Word: amal
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That began to change in the 1975 civil war. As other power-hungry factions oiled their guns, the Lebanese Shi'ite leader Imam Moussa Sadr formed the Amal (meaning hope in Arabic), originally intending it to be a political organization exerting pressure to better the lot of Shi'ites living in poverty in Beirut's southern suburbs. But in a country constantly at war, it quickly became clear that social and political change would be achieved only through military force. The Amal developed a military wing, fortifying the Shi'ite neighborhoods with sandbags and training youths...
Initially weak, the Amal at first kept a low profile. When P.L.O. forces in West Beirut came under attack from the Israelis in the summer of 1982, however, the Amal supported the Palestinians. That loyalty was rewarded when the P.L.O. finally evacuated the city and the Amal obtained substantial quantities of P.L.O. arms. Thus strengthened, the Amal set up what was effectively a Shi'ite state within a state in the southern suburbs...
Despite its increasing military muscle, the Amal has steered a relatively moderate course, rejecting the fanatical Islam associated with the Shi'ites of Iran's Ayatullah Khomeini. When Moussa Sadr mysteriously disappeared after a falling-out with Muammar Gaddafi during a visit to Libya in 1978, he was soon succeeded by the forceful Berri, a lawyer by training, who quickly won a reputation for keeping his own counsel. Like other Muslim leaders, Berri has fiercely opposed the Christian Phalangists. But although the Amal gets much of its financial and military support from the Syrians, Berri has refused...
That moderation, however, is increasingly endangered by a wave of religious fundamentalism washing through the Shi'ite community. In June of 1982, an aide to Berri, Hussein Musawi, broke away to form a radical splinter group, the Islamic Amal. Musawi has since forged close links with Islamic Jihad, the Muslim extremist group that claimed responsibility for the attacks on the U.S. and French compounds last October, and the murder of Beirut's American University President Malcolm Kerr last month. Within the mainstream Amal, young Shi'ites have attacked occupying Israeli troops in southern Lebanon with the encouragement...
Schismatic problems within the Amal may be compounded by growing tensions between Berri and his Druze allies, led by Walid Jumblatt. After joining forces to rout the Lebanese troops from West Beirut, the two factions may soon find themselves jousting for supremacy in a new political order. Now that the Amal has joined the ranks of the principal players in Lebanon, it is discovering the frustrations that come with power...