{"id":14,"date":"2008-09-03T15:01:45","date_gmt":"2008-09-03T15:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2008\/09\/the-hezbollah-death-shrine.html"},"modified":"2008-09-03T15:01:45","modified_gmt":"2008-09-03T15:01:45","slug":"the-hezbollah-death-shrine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2008\/09\/the-hezbollah-death-shrine.html","title":{"rendered":"The Hezbollah death shrine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, one of my Beliefnet neighbors, issues a call to muslims and especially Shi’a muslims<\/a> to denounce the shrine to Hezbollah leader Imag Mugniyah<\/a> in southern Lebanon:<\/p>\n

The children crowd forward around the glass case, eager for a glimpse
\nof the martyr’s bloodstained clothes. His belt is here, and the shoes
\nhe died in, scarred with shrapnel. The battered desk where he planned
\nmilitary operations still has his box of pencils on it, his in-box, his
\ncellphone.
[…]
A fake skeleton stands upright in a torn uniform and helmet beneath the
\nlegend, “The invincible Israeli soldier.” There are captured Israeli
\ntanks jutting up from the ground at odd angles, their hatches burned
\nand broken. As visitors crowd from one display to another, a soundtrack
\nblares overhead, mixing the sounds of bombs and machine-gun fire with
\nmournful operatic voices and warlike speeches.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is indeed a pretty creepy monument to martyrdom, and it can’t be good psychologically, for the children who are taken to see it by their parents. Then again, being bombed all summer by a ferocious air assault can’t be particularly good for them either. I see this sort of thing as a symptom of the tumult and war that has wracked the region. It’s sad, but it’s also inevitable. Rabbi Hirschfield points to this anecdote of a father and son visiting the death shrine as particularly troubling:<\/p>\n

“I came here to teach my kids the culture of resistance,” said a
\nvisitor who gave his name only as Ahmed, as he stood with his wife and
\ntwo children. “I want them to see what the enemy is doing to us, and
\nwhat we can do to fight them, because this enemy is not merciful.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

but if I judge that man based on his words, not having lived his life and losing family and loved ones to a pointless war that he in all probability has, then I am very arrogant indeed. If Ahmed is wrong (as I think he is), that Israel is not his enemy and is indeed merciful, then it is incumbent upon Israel to prove him wrong. It was Israel’s policy towards Lebanon that has pushed Ahmed into Hizbollah’s calculating and opportunistic embrace. It’s easy for me to sit here thousands of miles away and judge Ahmed on my moral scale, but is that in accordance with the ethos of Ramadan? I think instead we must extend him compassion, and understand that his presence there speaks volumes about his situation, not necessarily his character.<\/p>\n

As far as denouncing it goes, six years after 9-11 I think it’s rather sad that muslims in the United States are still being called onto the carpet to answer for everything that their co-religionists abroad do. Once one muslim (adjective) – American (noun) starts down that road, we will all have to, from liberal muslim bloggers like me to ordinary working class Somali taxi-drivers in Minneapolis<\/a>. With respect, I decline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, one of my Beliefnet neighbors, issues a call to muslims and especially Shi’a muslims to denounce the shrine to Hezbollah leader Imag Mugniyah in southern Lebanon: The children crowd forward around the glass case, eager for a glimpse of the martyr’s bloodstained clothes. His belt is here, and the shoes he died…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[66,65],"class_list":["post-14","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-identify-yourself","tag-denounce","tag-hezbollah"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Hezbollah death shrine - City of Brass<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Hezbollah death shrine - City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, one of my Beliefnet neighbors, issues a call to muslims and especially Shi’a muslims to denounce the shrine to Hezbollah leader Imag Mugniyah in southern Lebanon: The children crowd forward around the glass case, eager for a glimpse of the martyr’s bloodstained clothes. 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City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}