Hizb Al-Da?wa Al-Islamiyya (Islamic Appeal Party, in Arabic)
HIZB AL-DA?WA AL-ISLAMIYYA (Islamic Appeal Party, in Arabic)
Lebanese Shi?ite movement that surfaced at the end of 1979 to spread the Iranian Islamic revolution. Better known simply as al-Da?wa, it issued from the Iraqi al-Da?wa, founded in 1957. Starting in 1970, Iraqi Shi?ite religious leaders sent their followers to Lebanon to teach the fundamentals of their movement. After the Iranian revolution of 1979, Shi?ite proselytism was directed by Tehran through the intermediary of its Syrian representative, the Hojatolislam Ali Akbar Mohtashemi. The Lebanese branch of al-Da?wa, headed by Shaykh Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah, one of the highest Lebanese Shi?ite dignitaries, advocated an Islamic republic in Lebanon. In 1981 Ayatollah Khomeini recommended dissolving al-Da?wa, considering the party system a Western phenomenon. The members of the movement joined AMAL to found, in February 1985, the Lebanese Hizbullah.
SEE ALSO Hizbullah.
