Iran's Apocalyptic Vision: A reminder of religion's role in world affairs

Dallas Morning News ^ | 1/22/2006 | Staff

[Dark Skies]

The Christian Science Monitor recently reported that the mystical Mr. Ahmadinejad appears to be devoting his presidency to preparing the way for the Mahdi. If true, this is enormously significant, because it means that there can be no compromise with the Ahmadinejad government, which would have to defy the will of God to turn back from a path it believes is prophesied.

[Dark Skies]

Just another snippet that reminds us that there can be no compromise with Ahmadinejad. He must be stopped.

[darkocean]

Iran's Apocalyptic Vision: A reminder of religion's role in world affairs...

Real religions aren't any sort of a problem. The problem is FALSE religions like Islam and evolution.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

Real religions aren't any sort of a problem. The problem is FALSE religions like Islam and evolution.

Evolution is a religion? Have you been in the Garden again talking with the Serpent while imbibing a little too much, maybe?

[I still care]

A lot of people believe that evolution is part of the supporting beliefs of secularism, which today, in a strange way, is functioning as its own religion.

Now can someone explain to me exactly what the apocalyptic view of the Muslim world is? Do they have to start warring against us infidels? Or are they waiting for the Mahdi to come first and lead them?

I remember Ahmadinejad saying he believes the Mahdi will appear in the next two years. Is there something the Islamists have to do to prepare for him, or such?

[Melusine]

ping

[Man50D]

A lot of people believe that evolution is part of the supporting beliefs of secularism, which today, in a strange way, is functioning as its own religion. Now can someone explain to me exactly what the apocalyptic view of the Muslim world is? Do they have to start warring against us infidels? Or are they waiting for the Mahdi to come first and lead them? I remember Ahmadinejad saying he believes the Mahdi will appear in the next two years. Is there something the Islamists have to do to prepare for him, or such?

Part of the answer may be found in the following article; Islamic Scholar Warns U.S. of 'Two-Faced' Muslims

[sageb1]

"I remember Ahmadinejad saying he believes the Mahdi will appear in the next two years. Is there something the Islamists have to do to prepare for him, or such?"

Go to ShiaChat and scroll down until you find the subset on Imam Madhi. Other links are included within the forum.

However, the most important thing they have to do to prepare is to listen to Ahmadinejad. That's what he and his mullahs are counting on to incite Muslims.

[Capriole]

Antichrist Mahdi gonna be surprised when Jesus shows up and goes all Jack Bauer on his a$$.

[sageb1]

madhi=mahdi sorry

[sageb1]

Tomorrow night would be nice. Season finale might be too late. :)

[mojito]

I've noticed, in the last day or two, that the rhetoric coming from a certain kind of liberal (meaning one, I suppose, that at least recognizes that we have here a "grave problem") has devolved, like all liberal rhetoric, into something specious and ineffectual, but which offers one who mouths these new truths the tremendous psychological satisfaction of appearing both "concerned," and "realistic" while ultimately advocating the reassuring wisdom of doing nothing. These are the people who now advance the notion that we can and should "contain" Iran. They argue that because military options against this madman will be uncertain and difficult, and their repercussions unknowable, but most likely, unpleasant, that they are beyond the pale of the permissible. These talking points, which will soon be the position of the Democratic Party, are (to paraphrase the liberals favorite sage, John Lennon) in essence: "all we are saying is give containment a chance;" that is, when translated into harsh realities, that we must learn to live with a nuclear Iran. To this mindset, "containment" is the deliciously irresistible solution to the old dilemma of having your cake or eating it: in this happily serious, high-minded, and most principled world, we shall have lots of international conferences and high-ranking summits, hence no one can say we are not "doing something," yet by the same token we aren't forced to consider the perilous consequences of actually "doing something" as concrete as a missile attack.

Of course, this would be an utter catastrophe. Iran cannot be contained, and a hodge-podge of international carrots and sticks will have little effect on the regime's behavior. It must be said, and it must be said now: the paramount reason Iran is developing nuclear weapons is not self-defense, or national prestige, but to destroy the state of Israel, and inaugurate the Shia end time with the destruction of the Jewish people. Unless the international community is prepared to guarantee a martyr's paradise for the regime's leaders, which is seemingly the only thing they desire, we must be prepared to acknowledge that the grab bag of earthly rewards and punishments with which to beguile the regime's fanatics will prove less enticing than a handful of ash.

[Names Ash Housewares]

No doubt about it. The man and the regime are kooks!

[Dark Skies]

Thx for the well-written and incisive post.

...the paramount reason Iran is developing nuclear weapons is not self-defense, or national prestige, but to destroy the state of Israel, and inaugurate the Shia end time with the destruction of the Jewish people.

This matter with Iran overshadows all other issues. However we may combat islam in the long run, Iran cannot be permitted to have nuclear weapons.

[Dajjal]

Is anybody in Washington who's pondering the Iran problem thinking about Islamic eschatology?

I would add the Sunni terrorists to this important question. It's not just the Shi'ites who expect the Mahdi.

Rice University religion scholar David Cook states that understanding Islamic apocalyptic thought is "absolutely essential" to understanding modern Islam, particularly its relations with the West, widely seen as the realm of the "Dajjal," Islam's version of the Antichrist. In the eyes of Muslims obsessed with end-times theology, geopolitical events take on apocalyptic meaning....
As difficult as it was resisting the nuclear-armed Soviet Union during the Cold War, at least Marxism, whatever its inanities, was a materialist faith, amenable, ultimately, to reason. A nuclear Islamic state guided by an apocalyptic messianic ideology would be something else entirely.

An excellent editorial. I hope someone in Washington is listening.

[Dajjal]

Now can someone explain to me exactly what the apocalyptic view of the Muslim world is?

Yes, I can. See my FR Homepage and my Links page.

Do they have to start warring against us infidels? Or are they waiting for the Mahdi to come first and lead them?

They do not have to wait for the Mahdi to manifest himself. They can begin the jihad without him. But they believe he is predestined to guarantee their victory.

Some believe that the Mahdi may not see the end of the jihad, but will set events in motion for victory.

And some even believe that, as "the Dajjal" is a metaphor personifying all of Western Civilization and Western Culture, so too "the Mahdi" may be a metaphor personifying all of the jihadist "pure" Muslims put together.

Please note also that they expect 1) many Muslims to "lack enough faith" to fight in the jihad and 2) massive casualties on their side. The Mahdi is predicted to be outmanned and outgunned, but Allah will make him victorious over the Dajjal (us) and he will kill all the infidels and convert the rest until there is a worldwide Islamic utopia.

I remember Ahmadinejad saying he believes the Mahdi will appear in the next two years. Is there something the Islamists have to do to prepare for him, or such?

No, that was someone else talking about two years. Ahmadinejad gave the "no one knows when" standard answer. Ahmadinejad is supposedly building an infrastructure of mosques roads, lodgings, etc. for the Mahdi and those who will accompany him.

[Lochlainnach]

Last time I checked, evolution is not a religious belief. It's a scientific theory.

[Lochlainnach]

Actually, Islam holds Jesus to be present at the end of times--Jesus did not die on the cross but was brought to Heaven to wait...until the world ends.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

A lot of people believe that evolution is part of the supporting beliefs of secularism, which today, in a strange way, is functioning as its own religion.

Fruit flies live such short lives that one can demonstrate natural selection in a population. One can change the color of the environment and after a sufficient number of generations the flies will change color to adapt to the new environment. This is science. Natural selection is the theory. this has nothing to do with religion.

Atheists take on the basis of faith that God does not exist. They can no more prove his non existence than theologians can prove his existence. On this one count one can claim atheism is equivalent to religion. Still, evolution is not an underpinning of atheism.

On the notion of false religion, I guess its a matter upon which you base your faith. Yours is true and everyone else's is false. It depends who brainwashed you as a child. The acorn does not fall far from the Oak tree.

[kcmom]

dont they believe he tells everyone that he really isnt the SOn of God and that they should follow Islam ? I remember reading also that he takes part in what they call killing the swine, meaning the Jews and the people of the cross, christians. It'seems as though this figure lines up with the Anti-Christ in the Bible..which is the truth and the written word of God. They're going to try to pass off this false prophet as the messiah....unfortunately many will be deceived and follow him. Someone correct me if I'm wrong on the timing, but doesnt the Bible indicate that the war of Ezekiel 38 takes place before the appearance of this person? If so, Iran and russia play a part in this war and we might be seeing the beginnings of that which is to come. We know not the day or the hour but we need to be ready....

[Kenny Bunk]

....inaugurate the Shia end time with the destruction of the Jewish people...

This willingness of the Shi'a to make the obliteration of Israel (and the Jews ... and as many other infidels as possible) as the instrument of their own self-immolation is something that few in the West can believe ... or can take seriously.

However, it is at the very core of the Shi'a belief system. There is no negotiation with that.