Faith and Resistance by Sarah Marusek

Author:Sarah Marusek
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Book Network Int'l Limited trading as NBN International (NBNi)

Furthermore, the association ‘has built several modern and model academic schools, as well as vocational institutes for both boys and girls, to provide the coming generations with a high level of education and a profound sense of values.’30 According to the association’s press officer, the charity runs 21 schools throughout Lebanon, serving about 35,000 students.31 During my fieldwork, I learned that the association’s education system is highly esteemed by the community; for example, many Lebanese boast that family members are teachers at these schools. Furthermore, despite the fact that Hizbullah schools are free for the children of party members, many choose to send their children to al-Mabarrat Association schools instead, and at a considerable cost.32

In addition to these social service institutions, the association runs a number of income generating projects, including a café-restaurant, two gas stations (one of which was destroyed during the 2006 war) and Assaha Traditional Village complex. All profits from these projects are donated to the association’s charities. Initially constructed in 2001, the original Assaha is located in the southern suburbs of Beirut and consists of a restaurant, hotel, market, library, playground, prayer rooms and event conference hall.33 One night, while eating dinner in Assaha restaurant with a delegation of Americans, we were introduced to the architect, Jamal Makki, who explained that the inspiration for the structure of the building was an epistolary novel about a father’s recollections of rural life to his son who was now living in a city.34 The structure of the complex recreates the rural landscape of nineteenth-century Christian Mount Lebanon interwoven with contemporary Islamic ideas and communal practices, Assaha (al-Sahah) meaning ‘the square’ in Arabic. Mona Harb argues that Assaha offers pious entertainment – a place providing an ‘environment complying with pious Muslim practices’ (2006: 10). In her interview with Makki, he further ‘explains that the challenge was to translate the concepts of history and tradition into elements that materialise their meanings to people’ (Harb 2006: 10). During our own meeting, Makki pointed out that the theme of the then recently opened hotel on the second floor is dialogue of civilisations and he even invited us to take a tour.35 Each of the rooms has a cultural theme from a different part of the world and is elegantly decorated.

Similar to the situation with the charities affiliated with Hizbullah, my research on al-Mabarrat Association’s charities was also restricted. From what I could gather, the reasons were mostly to do with the following: (1) the designation of several Hizbullah-affiliated charities as SDNs at around the same time as the FBI raided the association’s Michigan-based offices in 2007; (2) negative experiences with other researchers; (3) my request coincided with the unfortunate passing of Ayatollah Fadlallah; and, most importantly, (4) the destruction of many of the association’s charitable institutions during the 2006 war against Israel. Indeed, the association claims that Israel intentionally targeted various charitable institutions in an attempt to ‘cause social collapse by targeting the educational, social and developmental infrastructure.’ During and immediately after the

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