For over a century, the narratives of Lebanese Shiites have oscillated between their intellectual and cultural engagement in Jabal Amel, the challenges of representation and development in the modern state, and the harsh experience of wars and volatile borders.
Today, with changing domestic and regional conditions and the escalating costs of relying on arms, especially after the recent Israeli war, a quiet and obvious question arises: How can dignity and security be preserved through a just state, not through parallel channels?
Jabal Amil was a center of religious and literary learning, and a cradle of vibrant cultural and social life. Its villages were divided between agriculture and religious and secular education, and the region witnessed generations of migration to cities and abroad (to Africa, the Gulf, and the Americas), contributing to a broader economic and intellectual cycle. This intellectual and social legacy, along with networks of community solidarity, produced a distinct civic consciousness: education, intellectual debates, a local press, and strong ties with the religious and scholarly centers of Najaf, Qom, and Beirut.
In this sense, the initial root of the Shiite narrative was not political or military; rather, it was cultural and social, seeking a dignified place in a nascent state and a pluralistic society.
In the post-independence state, the growth of Beirut’s southern suburbs coincided with the marginalization of the south and the northern Bekaa Valley in terms of infrastructure and services. This extreme centralization, and the transformation of the south into an open front, produced a chronic sense of spatial injustice. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the discourse of equity, articulated by Imam Musa al-Sadr, emerged, demanding social, developmental, and political rights. This laid the foundation for organized representation (the Supreme Islamic Shiite Council) and subsequently for a broader political and advocacy movement.
The proliferation of weapons did not emerge suddenly, nor did it develop as a purely ideological choice; rather, it took shape through cumulative layers. Weapons transformed from a regional factor imposed by forces outside Lebanon in a war-torn environment into a sustainable structure with religious, social, and political arms. However, the accumulated costs generated isolation, human and economic depletion, and constant tension with state institutions and Lebanese communities, making the limits of this gamble clearer.
The culmination of this clash was what became known as the “war of support” in October 2023, and later the all-out Israeli war against Lebanon and the defeat and destruction it caused.
But contrary to the reductive image of weapons, war, and victims, Lebanese Shiites have historically contributed to shaping national life:
Scientifically and culturally: schools, magazines, writers, theater, music, and supplying universities with academic and professional staff.
Economically: agriculture, small industry, shops, freelance professions, and an active presence in the diaspora brought back remittances and expertise and established business networks.
Civil and union-related: active participation in unions, municipalities and student movements, and the rise of female and young generations in the public sphere, especially since the 2019 uprising.
This contribution, in its essence, is a Lebanese civic contribution before it is a sectarian one, and from here the narrative can be renewed from solid ground, not from a vacuum.
Experience shows that security provided outside the state produces localized security but weakens overall national security and strains the relationship between Lebanese Shiites and their surrounding communities. Conversely, state security without realistic border guarantees may revive the anxieties of various groups. What is needed, therefore, is a measured compromise: restoring the state’s security authority with transitional arrangements that protect borders and people while taking into account the sensitivities of recent history.
This means that the approach to the issue of “Lebanese Shiites” must stem from their status as a foundational component of a state of equal rights, not as a “troubled minority” or a “permanent front.” It also means that deterring aggression is a sovereign function managed through professional official institutions, declared defense plans, and democratic oversight within the framework of the state.
Addressing the Shia issue means investing in quality public education, adequate healthcare, infrastructure, and job opportunities in the South, the Bekaa Valley, and the suburbs, connecting with the potential of the diaspora. On a spiritual level, it means restoring religious values for those who wish to see them as a moral and spiritual compass—that is, reclaiming the symbolism of Karbala in its ethical sense: justice and dignity, not as fuel for armed mobilization.
Karbala holds a deeply rooted moral place in the hearts of many Lebanese Shiites, and this meaning can be embodied in a civil sense: supporting the oppressed through an independent judiciary, and upholding dignity through laws that apply to everyone. In this way, symbolic language transforms from a mechanism for situational mobilization into a compass of values that allows for a broader national dialogue.
Out of a sense of responsibility and a desire to stop the “bleeding”, the “ Our Role ” Association – a local Lebanese association concerned with political empowerment – is beginning to publish a series of articles under the umbrella title “Our Role Speaks Out”, in cooperation with the “Daraj” platform.
This is an attempt to address the Shiite issue in relation to the issue of building a Lebanon free of weapons, but also to build a Lebanon that makes its communities feel that a strong and just state is capable of reassuring them and rebuilding an identity for the country in which they are at the heart, not on the margins.
This reading does not call for the denial of history or the rejection of sacrifices, but rather for their investment in a new social contract: from fragmented protection to unified protection, from a pastoral economy to a production economy, and from chronic tension to security managed by accountable institutions.
With this peaceful return to the wellsprings of Jabal Amel – knowledge, work, and solidarity – and with this orderly transition towards a state of citizenship, Lebanese Shiites are reclaiming their natural role: a force for progress, civic engagement, and partnership, not a force for war. Here, dignity is preserved and peace is built, and here, the story of Lebanon embraces everyone.