Global Issues: Cultural Conflict ~ Iran and Hezbollah - Sectarian Conflict and Carpets

The recent visit of Iran’sPresident Ahmadinejad to southern Lebanon, close to the Israeli border, has served to raise sectarian tension in the region. Hezbollah, who are Shia Muslims, already the most powerful single group in Lebanon, has been given an extra swagger by the high profile visitor as tens of thousands of people turned out to hear him speak. However, the trip has also sparked controversy among different Lebanese groups - the other Muslim sect, the Sunnis, and many of the country’s Christians, are not at all happy about the Iranian president’s visit.

“When you’re dealing with the Iranians it’s all about carpets” asserts Ali Hamdan, foreign affairs chief of Amal - the senior Shia political movement in Lebanon, though it has been outgrown by Hezbollah - commenting on the issue of divining Iranian intentions in the region. This theme is spun out in a recent BBC report by Jeremy Bowen. An apt quote from the article is:

“Sharing a religion can take you only so far. The Iranians and the Arabs are not the same people. They do not just have a millennium or more of cultural differences between them. They also have a long history of fighting each other.”

Thus in terms of the Global Issues topic on ‘Cultural Conflict’ the complexities of the relationship of Iran and Lebanon, and the internal dynamics of the regions politics, are worth being used as illustrations when it comes to analysing whether Huntington’s ‘Clash of Civilization’ thesis is cogent.

The BBC has a useful page on “Who are Hezbollah?” which is also worth referencing.