The Hizbullah Phenomenon

Blacklisting the military wing of a region’s foremost political organisation questions the wisdom of liberally tarnishing individuals, groups, organisations, or states, as ‘terrorists’; particularly when many of the states applying the sanctions pursue a range of their own illicit strategies, both domestically and internationally. The label of terrorism is currently so widely and frequently applied that it has become an alternative and pejorative term which signifies thought or practice that deviates, whether slightly or greatly, from a particular dominant ideology. It is within a context of contemplating this phenomenon, sullied by both prejudice and adverse propaganda regarding the tenets of Hizbullah; commonly portrayed as a stigmatised entity; being simultaneously a legitimate and illegitimate organisation, that the book under discussion here is considered. The extent to which such labels are warranted remains undiscussed within the text, while the authors allude to questionable strategies deployed by Hizbullah, judgement is reserved on the ethics/morality of these.