Word: imam
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...neighboring Syria, Mosbah Mohammed Gharibi, was killed in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley when gunmen raked his car with machine-gun fire. The Bekaa is a ! stronghold of Lebanese Shi'ites who still blame Libyan Leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi for the 1978 disappearance and possible murder of their spiritual leader, Imam Moussa Sadr. The assumption in Beirut was that the diplomat's killing was the latest in a series of retaliatory strikes by the Lebanese Shi'ites at their Libyan enemies...
...evidence suggests that the aging Ayatollah continues to solicit views from a variety of cleric and non-cleric representatives of political institutions and even some cleric outside the government, notably his son, Ahmed. When the Imam feels strongly about an issue, he makes the ultimate decision, which is binding on all, regardless of the advice of some or even all his aides. When he does not, he may delegate limited authority to others, as in the case of the 1981 U.S. hostage crisis, where he let the legislature resolve the matter...
...murky equations of the Middle East, power is usually bought with gunpowder. Johns Hopkins Professor Fouad Ajami, author of the recently published The Vanished Imam, a profile of Moussa Sadr, the charismatic Shi'ite cleric and political leader, calls the Shi'ites the "stepchildren of the Arab world." After a docile history centered on agriculture, they first took up arms in a serious way when Lebanon's civil war broke out, in 1975. But it was not until 1982, when the Israelis invaded Lebanon, that the stage was set for the explosion of Shi'ite power...
...then adorned with the messianic title of Imam, Moussa Sadr established and funded a Shi'ite militia named Amal, the Arabic word for "hope." Celebrating the deeds of Shi'ite warriors of the past, the Imam declared, "Arms were the adornment of men." Moussa Sadr then vanished in a manner guaranteed to immortalize him to his followers. On a visit to Libya in 1978, he simply disappeared. Many Shi'ites still believe that he remains the captive of Libyan Strongman Muammar Gaddafi...
...unclear whether "the title that applies to all Shia leaders" is "ayatollah" or "imam," but both are incorrect. In fact, "imam" has extreme, messianic connotations among Shia Muslims, and it raised more than a few eyebrows a few years ago when Khomeini's followers began to call him by that nomenclature...