Lebanese Professor and senior Hezbollah leader argues, he is not interested whether one is an Islamist or Marxist but if one fights against imperialism.
By Agustín Velloso
Ali Fayyad, a senior member of Hizbullah’s executive committee, gave a talk about Imperialism, Islamism and the role of the Left in the University City of Madrid on March 28th 2009. The Lebanese Professor explained once again that the problems in the Middle East are not a religious but a political one, and condemned the propaganda that is widely shared by western leftists:
”There is no opposition of values and if there were it would be no reason for war – the cause of the problem is United States’s support for Israel, it is not a religious problem. (…) As an Islamist I am closer to Leftist activists than certain Islamists who do not fight to the same degree against imperialism. I am interested in whether you fight imperialism, not in whether you are Islamist or Marxist. (…) Are you in favour of colonialism or not? Do you support the area’s dictatorships?”
To resist, he argues, one has to have shared values. For that reason, Hizbollah is working towards an international block that transcends ideologies to “admit all views to this historic task.”
Political Islamism is perfectly clear on its current role. The Western Left ought to be equally clear given the growing push of imperialism, despite its failure thanks to the Resistance in the Middle East and other places. This failure has cost many thousands of lives there and, here, general social and political deterioration.
“Leftists” make a very sorry spectacle when they are left well behind by “fundamentalists” in terms of political objectives, of strategy and sacrifice. The confusion in the progressive ranks is such that being on the Left lacks any value at all. The words continue to be true of whoever it was that said, “live as you think, or end up thinking like a progressive”.
The article was translated from Spanish by Toni Solo
and edited by Jonas Feller
