A Privilege to Die: Inside Hezbollah's Legions and Their Endless War Against Israel

A Privilege to Die: Inside Hezbollah's Legions and Their Endless War Against Israel by Thanassis Cambanis Free Press, HK$216

This book's most surprising revelation is how progressive Hezbollah are. Members of the war-inclined Shiite organisation with strong ties to Iran and a burning urge to create a fundamentalist Islamic state in Lebanon might happily read The Guardian or Village Voice.

For a start, male members of the sect sworn to the destruction of Israel are allowed to cry. In one passage the author, veteran Middle East correspondent Thanassis Cambanis, describes how the current and third secretary general of Hezbollah, Sayyid Nasrallah, weeps at the death of his son killed by Israelis. In Shia culture it is not a sign of weakness for a man to weep as an act of mourning.

Nor, despite Hezbollah's macho image, are women held in contempt. In fact, although barred from upper ranks, Islamist 'soccer moms' thrive within the party bureaucracy.

Despite the limitless appetite for war with Israel, its social slant is oddly positive. Cambanis describes the 'party of God's' doctrine as 'an Islamic prosperity gospel': a kind of holistic self-improvement movement that echoes American born-again Christian churches.

'Hezbollah preaches strength through discipline,' Cambanis writes. 'It steeps its membership in Islamic teachings about everything from safe sex and hygiene to family responsibilities and financial planning. Hezbollah encourages its constituents to work hard and seek more prosperous lives for their families.'

'Sign me up,' the reader may think. Digging deeper, Cambanis reveals the sect's demographics that, again, may come as a surprise. Hezbollah, it turns out, is far from just an army of thugs, although thugs play a key cameo role. A rebuttal to the cartoon image of dreary and desperate terrorists, Cambanis' case studies are often aspirational middle-class types.