A picture of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is not unusual in Lebanon. The Hezbollah leader, adored by party supporters, and admired by many others, is depicted everywhere from posters to cigarette lighters. But circulating online are images of Nasrallah’s face on a bracelet of pictures of Christian saints, and of Nasrallah on a rosary. To some, the sight of a living, Muslim militia leader has no place in Christian iconography.
Controversy has been further stoked by scenes from a Hezbollah promotional video, in which a choir is singing a pro-Hezbollah song in a church. Reports suggest that the church is Mar Yousef in the Hezbollah stronghold of Haret Hreik, south Beirut, but many have been outraged nonetheless, and the video was posted on the website of the Christian political party Lebanese Forces to widespread condemnation.
The outcry by some Christians pushed the party into answering questions about the controversial religious items. Hussein Rahal, the party’s media relations chief, spoke on Sunday on Free Lebanon Radio, saying that Hezbollah did not make the rosary or bracelet, and that the people behind them were likely Christian. Citing article 9 of the Lebanese constitution, which calls, he said, for freedom of religious expression, Rahal claimed that many Christians and others thought of Nasrallah as a saint. He declared that it was not his responsibility to tell them otherwise, rather saying that the mix of Christian with Hezbollah imagery was a “good sign of co-existence and love.”
NOW Lebanon took to the streets of Beirut to find out what the Lebanese response to this mix of Christianity and Islam, of the political and the religious. To those of our readers we didn’t meet out and about, please do comment below.
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