Hezbollah's intellectual terrorism is gaining momentum

Since its inception in 1982, Hezbollah has gained national and international recognition through the terrorism it has carried out through deadly attacks in Lebanon and elsewhere, but there is one aspect that few raise the seriousness of: its intellectual terrorism.

It is possible to date this terrorism back to the early 2000s, after Lebanon began hosting performances by international and even local artists.

In July 2000, the Baalbeck festival produced a creation by Zad Moultaka inspired by the “Song of Songs”, one of the books of the Bible, therefore recognized as sacred, by the three monotheistic religions. However, during the first performance, deputies affiliated to Hezbollah were outraged by the fact that "Israel" is mentioned in this biblical text, and left the show, clearly seen. The show could only be performed again the next day after the text was changed.

In 2001, Patrick Bruel had to cancel a concert he was supposed to give at the Hippodrome of Beirut following threats that endangered him. In 2009, it was Gad Elmaleh's turn to cancel 3 performances of the show he was supposed to give as part of Beiteddine festival. Hezbollah channel, Al Manar, depicted Gad Elmaleh, of Moroccan origin and Jewish faith, as a former Israeli soldier.

Several other shows have suffered the same fate; to list them all would be a waste of time. But they all had in common artists belonging to the Jewish faith, or artists who performed in Israel. Until Ziad Doueiri was targeted for making the “Insult” film that won an award in Venice.

In 2012, Hezbollah marks an evolution in intellectual terrorism and starts to attack our Lebanese "way of life". Naim Kassem attacks the "audiovisual media that undermine modesty and broadcast programs that are harmful to men, women and family life". This speech will be repeated several times and will evolve with time.

Just before the last legislative elections, the number two of Hezbollah castigated beaches, nightclubs, bathing suits and everything that makes our culture. Mohammad Raad even added that he wanted to transform our culture into a culture of resistance. Unfortunately, very few people responded to him, preferring to focus their legislative campaign on corruption, rather than on an Iranian occupation that was beginning to reach people's minds.

Today, intellectual terrorism takes a new turn. It is a government minister who enters the arena; nothing less than that of culture or should we say that of non-culture. Five French authors, including Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt and Tahar ben Jelloun, who had already participated in the Beirut Book Fair, decided not to participate in “Beirut Books” because this same minister already accused several of the participating writers, of being Zionists. He even felt sorry that it was a friendly institute that organized the event. This friendly France, whose ambassador repeats everywhere, that it is necessary to dialogue with Hezbollah and whose diplomatic cars are very often seen in the southern suburbs.

As a reminder, it is this same minister, a judge by profession who had twice been a member of the Supreme Council of the Judiciary, had threatened on October 12, 2021, in the middle of the Council of Ministers, the resignation of the Shiite ministers and their retaliation if Judge Bitar was not removed from his position. Two days after his threats were carried out, Hezbollah incited the incidents of Tayouné, and the council of ministers did not meet for several months.

Last August, this Minister of Culture had even justified in a tweet the threats and the attack against Salman Rushdie by respecting the fatwa that Ayatollah Khomeini had issued in which he condemned to death the author of the Satanic Verses. No other official in the world, not even in Iran, had dared to do so.

Unfortunately, the past history of this character did not prevent the organizers of cultural events to receive him with all due respect as a government minister, nor from asking him to sponsor events: The last of which was the "Golden Murex" ceremony held at Casino du Liban.