Najjadeh Party
The article's lead section may need to be rewritten. (October 2016) |
Najjadeh Party حزب النجادة | |
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Leader | Moustafa Al-Hakim |
Founded | 1933 (original form) 1936 (current form) |
Ideology | Conservatism Arab nationalism Pan-Arabism Historical: Anti-communism Arab socialism Fascism |
Religion | Sunni Islam |
Website | |
www | |
Member State of the Arab League |
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The Najjadeh Party (
Origins
Lebanon in the 1930s witnessed the emergence of two paramilitary youth sport organizations of sectarian cast with clear fascist tendencies in
He often criticized the "moral chaos" in public life and adopted the supremacist motto "Arabism Above All" on his own newspaper's masthead. Al-Nasuli's Bayrut also published glowing accounts of German youth's support of Hitler, featuring illustrated articles on girls in the Bund Deutscher Mädel, the female branch of the Hitler Youth.[2] The leader of the anti-British Palestine Arab guerillas in 1936-1939, upon his return from a trip to Germany, was idolized on the Bayrut pages, with both the information and the editorials being presented by al-Nasuli himself.[3]
Although al-Nasuli promoted the Najjadah as the Muslim equivalent of the Christian-dominated Phalanges,[4] and Sunni Muslim students from the schools run by the Maqasid Islamic Charitable Association provided him a pool of potential recruits, the group initially did not match the dynamism and organizational skills of their rival organizations.[5] It did not attract a mass following until 1936 when
Political beliefs
Often described as the Muslim "twin brother" of the Phalangists, the radical
In ideological terms, the Najjadah adopted early on a Pan-Arab nationalist line that strived for the suppression of all foreign influences (included that of the ruling colonial power in Lebanon, France), which deeply contrasted with the Phalange's own Phoenicist and pro-Western views. The ambivalent relation of such pan-Arab concepts with an ethnic nationalist perspective became apparent in its slogan "Arabism above all" (Arabic: al-uruba fawqa al-jami‘).[6]
A 1970s report stated that "the Helpers (al-Najjada) [were] Originally a paramilitary organization, this party was advocating pan-Arabism and Muslim-Arab socialism".[7][8]
History
The mandate period: 1936-1943
Although by the mid-1930s both Najjadah and Phalange Parties ostensibly vied for Lebanon's independence from France, their sectarian base and conflicting ideological/identitarian views over the Country's future ensured that they would become entangled in the bitter political Christian-Muslim disputes. The rivalry between these two right-wing movements almost reached serious proportions on November 21, 1936 at Beirut, when a demonstration organized by the Najjadah in support of the Muslim struggle in
The
After independence: 1943-1975
The Najjadah survived underground though, and in the years following the
Decline and demise: 1975-1990
Faced with the outbreak of the
Marginalized during the war years, the Najjadah re-emerged afterwards as a small organization lacking any real political support base, currently led by Adnan's nephew Moustafa Al-Hakim.
Gallery
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Adnan Al-Hakim with Jamal Abdel Nasser
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Adnan Hakim welcomed at the airport
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Najjadeh Party General Secretary
See also
- List of Islamic political parties
- 1958 Lebanon crisis
- Lebanese Civil War
- Syrian Social Nationalist Party in Lebanon
- Kataeb Party
- Kataeb Regulatory Forces
- List of weapons of the Lebanese Civil War
Footnotes
- ^ Zami, Lebanon's quest (2000), p. 226
- ^ Thompson, Colonial citizens (2000), p. 193[dead link]
- ^ Palestine affairs, Vols 1-4 (1946), p. 115
- ^ Rabinovich, The war for Lebanon (1989), p. 80
- ^ Longrigg, Syria and Lebanon under French mandate (1972), p. 359
- ^ Nordbruch, Nazism in Syria and Lebanon (2009)
- ^ Political handbook and atlas of the world (1970), p. 198
- ^ Political handbook of the world (1977), p. 228
- ^ Zamir, Lebanon's quest (2000), pp. 233-234
- ^ Gordon, The Gemayels (1988), p. 25.
- ^ El-Kazen, The Breakdown of the State in Lebanon (2000), p. 303.
- ^ McGowan, Roberts, Abu Khalil, and Scott Mason, Lebanon: a country study (1989), p. 242.
- ^ Collelo, Lebanon: a country study (1989), p. 242.
- ^ Makdisi and Sadaka, The Lebanese Civil War, 1975-1990 (2003), p. 44, Table 1: War Period Militias.
- ^ Rabinovich, The war for Lebanon (1989), p. 80.
References
- Afaf Sabeh McGowan, John Roberts, As'ad Abu Khalil, and Robert Scott Mason, Lebanon: a country study, area handbook series, Headquarters, Department of the Army (DA Pam 550-24), Washington D.C. 1989. - [1]
- Denise Ammoun, Histoire du Liban contemporain: Tome 2 1943-1990, Fayard, Paris 2005.
- ISBN 0-333-72975-7
- Elizabeth Thompson, Colonial citizens. Republican Rights, Paternal Privilege, and Gender in French Syria and Lebanon, Columbia University Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0231106610
- Farid El-Kazen, The Breakdown of the State in Lebanon 1967-1976, I.B. Tauris, London 2000. ISBN 0-674-08105-6 – [3]
- Gotz Nordbruch, Nazism in Syria and Lebanon: The Ambivalence of the German Option, 1933-1945 (SOAS/Routledge Studies on the Middle East), Routledge 2009. ISBN 978-0-415-45714-9
- ISBN 978-0-8014-9313-3, 0-8014-9313-7 – [4]
- Matthew S. Gordon, The Gemayels (World Leaders Past & Present), Chelsea House Publishers, 1988. ISBN 1-55546-834-9
- Marius Deeb, The Lebanese Civil War, Praeger Publishers Inc., New York 1980. ISBN 978-0030397011
- Meir Zamir, Lebanon's quest: the road to statehood, 1926-1939, I.B. Tauris, London 2000. ISBN 978-1-86064-553-2
- Palestine affairs, Volumes 1-4, American Zionist Emergency Council, Research Dept, 1946.
- Political handbook and atlas of the world, Council on Foreign Relations, Simon & Schuster, New York 1970.
- Political handbook of the world: governments, regional issues, and intergovernmental organizations, McGraw-Hill., 1977. ISBN 978-0-07-003641-3
- Samir Makdisi and Richard Sadaka, The Lebanese Civil War, 1975-1990, American University of Beirut, Institute of Financial Economics, Lecture and Working Paper Series (2003 No.3), pp. 1–53. – [5]
- Stephen Hemsley Longrigg, Syria and Lebanon under French mandate, Octagon Books, 1972. ISBN 978-0-374-95088-0
- Thomas Collelo (ed.), Lebanon: a country study, Library of Congress, Federal Research Division, Headquarters, Department of the Army (DA Pam 550-24), Washington D.C., December 1987 (Third edition 1989). – [6]