[CCWoody]

eschatology bump! We all have it wrong evidently. ganesha has the real scoop.

You did post this as a joke, right?

[drstevej]

***We are living at the end of times. we are already experiencing the minor signs of judgement day that preceed the appearance of the Major signs. Once these minor signs finish--know that 95% of these signs have already come to pass-- we will be encountering the Major signs immediately. One of these first signs amongst the Major ones is appearance of the Jewish Anti Christ or the Masih ad-Dajjal.***

Looks like they've been reading Left Behind in the mosque.

[Dajjal]

This is not a joke.

Repeat, this is not a joke.

This is the reason 9-11 happened.

This is the theological underpinning of 9-11.

Think of Osama Bin Laden as a Muslim David Koresh and you will begin to get the picture.

[ganesha]

After cg came back I decided to search the site for anything that might be interesting before it got shut down again. The dajjal story caught my eye because I have been reading "The End of Days ,Fundamentalism and the struggle for the Temple Mount" by Gershom Gorenberg.

The thing about the red heifer comes from a mistranslation of the Bible. At the time the King James Version Bible was translated, the word "cattle" meant any livestock not just cows. The Hebrew word it was translated from only referred to sheep or goats, not cows. The people who are breeding red cows don't realize this point.

In the Muslim version of the story, the Jewish Mesiah and the antichrist are the same person who is called "Dajjal". He will arrive from the east leading an army of jews. Jesus will then fight a battle against dajjal and defeat him. Afterward, Jesus will break all crosses, kill all pigs, and make Islam the worlds only religious faith. The dead will be raised up and all humanity will be gathered to be judged by Allah in the valley of Jehosafat outside the walls of Jerusalem. In some versions of the story Jesus is shares his role as redeemer with a figure called the mahdi.

People who believed they were following the mahdi engaged in a revolt against the British Empire in the Sudan in the nineteenth century. Several movies have been made about this, the most recent of which was "The Four Feathers"

When Muhammed founded Islam he believed that the end of the world was near. He is quoted as saying, "Behold! God sent me with a sword, just before the Hour, and placed my daily sustenance beneath the shadow of my spear, and humiliation and contempt upon those who oppose me." The warriors who spread Islam believed that it was their duty to conquer the world before the Last Day and that not much time was left.