Draft:Hassan Saeed Mushaimash

Hassan Saeed Mushaimash is a Shia cleric from Jabal Amel in southern Lebanon who is known for his opposition and satirical stances regarding many events and currents surrounding him. He is a preacher and Husayni orator, as well as a politician, intellectual, critic, and writer.

Birth

Abu Reza was born in 1964 CE in the village of Kafr Sir, one of the villages of Jabal Amel in southern Lebanon, into a family of high social standing.

Upbringing and Education

He grew up in the city of Kafr Sir, a place where intellectual and cultural diversity is abundant, and which is the residence of the Al-Sabiti family (a renowned scholarly family from Amel) and one of the strongholds of the Lebanese Right-wing faction. The cultural environment of Amel, at the beginning of his awareness and consciousness, was attracted by Leftist, Socialist, and Islamic theses, but ultimately he accepted the Islamic view and very soon entered the clergy class.

Most Prominent Stages of His Growth

• After completing primary education, he went to Qom (Iran) to receive religious sciences and resided there for several years before returning to Lebanon.
• He married the daughter of Sayyid Ali Badr al-Din al-Haroufi, a Shia cleric from Jabal Amel.
• After returning to Lebanon, under the influence of revolutionary ideas, in the mid-1980s he joined the ranks of Hezbollah Lebanon and mobilized militant youth within the party.
• His brother (Hussein Saeed Mushaimash) passed away in the ranks of Hezbollah.
• In the early 1990s, during the war between Hezbollah and the Amal Movement (the War of the Apple Region), he left southern Lebanon and lived in the Southern Suburb of Beirut (Dahieh) until the end of the (War of the Brothers), after which he returned to the south again.

Activity in Hezbollah

His activities within Hezbollah were diverse, including organizational work, social activity, promotional activity, caring for the affairs of Hezbollah preachers, traveling on foreign missions, etc.

Most Prominent Activities in the Party

• He held several positions in this party, until he became the assistant to Sheikh Subhi al-Tufayli, the former Secretary-General of Hezbollah;
• From 1982 to 1989, he was the editor-in-chief of Al-Ahd newspaper;
• Travel to Europe (Germany and France) for religious promotion; (This trip was among the missions organized by Hezbollah for party preachers to communicate with Muslim communities residing in other countries.)
• Travel to Africa for religious promotion, where he lived for a time with his family;
• His arrest by German intelligence while transiting through their territory for travel to Europe, after which he was released a few days later;
• With Sheikh Subhi al-Tufayli's exit from the ranks of Hezbollah, Sheikh Hassan Mushaimash pursued an opposition trend within the party ranks and objected to many of the party's methodologies and orientations, and his objection remained within party frameworks.
• In 1998, he objected to the party's nomination mechanism for members and mayors and insisted on introducing one of his relatives in the city of Kafr Sir against the Hezbollah candidate, the result of which was in favor of the party candidate.
• In the late 1990s, after accumulated differences and mutual protests, he separated from the organizational body of Hezbollah and wrote: In 1998, an irrevocable divorce occurred between me and the Party of Velayat-e Faqih because I did not believe in the theory of Velayat-e Faqih; just as I do not believe in any government that claims to have authorities from God or whose legitimacy is from Allah"

Activity Outside Hezbollah

After leaving Hezbollah, his activities focused on cultural and intellectual work, the most important of which are:

• For a period of time, he approached the southern politician (Southern Lebanon) Ahmad Kamel al-Asaad (Head of the Movement of the Competencies of Lebanon), but this connection yielded no results.
• He joined an independent scientific session chaired by Mufti Sheikh Ahmed Taleb and remained one of his close associates.
• He had close cooperation with a group of intellectual Shia clerics with protest and modernist tendencies, such as: Messrs. Muhammad Hasan al-Amin, Hani Fahs, and Ali al-Amin.
• He wrote a number of critical articles on the political and social conditions of Lebanon in a number of Lebanese newspapers.

Cultural Activity and Writings

He is known as a satirical critic, questioning, protesting, dynamic, eloquent, quick-witted, and insightful.

• In the book (Dangerous Gaps in Religious Awareness) he raised sharp protests regarding many issues of governance and local politics and was forced to collect it.
• He wrote intellectual and religious articles in the magazine "Idaa'at" which occasionally approached politics.
• He wrote a number of books in which, without diving into the depths of topics and without focusing on a specific research, they turned into scattered investigations, and his writings are full of raising questions without reaching solid results. It is noteworthy that some of his works resemble a collection of articles gathered in one book. These books are:

1. This Is What I Do Not Believe In
2. Hot Dialogues
3. Provisions for the Preacher and Supplies for the Orator
4. On the Shore of Islam
5. Answers to Your Questions

Difaf Magazine

He published the magazine "Difaf", which addresses cultural and intellectual issues, aiming to be (an attempt to light a candle in the darkness of the East), as explained in the magazine's slogans.

1. Its publication began in November 2008.
2. It discusses a number of new Islamic issues.
3. Many actions of Shia clerics are criticized in it.
4. A number of modernist writers were invited to collaborate and write in it; such as: Sheikh Ahmad Talib, Sheikh Ali Hoballah, Sheikh Muhammad Ali al-Hajj, Muhammad Hassan al-Amin, Hani Fahs, and others.
5. Approximately 22 issues were printed, but its publication was halted due to the arrest of Hassan Sa'id Mushammash.
6. The magazine's web address is http://difaf.org/index.php?p=home, which appears to be blocked.

Difaf 23 Book

On May 10, 2012, a group of independent Lebanese cultural institutions published a new book by Sheikh Hassan Mushammash titled Difaf 23 – On Islam, Freedom, and the Guardianship of the Jurist. This book included a collection of scattered articles that had been published by Mushammash in the pages of the (Difaf) magazine over the past years.

The South Lebanon Cultural Council, under the title "Book of the Month," also held a seminar to discuss this book, which was moderated by Dr. Abdullah Rizq, and in that session Mr. Muhammad Hassan al-Amin spoke and stated that Sheikh Mushammash had gone very astray in intellectual confrontation against the Master's view, to the point that today he is in Roumieh Prison.

In Prison

Journalist Akram Aliq, quoting from an article written about Sheikh Mushammash, reported on his behalf: "I wished to die a thousand times for the torture and humiliation I endured, especially in the first three months of detention."

Mr. Hani Fahs stated during a visit with him in prison: "Sheikh Mushammash had become covered in wounds due to the effects of torture and had not received treatment."

In court on January 26, 2012, Antoine Ne'meh, Sheikh Mushammash's lawyer, raised the issue of the severity of Sheikh Mushammash's health and noted that he suffered from disc pain, severe bone pain, and irregular heart palpitations, and as was evident, he entered the court with the help of three soldiers and could not stand for long.

Sheikh Hassan Mushammash, in the same trial session on 7 Bahman 1390 (January 27, 2012), requested the right to speak and announced to the court that: "My health condition is disastrous, and prison law is not observed for the oppressed."