Subhi al-Tufayli

Subhi al-Tufayli (Arabic: صبحي الطفيلي; born 1947) is a Lebanese senior Shi'ite cleric and politician who helped found Hezbollah in 1982 and served as its first secretary-general from 1989 until 1991. Early on, Tufayli was respected in the Lebanese Shi'ite community as a learned Shi'ite scholar. Al-Tufayli is a vocal critic of Iran and the current Hezbollah leadership.^[1][2]

Early life and education

Al-Tufayli spent nine years studying theology in Najaf, Iraq where he met other Islamist clerics and was inspired by Lebanese cleric Musa al-Sadr. Returning to Lebanon, al-Tufayli joined with Abbas al-Musawi to help found the Shiite Islamic group of Hezbollah in the Beqaa Valley in 1982. Beqaa is one of Hezbollah's three main regions of support in Lebanon.^[1]

In Hezbollah

In 1984, al-Tufayli was replaced by Abbas al-Musawi as head of Hezbollah. Hezbollah's hostage-taking campaign had wound down since the "Kuwait 17" bombers of the 1983 Kuwait bombings who were linked to leading Hezbollah members were now free, and the Taif Agreement had essentially ended the Civil War in Lebanon.^[1]

Post-Hezbollah

In January 1998 al-Tufayli and MP Khadr Tulays were expelled from Hezbollah. A week later, 30 January, al-Tufayli and a group of armed men took over a school in Baalbek where Hezbollah officials were meeting. There followed a two-hour shootout with the Lebanese Army which left two soldiers and three of al-Tufayli’s followers, including MP Tulays, dead.^[1]

Views

In January 2007, al-Tufayli has stated that Hassan Nasrallah is implementing the agenda of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ali Khamenei, that the Islamic Republic's doctrine of "Rule of the Jurisprudent" (Wilayat al-Faqih) is un-Islamic and its government tyrannical. al-Tufayli claims that Hezbollah today is acting as border guards for Israel and mercenaries for Iran and the West.^[1]