Clean up on aisle seven. 8-)
Okay.
1. Ahmadinejad is not alone in expecting the Mahdi. The Muslim world -- Sunni, Shi'ite & the smaller sects -- have been FLOODED FOR DECADES with propaganda that the "Signs of Qiyamah" are unfolding (the signs of the End Times as fortold in the Hadith).
2. The Mahdi is not just an expected great Muslim leader. He is foretold in the Hadith to be predestined TO KILL a whole bunch of people -- in battle -- and then to convert the survivors, WORLD-WIDE.
3. Since imams have been preaching that there is NO FUTURE because the "Signs of Qiyamah" are all around, it "makes sense" that some members of their audience strap on dynamite belts. If there is NO FUTURE, why not beat the rush for Judgment Day and make a beeline for Paradise right now by becoming a martyr?
4. It is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS if someone with that mentality gets his hands on a nuclear arsenal.
5. The imams have also been preaching that if/when there is a nuclear exchange, Allah will suspend the laws of physics so that ONLY INFIDELS will be killed by the nuclear blasts and the radiation fallout. They are even saying that Muslim real estate like the Dome of the Rock will be untouched by the blast. The "Mahdi" can nuke Jerusalem in the morning, and move into a home there in the afternoon.
See here for more information on Muslim End-Time beliefs.
The just give a smattering of data: Skyscrapers are a "Sign of Qiyamah" that these are the "Last Days." The telephone is another. Airplanes are another. The imams don't need to decipher obscure sayings. Mohammed said that when Judgment Day draws near, the sons of goatherds would compete to build taller and taller buildings, and that "a brother in the West will speak to a brother in the East," and that men would be able to touch the clouds. There are hundreds of predictions like these.
Just thought of another: one Sign of Qiyamah is that fire would fall from the sky upon Baghdad. So since the Gulf War, imams have been checking it on their list of End Time prophecies.