Posted on 01/14/2004 4:59:36 AM PST by SJackson
A major effort of the War on Terrorism must be to directly counter this apocalyptic thinking and to marginalize these beliefs within the Muslim world.
The thing that worries me is the self-fulfilling prophesy aspect of this. If I've learned from an imam that the Dajjal is the West (more more specially, America and Israel) and its attacks on Muslims, and then America responds to my buddies killing lots of westerners a la 9/11 by attacking talibs in Afghanistan, it would appear to confirm that the imam was right. I assume this is why bin Laden did what he did - to force a confrontation and the radicalization of the Muslim world.
We are in a Catch-22. Pretty much anything we do can be interpreted as an act of the Dajjal simply because of our superpower status. If we take military action after 9/11, that is the sort of thing the Dajjal would do. But if we meet with Arab leaders, and try to open lines of communication to find peaceful solutions, that is also what the hadith predicts the Dajjal will do. The hadith foretells that some Muslims will be killed by his army, while others will be seduced by his words.
But it is important to understand that what the imam preaches is not particularly dependent upon our actions. There are plenty of ahadith that “prove” these are the Last Days without mentioning the Dajjal. For instance, “when a brother in the east can speak to a brother in the west” is one “Sign of Qiyama.” So the radio, telephone, e-mail, etc. “proves” that the final jihad is immanent.
It is a sad fact that some Muslim extremists will mistake us for the Dajjal. Our policy must be to marginalize these extremists as much as possible, and to win the support of the majority by bringing political freedom and economic prosperity to them.
No, it's not the same.
While many Christian preachers are expecting Jesus to return any minute now, they are not out there instructing their followers to kill all non-believers in order to speed things along.
The typical POV of Christians who believe these are the Last Days is to expect the be among the truly faithful who are "raptured" up off the face of the Earth before the AntiChrist takes power.
Those Christians who are currently "lukewarm" (so the theory goes) will not be "raptured," but will become serious in their faith when they see their fellows vanish before their eyes. These "left behind" Christians will be the ones who suffer persecution under the AntiChrist, and who will fight the AntiChrist in Armageddon.
Overall, the Christian End-Times belief system is a reactive one. And the most serious believers do not even expect to be here for the real fight. And the fight will not begin until Jesus Himself returns to lead His followers.
In contrast. the typical Muslim End-Times belief system is a proactive one. They see it as a duty to wage jihad against any infidels as time winds down. And with the new allegorical interpretation, they do not even need to wait for an individual Mahdi, for all jihadists might collectively be the Mahdi. But even if there will be one individual Mahdi, there is no need to wait for his lead.
...and you people know who you are...!
For instance, “when a brother in the east can speak to a brother in the west” is one “Sign of Qiyama.” So the radio, telephone, e-mail, etc. “proves” that the final jihad is immanent.
I seem to recall this as being one of the reasons for the ulama taking on Abd al Aziz over the use of radio in 1920's. That episode points out two interesting features - even very conservative religious figures will change their minds quickly if they think it's in the interest of a strict intepretation of the Koran to do so (Abd al Aziz pointed out that readings from the Koran could be broadcast) but that tendency works both ways (the ulama had supported Abd al Aziz against the Ikhwan a bit earlier).
Proof positive Head Reptilian Gore invented the internet.
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