being "under pressure" from Israeli supporters and "not a man who has a plan for peace".

Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah had a widespread reputation for piety and scholarship through his teaching and the more than 40 books and treatises he wrote. He established religious schools and foundations, clinics and libraries as part of the charitable Al Marrarat Foundation. Among them are the following, open to all of Lebanon's sect and foreigners alike, which comprise part of his living legacy.

Orphanages:

1- Imam Al-Khouie Orphanage (Beirut-Daouha)
2- Imam Zein Al-Abidine (a.s.) Orphanage Biqaa (Hirmil).
3- Imam Ali Bin Abi Talib (a.s.) Orphanage, South Lebanon. (The Ma`roub-Sour road)
4- Virgin Mary Orphange (a.s.) South Lebanon (Jiwaya).
5- Al- Sayyida Khadija Al-Kubraa(a.s.) Orphange, Beirut (Bir-Hassan).
6- The Zainab (a.s.) Orphange West Biqaa (Suh`mur) Under construction.
7- The Imam Al-Hadi Institute For The Deaf and Blind.
Medical Centers.
1- Bah`man Hospital Beirut (Haret Hreik).
2- Al Sayyida Al-Zahra'(a.s.) Hospital South Lebanon
3- (Al-Abbasyyah) Under construction.
Schools
1- The Imam Al Khouie Orphanage Beirut (Dawha)
2- Imam Al-Baqir Secondary school Beka`a (Hirmil)
3- Imam Al-Jawad Secondary school Beka`a (Ali Nahri)
4- Imam Ali Bin Abi Talib school South lebanon (Ma`roub)
5- Imam Hassan Secondary school, Beirut (Ruwais)
6- Al-Mujtaba Secondary School, Beirut (Hay Al-Salum)
7- Imam Ja`afar As-Sadiq school South Lebanon (Jwaya)
8- Al-Kaouthar Secondary school Beirut (Bir Hassan)
9- Imam Hussein School, Beka`a (Suh`mour) under construction.
Vocational Schools
1- Ali Al-Akbar Vocational Institute Beirut (Doha)
Islamic Centers
1- The large Islamic Center, Beirut (Haret Hreik: Consists of the Al-Imamain Hassnian Mosque, the Zah`ra Hall and the Islamic Cultural Center.
2- Imam Hasan Askari Center Beka`aa'(Sira'in)
3- Imam Hussein Center-Beka`a(Jlala)
4- Imam Ali Bin Abi Talib center South Lebanon.(AL-Hawzah-Sour)
5- Ahl Al-Beit Mosque Beka`a' (Rayak)
6- Imam Ja'afar Al-Sadiq Mosque Beka`a (Hirmill)
7- Ahl Al-Beit Center, North Lebanon (Tripoli)
8- Sayyida Zainab Mosque, Beka`a (Ba'albek)
Religious Colleges
1- Islamic Sharia Institute
2- Women's Religious College
3- Sour (Tyre) Religious College
4- Al-Murtada Religious School (Damascus)

In summary, Mohammad Hussein Fadallah was too moderate, progressive and too effective a spokesman advocating for the deprived to be tolerated by the US administration and Israel. Both required more stereotypical radical Muslim clerics to smear the region. The Mossad believed to have target him more than half a dozen times including during the July 2006 Israeli attack.

In Lebanon, the CIA is widely thought to have been behind the 1985 bombing outside his home and American author Bob Woodward wrote in his book, "Veil: The Secret War of the CIA," that the late CIA director William Casey ordered Lebanese agents to plant the car bomb in frustration and retaliation for unsolved attacks on U.S. interests in the Middle East. Fadlallah escaped death but 80 civilians outside his Mosque did not and more than 200 were injured.

Fadallah's role as a mentor for resistors to Israeli aggressions and his complicated relations with Hezbollah, including false US allegations that he was the "spiritual guide of Hezbollah" is treated in some detail in Chapter IV of a volume entitled: "Hezbollah: Inside-Out", to be finalized and released following the achievement of Palestinian Civil Rights in Lebanon.

A generation was inspired by Sayeed Fadallah and listened to him and studied his voluminous writings. Two generations feel the emptiness of his passing away.

Mohammad Hussein Fadallah was a rare man of an angel's wit, mirth and singular learning. A marvelous man of gentleness, lowliness and affability. Sometimes when defending the rights of Muslims, Christians, Jews and all people of faith or non-believers of good will, his countenance was changed by a sad gravity and his smiling eyes darkened. For to his core, Grand Ayatollah Fadlallah believed in the right and responsibility to resist injustice and occupation.

He was a man for all seasons whose conscience and piety would not allow him to be idle as long as the poor and downtrodden remained dispossessed and voiceless or his beloved Lebanon and Palestine was occupied. For this, and for no other reason he was placed and kept on the US Political Terrorism list as a Specially Designated Terrorist (SDT) in the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control and his American charitable assets confiscated.

Like Thomas More, Fadlallah rejected offered inducements and bribes including T list removal from Washington if he followed the Kings wishes and stop support the Lebanese National resistance. He wore his nonsensical Terrorist label as a badge of honor as his daily good works mocked and marked the list keepers with shame and cowardice for squandering American founding principles and for funding, arming and providing diplomatic cover the Zionist colonial project that stole Palestine.

* Franklin Lamb is doing research in Lebanon and volunteers with the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign. He can be reached at fplamb@palestinecivilrightscampaign.org.

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