ABSTRACT
Since the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in June 1982, and the subsequent defeat of United States policy in that country, the terms Shi’a and Shi’ism have come to evoke images that are perceived as alien, retrograde, and gratuitously hostile to Western power, interests, and values. Acknowledging that the experiences are interdependent, this chapter focuses specifically on the constitutive role of the Shi’a masses in the movement led by Sayyid Musa al-Sadr in Lebanon. One of the disturbing by-products of the recent Lebanese conflict has been the emergence of a kind of “scholarship in exile” that has uncritically reproduced and glorified various aspects of pre-1975 Lebanon. A Lebanon Defied is a story of upheaval which traces and interprets the transformation of a large segment of the Lebanese Shi’a masses into a revolutionary force demanding a change in the status quo. A Lebanon Defied brings together the author's personal convictions and academic commitments.
