Naeem Qassem: What do we know about the Deputy Secretary-General of Hezbollah?

After Hezbollah announced the killing of its Deputy General in an Israeli raid that targeted the command headquarters in the southern suburb of Beirut on Friday evening.

We meet First Deputy Secretary-General Naeem Qassem.

Who is Sheikh Naeem Qasim?

According to Hezbollah’s internal bylaws, the Deputy Secretary-General of the party acts on behalf of the Secretary-General in the event that any political or security emergency occurs against him. In the event of the death of the Secretary-General, he is delegated his duties until an urgent Shura meeting is held in which a new person is elected to take the place of the Secretary-General of the party.

Sheikh Naim Qassem currently holds the position of Deputy Secretary-General of Hezbollah, the political, military and social party, which enjoys a popular base and great influence among the Shiite community in Lebanon.

He is Sheikh Naim bin Muhammad Naim Qassem, born in February 1953 in the Basta al-Tahta area in the city of Beirut. He is married and has six children, four boys and two girls. His father, Muhammad, was born in the town of Kafr Fila in the Al-Tuffah region in southern Lebanon.

He studied until the upper stages of seminary studies, in which he studied under the leading Shiite scholars in Lebanon. This was in conjunction with his academic studies at the Lebanese University in 1971, from which he obtained a BA in Chemistry in French from the University’s Faculty of Education.

Sheikh Naim obtained a master’s degree in chemistry from the Lebanese University in 1977, then he worked as a teacher in public secondary classes for six years, as he is a graduate of the Teachers’ House affiliated with the Ministry of Education.

He read many Islamic books, and practiced public speaking and preparing religious lessons in the early stages of his life. Then he held lessons in the mosque for children in weekly sessions, and he was only eighteen years old.

He contributed to establishing the “Lebanese Union of Muslim Students” with a group of young people while he was in university ranks, with the aim of student work and spreading Islamic ideas within universities and schools, in the early 1970s.

He joined the movement of the deprived, the Lebanese Resistance Regiments (Amal), when it was founded by Imam Musa al-Sadr in 1974. He attended the first meetings in different regions of Lebanon to launch the movement, and assumed the position of deputy central cultural official in the Amal Movement.

He rose through the movement’s organizational ladder to become responsible for doctrine and culture, where he was one of the secretaries in the movement’s leadership council after the disappearance of Imam al-Sadr in Libya and Sayyed Hussein al-Husseini assumed the presidency of the movement in 1978.

He resigned from the movement following the Iranian Islamic Revolution at the hands of Khomeini on February 11, 1979, to continue his seminary studies and his Islamic preaching activity by giving lessons and lectures in a number of mosques and Husseiniyat in Beirut and the southern suburbs.

For more than 20 years, Sheikh Naim was interested in “reporting” extensively and widely throughout Lebanon, focusing on weekly lessons and guidance in different areas of Beirut.

He contributed to the establishment of the “Shiite” Islamic Religious Education Association in 1977, which is concerned with teaching the Islamic religion in public and private schools, by sending male and female teachers to every school to give lessons in religion to all grades.

He also served as the official director general of the six Al-Mustafa schools in the southern suburb of Beirut, Tire, Nabatieh, and Qasarnaba, which teach the official Lebanese curriculum and have an Islamic religious and educational character, until 1990, then he continued working in the association.

The Sheikh participated in the Islamic committees supporting the Islamic Revolution in Iran, which included all the Islamic parties operating on the scene at the time, and which carried out media activities, marches, and lectures about the revolution.

After meetings between the Islamic Committees and its successor, the Islamic Dawa Party, Lebanon Branch, with the scholars of the Bekaa, and the Islamic Amal Movement in 1982, Hezbollah was founded, and the Sheikh was one of the founding participants in these meetings that contributed to the founding of Hezbollah.

He served as a member of the party’s Shura Council for three terms, initially assuming responsibility for educational and scouting activities in Beirut, then as Vice-President of the Executive Council, then President of the Executive Council.

He assumed the position of Deputy Secretary-General of Hezbollah since Abbas al-Musawi assumed the position of Secretary-General of the party in 1991, and continued in the position after the killing of al-Musawi, who was succeeded by the current Secretary-General, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in 1992.

Sheikh Naeem also chairs Hezbollah’s Parliamentary Action Council, which follows up on the Loyalty to the Resistance bloc, the legislative work of the representatives, and their political movement.

He also heads the government work body responsible for following up on various ministries and studying their structures and decisions, as well as following up on Hezbollah ministers in the government. He is the general coordinator of the parliamentary elections in Hezbollah since the first parliamentary elections in 1992 until now.

From his position in the leadership of Hezbollah, the Sheikh is at the forefront of political work, and has many media and press appearances, contributions, interviews and lectures.

He wrote many books, the most prominent of which was the book “Hezbollah,” which presents the party’s goals, history, and political vision on various matters, and which was translated into more than 7 languages.

He has an ongoing direct relationship for more than 35 years with the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, through a joint practical position in the party’s Shura Council, permanent meetings, consultation, and keeping up with developments.

In addition to his political work, Qasim appears on several television stations speaking on religious and cultural topics.

The Sheikh lived through the confrontations with Israel from his position of responsibility as Deputy Secretary-General of the party and a member of the Shura Council, during the July 1993 war, the April 1996 war, the liberation year 2000, and the July 2006 war.

Hezbollah is an influential force and a major player in the Lebanese political system, and it has weight in decision-making within the government, especially after its rejection of demands calling for its disarmament, following the Israeli army’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000.

Hezbollah is repeatedly accused of launching a series of bombings and attacks against Israeli targets, and is classified by the United States and other countries as a “terrorist organization.”