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BEIRUT — Lebanese comedian Naim Halawi has said more than once that Sheikh Naim Qassem, with whom he shares the same first name, was his high school teacher in the 1980s.
Yes, the man was just named as the new secretary general of Hezbollah, taught chemistry (in French language) to high school students. Halawi described him in the classroom as “soft, nice, calm and humorous.”
These characteristics most likely remained in Qassem, who in his 70s, even as he inherited this week the burden of leadership of blood and destruction that he co-created with his late predecessor, Hassan Nasrallah.
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But the man, who for many years was the group’s deputy secretary general, was much less visible than Nasrallah, and often appeared calm and flexible with his interlocutors in his television interviews. However, he always conveyed the same idea about his social conservatism and Hezbollah’s strict project in matters of life, religion and culture.
Considered one of the main theorists of Hezbollah, he has been less involved in the military components of the organization. Yet even if he has spoken and written eloquently over the years, the twist (or joke for a comedian like Halawi) is that Qassem came to politics from a chemistry background, but has been considered a figure who lacks chemistry and charisma.
From chemistry to politics
Still, the new leader has been one of the chief visionaries to articulate the mission of the “Party of God,” and published a 2005 book entitled “Hezbollah: The Story from the Inside.”
He’s described the Islamic Resistance as “a societal vision in all its dimensions, because it is a military, cultural, political and media resistance.”
He reiterated this statement when talking about Hezbollah changing the equation in Lebanon, not only militarily in the conflict with Israel, but also on the internal social level. “Hezbollah presents a pioneering Islamic model,” he said. “The veil has spread in a great and sophisticated manner.” Qassem boasted that the youth force in the party, “instead of heading to dance halls and taverns, has headed to the mountaintops and fighting Israel and the apostates.”
In his public statements, he has blamed women exclusively for sins of the “abhorrent” mixing between men and women. He found no shame in resorting to Simone de Beauvoir, whom he describes as “the advocate of complete freedom for women without regulations.”
He used one of her quotes in which she rejected the commodification of women, to justify his attack on the freedom of dress for women, and his demand that they submit to the authority of men, based on the Islamic religious narrative. He later declared Hezbollah’s refusal to employ divorced female teachers. In his opinion, a divorced woman is not qualified to raise and teach children, because she has fallen into “the most hated of permissible things” for Muslims.
Qassem’s dilemma
None of the theology, of course, will break with the reign of Nasrallah. The potential differences lie in the leadership style.
The dilemma with the Qassem chemistry and charisma question is not limited to how his personality is received by party members, who have experienced hardline party officials who also lacked charisma. But the real dilemma lies in his ability to penetrate other environments that are socially and culturally different from the party, even if they adopt the same political agenda.
It’s a question that extends across Hezbollah, which had become accustomed to the presence of the charismatic Nasrallah as its leader for the past three decades who’d become something of a holy icon. And now with his death, a martyr.
Post war test
The repercussions of his assassination on the Shiite community in Lebanon have not yet appeared. His audience could not catch its breath from the speed of the lightning war that seemed to have taken Hezbollah by surprise, although the party effectively initiated this war with its support to Gaza.
But the first question for Naim Qassem is will escape from also being killed in battle. If he does, he will face a test more difficult than the war, when he will be compared to his successor, and that will begin with the charisma deficit.
There’s a scientific chemical formula, which often contradicts Qassem’s religious beliefs, that was presented by the French chemist Antoine Lavoisier with the following equation: “Nothing is lost, nothing is created. Everything is transformed.”
This rule governs the transformations that will occur to Hezbollah after this war, which has been disastrous for the party, its audience, and the entire country.
The party cannot avoid chemistry, and it will have to deal with its transformations very soon, and at the head of its General Secretariat this time is a chemist who lacks charisma.
