Posted on 08/21/2006 10:32:24 AM PDT by truthfinder9
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has frustrated Western officials by refusing to reply to their offer of various incentives in exchange for Iran’s discarding its nuclear program until August 22. The Western governments had asked Ahmadinejad to reply by June 29; why would Tehran need two extra months?
Farid Ghadry, the president of the Reform Party of Syria, has offered a provocative explanation for this delay. He asserts that the Supreme National Security Council of Iran chose the August 22 date “for a very precise reason. August 21, 2006 (Rajab 27, 1427) is known in the Islamic calendar as the Night of the Sira’a and Miira’aj, the night Prophet Mohammed (saas) ascended to heaven from the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on a Bourak (Half animal, half man), while a great light lit-up the night sky, and visited Heaven and Hell also Beit al-Saada and Beit al-Shaqaa (House of Happiness and House of Misery) and then descended back to Mecca.…”
The Night Journey, or Miraj, is central to Islam’s claim to Jerusalem as an Islamic holy city. According to Islamic tradition, Muhammad was carried on a Buraq, a miraculous horse with a human head, from Mecca to Jerusalem, where he ascended into heaven and met the other prophets. The only thing the Qur’an has to say about it is this: “Glory to (Allah) Who did take His servant for a Journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the farthest Mosque, whose precincts We did bless, in order that We might show him some of Our Signs: for He is the One Who heareth and seeth (all things)” (17:1). There is no identification of the “farthest Mosque” with any mosque in Jerusalem in this, but the Hadith is very clear on the identification of its location with Jerusalem.
The traditions say that Muhammad and the Buraq, along with the angel Gabriel, went to the Temple Mount, and from there to heaven itself, where Muhammad encountered various prophets. In the sixth heaven was Moses, occasioning a dig at the Jews. “When I left him,” Muhammad says, “he wept. Someone asked him, ‘What makes you weep?’ Moses said, ‘I weep because after me there has been sent (Muhammad as a Prophet) a young man, whose followers will enter Paradise in greater numbers than my followers.’”
Evidently, however, Muhammad’s stories of his journey were not altogether convincing: some Muslims even abandoned Islam. Did he really go anywhere? According to his favorite wife, Aisha, he didn’t: “The apostle’s body remained where it was but God removed his spirit by night.” Nevertheless, the Night Journey has become firmly embedded in the Islamic consciousness, such that Muslims today celebrate it as one of the central events of Muhammad’s life. And now, according to Ghadry, Ahmadinejad is planning an illumination of the night sky over Jerusalem to rival the one that greeted the Prophet of Islam on his journey. What the Iranian President, he says, is “promising the world by August 22 is the light in the sky over the Aqsa Mosque that took place the night before. That is his answer to the package of incentives the international community offered Iran on June 6.”
Certainly a nuclear attack on Jerusalem or even an all-out conventional assault against Israel by Iran would be consistent with Ahmadinejad’s oft-repeated denials of Israel’s right to exist and recent predictions that its demise was at hand. He hinted at the use of nuclear weapons in his phrasing when he said that Israel “pushed the button of its own destruction” by finally retaliating against Hizballah’s relentless rocket barrage from south Lebanon.
“Arrogant powers,” Ahmadinejad said, “have set up a base for themselves to threaten and plunder nations in the region. But today, the occupier regime” -- that is, Israel -- “whose philosophy is based on threats, massacre and invasion, has reached its finishing line.”
Will he attempt to make good on these threats this year on the anniversary of the Miraj, illuminating the night sky over Jerusalem? Will Western powers heed Farid Ghadry’s words and move to stop Iran before it is too late?
Mr. Spencer is director of Jihad Watch and author of "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)" and the forthcoming "The Truth About Muhammad."
Iran would only nuke Israel if Iran's leadership has totally checked out on reality
and New Orleans...
No the middle east ends, and Israel has a 1-10 mile hole in it.
Interesting time to read Ezekiel, Chapters 38 & 39.
I heard a Rabbi on Savage Nation discussing this last week.
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/KjvEzek.html
If Iran pushes the button, Iran is toast.
They will get paid back ten fold what they dish out.
I think they know it, but I also think they are also crazy enough to do it. They are backed into a corner, like a rabid dog, and will bite soon.
Nothing is going to happen. It's just typical Middle Eastern hyperbole. (see Bob, Baghdad)
Guess that depends on who you ask. I support Israel and all that, but I'm not so sure THIS Israel is the one spoken of in prophesy. It is a secular nation, not the theocracy that existed during the time scripture was written.
I think you may have something there. Iran could then claim to be a member of the nuclear weapon club without directly provoking the U.S. by conducting their own test.
Some guy cops to a child murder he probably had nothing to do with. And Stinky has the world worrying about what he will be doing tomorrow. What a world!
High volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. also
2006israelwar or WOT
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And Baghdad! Or, that has probably already happened?
What Israel do you think it is, then?
Not to be contrary, but it appears to me that Israel is the one backed into a corner. Iran seems to have most of the world's support. They're livin' large, so I don't see any urgency in them attacking Israel at this point. They CERTAINLY won't attack Israel before they actually have a nuclear weapon. I can't imagine they'd come all this way to launch a conventional attack and see their country turned into Swiss cheese. And even if they have a weapon, how will they deliver it? They can't just fuel a rocket like they're at the self-service pump. We would see it days ahead of time.
Anyhow, I think we're in for some kind of massive terrorist attack in the Middle East. The Saudis busted up a cell of terrorists yesterday. I don't expect anything in the United States. Busting the liquid bomb project probably disrupted and compromised anything else they may have had planned in the Western Hemisphere.
It's 9:30 pm in Tehran, we got another 2.5 hours to find out.
Funny, I didn't see that on my 21 day planner for tomorrow.
MAD Mutual Assured Destruction
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