Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

18 • AMALSince Amal sought to change the terms of power in Lebanon infavor of the Shi’a by setting aside the 1946 “national covenant”between Lebanon’s Christians and Sunni Muslims, it may be considereda revolutionary actor. Yet it has neither sought to excludeother confessional groups from participation in Lebanese politics norsought to create a full-scale Islamic state in Lebanon after the Iranianmodel. For these very reasons, more militant Amal members desertedAmal for the splinter group Islamic Amal. Most of these defectorswere absorbed later into Hezbollah, a Shi’ite militia created underIranian state sponsorship that sought to establish an exclusivelyIslamic state in Lebanon.While Amal is indigenous to Lebanon, it was founded by an Iranianclergyman, Musa Sadr, who arrived in Lebanon in 1957 andestablished the “Movement of the Deprived” in 1974 to help the LebaneseShi’a gain political power. With the outbreak of civil war in1975, Musa Sadr authorized the creation of a military branch, whichproperly was the organization called Amal. The Israeli invasion ofsouthern Lebanon in 1978 and continual Palestinian-Israeli clashes inthe largely Shi’ite south of Lebanon increased the Shi’as’ acceptanceof Amal as representing and protecting their community. The subsequentvictory of an Islamic revolution in Shi’ite Iran also bolsteredthe confidence of Lebanon’s Shi’a and their support for Amal.Amal’s relationship with Iran’s revolutionary government wasinitially friendly but deteriorated rapidly. With the disappearanceof Imam Musa Sadr during a visit to Libya in August 1978, Amal’sleadership passed into the hands of more secular nationalistic Shi’itepoliticians, who had less sympathy for the ideal of creating a theocraticIslamic state in Lebanon. Also due to the enmity that hadgrown between the Lebanese Shi’a and Palestinian guerrillas operatingin the south of Lebanon, Amal, in effect, welcomed the 1982Israeli invasion in the naive hope that Israeli forces would shortlyleave and return the south of Lebanon to Shi’ite control. Iran’s diplomaticovertures to Libya also antagonized Amal members whobelieved that the Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi was responsiblefor Imam Musa Sadr’s disappearance. The falling out between theIranian government and Amal as well as the defection from Amalof its more militant members led Iran to sponsor the creation of theHezbollah militia, which absorbed much of the strength of Amal’sfollowing.