Posted on 12/19/2005 8:22:19 PM PST by Dajjal
Saturday, December 17, 2005
EDITORIAL
Here’s the first Imam Mehdi for our eschatologists
Last Thursday Faisalabad police played hide-and-seek on the Lahore-Islamabad Motorway with a group of armed men led by a man claiming to be Imam Mehdi. The men had hijacked a bus on the Motorway and demanded to speak to General Pervez Musharraf. The men later surrendered and let the hostages go when the police captured the leader Shahbaz Khan aka Imam Mehdi after a shootout which left one person dead and three injured. According to the police, 35 to 40 armed men wearing orange uniforms raided an anti-narcotics police station in Faisalabad just after noon. They then started airing a message that Imam Mehdi, who would make his appearance at 4 pm after a massive earthquake, was leading them. The men advised all Muslims to immediately contact Imam Mehdi. They then proceeded to the Motorway, firing in the air. After the police caught up with them at an interchange where they were beating up some personnel of the Motorway police, the men hijacked a bus. They exchanged fire with the police, which left three of them injured and one dead. ‘Imam Mehdi’ was captured. Thus ended the drama of the impending Armageddon that underscores the eschatological myth associated with the appearance of Imam Mehdi. What should we make of this lunatic behaviour?
Let’s consider a few facts since Al Qaeda brought down the Twin Towers in New York and President George Bush embarked on his crusade. TV channels in Pakistan, one after another, seem to have gone berserk about the end of the world. We saw this happen during the first Gulf War. There was a sudden demand for videos and books about the prophecies of Nostradamus. That was 1991; the world has still not ended. For the past four years now, however, eschatologists have been doing roaring business theorising about the end of the world, the appearance of kana Dajjal and Imam Mehdi, who is supposed to come and fight the evil of Dajjal. The vernacular press is full of such predictions. Religious scholars, notably Dr Israr Ahmed and Dr Tahir ul Qadri, have chosen to give their own estimates of the end of the world and the appearance of Imam Mehdi.
Woe betide those who think that this business is the preserve of Pakistanis or Muslims; the West has its own share of end-of-the-world Armageddon-fighting fanatics. And just in case anyone thinks that this is a lunatic fringe, may we remind our readers that Mr Bush is on record as having justified his war on Iraq as a divinely-sanctioned venture. Shahbaz Khan, incidentally, has returned from England after two decades. While there he drove a cab and also worked as a butcher. At some point he seems to have convinced himself that the best way to fight his obscurity is to get on to the Imam Mehdi bandwagon. But if that is not the case, and he indeed is not a conman who is clever by half, then he needs a shrink. But his disorder must also be traced to all the writings and TV programmes on the end of the world.
It is a measure of how the multitude can be swayed by myths and prophecies of gloom and doom that such programmes have high ratings. One such programme in fact had to be re-run on popular demand. There is also an element in this of the final victory for the Muslims. This is ironical because every religion seems to have its own version of the final victory. American evangelists want Israel to defeat the Arabs because that is the sign for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the dominance of Christianity. This is a sign of the times we are living in. In Pakistan, the way we have used religion over the past three decades is now beginning to haunt us. The result: we have conmen and/or loonies running amuck posturing as Imam Mehdi.
How can this be tackled? It runs against the spirit of deregulation for the government to tell private TV channels what to air. The paradox is that the end-of-the-world programmes also beget advertisements because of their higher ratings. What can, however, be done is to balance such programmes with other programmes that can show the absurdity of belief in such myths. Also, viewers need to understand that even end-of-the-world fantasies can fill up the coffers of TV channels and advertisers who clearly do not believe that the end of the world is around the bend. If they did, they would fold up everything and prepare for the other world.
Daily Times - All Rights Reserved
Actually, this guy is not the first. Muqtada al-Sadr named is insurgents "The Mahdi's Army," Osama Bin Laden never proclaimed himself the mahdi, but he knowingly used many of the symbols foretold of the mahdi (and after 9/11 he added "Mohammed" to his name), and I'm sure there must have been others already and will be more in the future.
TV channels in Pakistan, one after another, seem to have gone berserk about the end of the world.... For the past four years now, however, eschatologists have been doing roaring business theorising about the end of the world, the appearance of kana Dajjal and Imam Mehdi, who is supposed to come and fight the evil of Dajjal. The vernacular press is full of such predictions. Religious scholars ... have chosen to give their own estimates of the end of the world and the appearance of Imam Mehdi.
WHEN will this news break in America????? We must understand our enemy!!!!!
See my FR Homepage and Links page for more information on what the Muslims believe about the Qiyamah (End Times).
"gone berserk" "roaring business"
But why are they watching stuff on Nostredamus.....wasn't he Christian (at least culturally?) Just wait until they find out about that Incan or Aztec calendar! Maybe we need to fabricate some sort of Ring around the Rosey dance legend.
This has been building since the late 1970's, when they read Hal Lindsay's "Late Great Planet Earth" and reinterpretted it according to their Dajjal / Mahdi / Isha template.
Do you see why I'm so frustrated -- the Muslim terrorists have been preaching this for decades, and we, their targets, are still completely ignorant of the fact (as a nation). We must because we need to know what the enemy is thinking if we are to act wisely. Both Bush and the peaceniks are acting like this is about our sullying Muslim territory or supporting Israel or because we eat ham. This is about their belief that the world-wide victory of Islam which Mohammed foretold is near at hand. And these guys want to be a part of it.
It's not just that a few Muslims here and there believe that the Signs of Qiyama are unfolding -- throughout the Arab world they are being told this in their mosques, on their TV, from their radios, and in their newspapers, every day, morning, noon and night.
Agree. And perception is everything. I asked Doctor Z1N tonight if he thinks Ahmadinejad is using this a political ploy or if he thinks the president of Iran truly believes this. He thinks he relly believes. The reason I asked was if Ahmadinejad was using the 12th Imam as a political ploy, then he will do ANYTHING. If he truly believes, then he will not doing anything so rash as to nuke Israel as it would defeat his purpose. But he will use the nuclear threat to keep supporters of Israel at bay, so his army can march into Jerusalem to pave the way for the Mahdi. He would also use weapons other than nuclear against Israel. If he is a believer, Jerusalem has to be inhabitable.
relly = really
I hope Ahmadinejad and his scientists do not believe this preaching of the imams.
BTW, I think this is also why Saddam is still so cocky. Yes, he's that kind of personality -- but also, for the last couple of decades the clerics have been saying that he is the al-Sufyani, the new Nebuchadnezzar, who paves the way for the Mahdi, and that he will triumph over this petty setback and play a role in the battle for Jerusalem. I think he either believes this or wants to believe that the hadith foretell his triumph.
I mean, one of the Signs is that "the Sun will rise in the West." A lot of preachers interpret that allegorically that the light of Islam will take over the Western nations, and millions will convert. But many also keep to the literal interpretation that sunrise will soon miraculously occur on the western horizon. Allah can do anything, after all, so why not?
The Sun Is Rising in the West: New Muslims Tell About Their Journey to Islam
by Muzaffar Haleem & Betty Batul Bowman
These Journeys to Islam are stories told by new Muslims. They reflect the strivings and triumphs of the soul, as each person struggled to find a meaningful spiritual existence. All of the stories are written by new Muslims who have come from a Western background, especially America. For each story told here, there are many, many stories left untold, but which are nevertheless happening every day in America.
Makes a great stocking stuffer!
i m speechless
bump
You are right, of course. I made the mistake of thinking with Western logic. We are talking about 1400 years of brainwashing. One cannot think that simply interjecting democracy will solve the problem. The concept is entirely foreign to the uneducated masses and outlying tribal communities and thus causes fear and anger. Attempts to infiltrate using Western media are being put down, so there is no knowledge of anything outside Islam other than what they are told. One thing I've noticed on international Muslim boards and forums is that in every case, someone will come in and post a warning to Muslim youth to stick to only Islamic websites in their studies - to not stray or listen to anyone else (because of course non-Muslims cannot understand Muslims or Islam and we will either give them wrong information or tell them lies).
While the international communities have focused on Iraq, Islamists have grown their communities in every country in the world. Their imams have targeted the young, the poor, the angry, and the lonely, pulling them in to indoctrinate them. At the same time, educated Muslims have joined Islamic PR (propaganda) organizations to work on outreach programs that will give Islam societal inclusion, as well as to study ways to give Islam legal footholds in those societies (including our own).
Uh....
I don't think so!
It does certainly sound like a bad joke, doesn't it? I'm glad that you took the time to read it. It's important that we know what we are fighting.
Actually, I skimmed it. Trying to read (and understand) with the foreign words and ideas , it's a bit like Lewis' Jabberwocky!
But we aren't fighting Bahais. They're some of the nice ones. Gee, I wish they'd all become Bahais and Sufis.
For that matter, they can stay Suni or Shi'ite, so long as they don't shoot at or bomb my countrymen and our allies.
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