Page 153 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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128———Fadlallah, Sheik Mohamed Hussein (1936– )

Further Reading and followers have explained that “giving a blessing”
is a largely Christian practice.
Bergen, Peter L. Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of
Osama bin Laden. New York: Free Press, 2001. During the late 1980s and early 1990s hostage
Federal Bureau of Investigation. “Most Wanted Terrorists.” crisis in Lebanon, Fadlallah was said to command
October 2001. http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/terrorists/ respect among the militants; relatives of hostages
fugitives.htm. visited him to plead for release of the captives.
“A Nation Challenged: The Hunted; The 22 Most Wanted In 1985, an explosive was planted on the path
Suspects, in a Five-Act Drama of Global Terror.” between Fadlallah’s mosque and his home. The blast
New York Times, October 14, 2001, 1B. spared Fadlallah, who had stopped to listen to an old
Reeve, Simon. The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin woman on his way home, but killed 80 people. Press
Laden, and the Future of Terrorism. Boston: North- reports claimed that a group linked to the CIA was
eastern University Press, 1999. responsible for the bombing.
U.S. District Court Southern District of New York. United Fadlallah’s influence has grown in Lebanon, and he
States v. Usama bin Laden et al. Indictment S(10) 98 Cr. is often called the country’s most respected Shiite
1023 (LBS).
Muslim cleric. He has often spoken against a peace
agreement with Israel and the idea of “land for peace.”
In 1995, when the United States declared a freeze on
FADLALLAH, SHEIK MOHAMED the assets of extremist groups that did not support the
HUSSEIN (1936– ) peace process, including Hezbollah, Fadlallah urged
Muslims to boycott U.S. goods.
As violence increased in the Middle East in 2002,
A Shiite Muslim scholar, Sheik Mohamed Hussein Fadlallah told the Arab press that suicide bombing
Fadlallah is said to be the religious adviser of attacks are required in what he calls a “holy war”
Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group and political against Israel.
party also known as Party of God. In his impassioned
See also HEZBOLLAH
speeches, Fadlallah has called for Lebanon to be orga-
nized as a theocratic Islamic state. Further Reading
Fadlallah was born in 1936 in Najaf, the Iraqi city
holy to Shiite Muslims where his father, a religious Fisk, Robert. Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War. London:
leader from southern Lebanon, was studying. Fadlallah Deutsch, 1990.
grew up in Iraq, and reportedly speaks with a slight Jaber, Hala. Hezbollah: Born With a Vengeance. New York:
Columbia University Press, 1997.
Iraqi accent.
Woodward, Bob. Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981-
While a student in Najaf, Fadlallah helped one of
1987. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987.
his professors, Mohammed Bakr al-Sadr, to found the
underground Dawa Party, which was later banned by
Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Fadlallah moved to Beirut in 1966, after he had fin- FALN
ished his studies. He soon married Noureddin Noured-
din, daughter of a prominent Lebanese Islamic scholar. aka Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional;
Armed Forces of National Liberation
They are said to have 11 children. As an imam at a
mosque, Fadlallah worked to organize Islamic students,
forming the Islamic Students’ Union in Lebanon and Between 1974 and 1983, the Puerto Rican nation-
writing some 40 books on Islamic law. alist group commonly known as the FALN (Fuerzas
Fadlallah served as an important spiritual adviser Armadas de Liberacion Nacional) perpetrated more
to members of Hezbollah from its beginnings in the than 130 bombings in the United States, mostly in
early 1980s. After the 1983 bombings of the U.S. New York City and Chicago.
Marine barracks and French paramilitary compounds Like other anti-imperialist groups founded in
in Beirut, both linked to Hezbollah, Christian rivals the late 1960s and early 1970s, including the Black
claimed that Fadlallah had blessed the two suicide dri- Panther Party, the FALN was committed to the
vers. Fadlallah has repeatedly denied this accusation, revolutionary ideal of “armed struggle.” The FALN