Essay by intellectual spurs debate on Hezbollah leaders
BEIRUT -- When Mona Fayad saw Lebanon engulfed in violence, she couldn't keep silent. The psychology professor at Lebanese University did something almost no Shi'ite intellectual dares to do in Beirut , at least in public: criticize Hezbollah.
In a scathing essay titled ``To be a Shi'ite now," Fayad attacked fellow Shi'ites who, she says, blindly follow the leadership of Hezbollah on a path she described as ``no different from suicide."
Her bold and unusual stance has sparked debate in the daily newspaper An-Nahar , where it was published, and it has made Fayad something of a celebrity.
``What does it mean to be a Shi'ite for the majority of Shi'ites now, at this critical period?" Fayad wrote. ``It means entrusting your fate to the wise and infallible leadership without daring to ask any question."
To be a Shi'ite now ``is to block your mind" and let Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, ``command you, drive you, decide for you what he wants from the weapons of Hezbollah, and force on you a victory that is no different from suicide," Fayad wrote. ``To be a Shi'ite and dare such writing and such thinking means that you are a collaborator and a traitor."
Since then, Fayad has been inundated with calls and e-mails from friends and strangers . ``People thank me, encourage me, and ask me if I am scared," Fayad said. ``But I am not scared because I live in a country where a bomb can fall on my head at any time, so I want to express my opinion."
Fayad's essay gave vent to some of the frustration and anger that have built up among many Shi'ites . Although largely symbolic when measured against the widespread Shi'ite embrace of Hezbollah, the piece offers a glimpse of the debate taking place among intellectuals.
An-Nahar's opinion page editor, Jihad al-Zein, who published the essay, said the piece has prompted a passionate reaction. ``People are calling me from places as far away as the United States or the Gulf countries to comment ," Zein said. ``There is vitality in the debate."
Zein, a Shi'ite intellectual, had stirred passions a few weeks ago when he wrote an open letter to Khamenei in which he questioned Iran's use of Shi'ite groups in the Middle East to advance Tehran's political interests without regard to the consequences for local Shi'ites.
Zein is being flooded with responses to Fayad's piece, so he publishes them to keep the debate alive.
``I, the Lebanese citizen from the south, a Shi'ite displaced in my country for calculations and adventures forced on me, I declare supporting Fayad," Ismail Sharafeddine, a Shi'ite intellectual, wrote. ``And I will say more: To be a Shi'ite is to demand accountability from those who took this adventure that led to the displacement of a million people."
But not everyone has appreciated Fayad's writing. In a toughly worded response, Nayef Krayyem, another Shi'ite intellectual, wrote that for Fayad, the Shi'ite is supposed to prevent Hezbollah ``from building a force capable of maintaining the dignity of opinion if Israel thinks of stealing from us the dignity of life."
``It is forbidden to be strong near Israel and if you dare, you have to pay a price you never paid before and to suffer in a way you never suffered before," Krayyem wrote.
Fayad's article has broken a longstanding taboo in the Shi'ite community. ``People have been lying to themselves, afraid of Hezbollah because it is loaded with weapons but it is time to stand up and ask why," Fayad said.
``We've been forced to shut up for decades because we are at war but we have to speak in critical periods so that the leaders know who are with them and who are not," Fayad said. ``The future of Lebanon is at stake."
Fayad is not discouraged by the criticism. ``If I get to the point where I can't write what I believe in, life has no meaning." 