Islam e modernità: dottrine e prassi nella comunità sciita libanese

المعاصر في لبنان نتحدث في هذه الرسالة عن العلاقات بين الإيمان و الحداثة و دور الإيمان في تكوين التكافل الإجتماعي والتجربة السياسية الحزبية في المجتمع الشيعي المعاصر في لبنان. ندرس اولأ الأصول التاريخية للمجتمع الشيعي اللبناني في إطار النظام الطائفي و التطورات المحلية و الإقليمية و ثانياٌ نتطرق للمناقشات حول الماهية الحقيقية لعاشوراء و الأهمية المعنوية للإستذكار السنوي لعاشوراء. ثالثاٌ ندرس المؤسسات و الجمعيات الخيرية الإسلامية و المبرات و دور الإيمان و الإلتزام الديني في تشكيل ثقافة المسؤولية الإجتماعية و في المشاركة السياسية و ندرس ايضاٌ ثقافة الإلتزام بالنسبة الى المنتزهات و أماكن الإحتفال و الإستذكار التاريخية. و رابعاٌ نحلل منهاج وتجربة حزب اللّٰه بعد الإنتخابات النيابية عام 1992م وننظر إلى الوثيقة السياسية لحزب اللّٰه 2009 والطروحات التي يتحدث عنها السيد حسن نصراللّٰه في خطابه الآخير

This dissertation investigates the impact of patterns of reinvention and reinterpretation of Shi'a religious tradition on the social fabric and the politics of the Shi'a community of Lebanon during the twentieth century. We firstly explore the theorization of doctrines that discharge "Western"-oriented modernizing projects as the only legitimate patterns of development and governance for Muslim societies. This theoretical framework is conceived and conveyed mainly by a transnational Shi'i clerical milieu. We examine how a distinct Shi'a collective identity is formed, partly as a result of the formation of an "Islamic ideology", and partly as a collateral effect of the confessionalist system that is implemented in Lebanon during the Mandate and after the independence. We observe a fluid, complex interplay of transnational, domestic, and parochial factors, and how they shape mechanisms of identity and otherness. In particular, we analyze how the ritual practices and symbolic constructs related to the commemoration of Ashura and the battle of Karbala' become a site of ideological dispute for legitimacy and self-identity. In particular, we see how a radical reading of Ashura is used to legitimize forms of political dissent and resistance. We then explore how religious commitment and forms of public piety are related to social activism and the provision of multiple services through a vast network of charitable institutions. This alternative system of social welfare and assistance strengthens communal relations and pious lifestyles, envisaging a religiously-inspired society that we define as Islamic public sphere. We also question how this project of alternative modernity is shaped by a selective assimilation of practices and models marked by globalization and commodification, where scientific and technical development is accepted but a vast array of values and behaviors are discharged as un-Islamic. We finally examine the tropes of a metanarrative of resistance through a reading of major documents of Hezbollah and public speeches. We analyze a narrative construct where the Shi’a community, as part of the disinherited and the injustly oppressed of the world, is pitted – along the same lines of Ashura and the battle of Karbala' – against the forces of oppression and tyranny, in a teleological view of human history. We evaluate how this discourse is framed in the public sphere and how it is productive of symbolic capital and legitimacy at a political and social level.

La tesi analizza l'impatto di percorsi di reinterpretazione della tradizione religiosa sciita sul tessuto sociale e sulle forme di mobilitazione politica della comunità sciita libanese nel corso del ventesimo secolo. La creazione di un'identità sciita distinta viene studiata nel quadro della formazione di una "ideologia islamica" e nel contesto del consolidamento del modello istituzionale confessionalista libanese, prima nel periodo mandatario e poi dopo l'indipendenza, in un intreccio fluido di fattori transnazionali e locali e di meccanismi di identità e di alterità. Le pratiche rituali e i costrutti simbolici connessi alla commemorazione di Ashura sono, in particolare, il sito di una battaglia per la legittimazione e per la definizione dell'identità collettiva: l'interpretazione radicale di Ashura è usata per legittimare forme di dissenso e resistenza. L'impegno religioso espresso nello spazio pubblico dà vita a numerose forme associative e assistenziali che creano un sistema alternativo di offerta di servizi sociali, rafforzando i legami comunitari e sostenendo stili di vita e modelli di comportamento islamicamente corretti, in ciò che definiamo come la sfera pubblica islamica. Questo progetto di modernità alternativa comprende anche l’assimilazione selettiva di pratiche e modelli della globalizzazione e di forme di mercificazione. I discorsi e i documenti analizzati mostrano infine la formazione di una metanarrazione della resistenza, in cui, reinterpretando temi del paradigma di Karbala', la comunità sciita viene descritta come prima linea della resistenza contro la tirannia e l’oppressione, in una visione teleologica della storia.