This was significantly instructive for anyone who was watching closely and listening carefully. What we learned in the summer and fall of 2005 was not just what Mahmoud Ahmadinejad believed but what the Ayatollah Khamenei believed, whom he wanted speaking for him, and what he wanted the world to hear.
Apocalyptic rhetoric about the end of the world.
A fatwa approving the use of nuclear weapons.
A vow to annihilate the U.S. and Israel.
And a rapid acceleration of Iran’s nuclear research program.
For those willing to connect the dots, this was a dangerous and disturbing package.
The problem: almost no one in the West was watching closely or listening carefully.
Chapter Twelve
Making Way for the Mahdi
How Shia eschatology has driven Iranian foreign policy
In the fall of 2006, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad returned to New York to address the United Nations. This time, however, he launched a charm offensive.
First came his “exclusive” interview with Mike Wallace on CBS’s 60 Minutes in August. Next, he appeared on the cover of Time magazine in September. This was followed by a lengthy interview with Brian Williams for NBC Nightly News and a twenty-minute prime-time interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper. Then came Ahmadinejad’s speech at the United Nations—concluding once again with a prayer that Allah would hasten the coming of the Mahdi—which garnered the Iranian president wall-to-wall coverage.318
Yet, as I pointed out at the time in two articles on National Review Online and on my blog, something was curiously absent from all this media coverage. Not one of these major American journalists asked Ahmadinejad about his Shia religious beliefs or his fascination with the coming of the Mahdi. They did not ask about his critique of President Bush’s faith in Jesus Christ in an eighteen-page letter he had sent the president. They didn’t mention his encouragement that President Bush convert to Islam or his ten-page letter to German chancellor Angela Merkel on essentially the same topic.319
Wallace actually took the time to ask Ahmadinejad about his jacket and about what he does for leisure. But he took no time to ask how Ahmadinejad’s eschatology has been driving Iranian foreign policy. Time’s cover story and exclusive print interview with Ahmadinejad never broached the subject of his eschatology. Nor did Williams in his interview. Nor did Cooper. Nor did almost any of the saturation coverage Ahmadinejad received during his U.S. visit.320
Bewitched or Befuddled?
American journalists are not typically shy about asking tough, probing questions about the worldview of international leaders. President Bush was often asked about how his evangelical Christianity informed his foreign policy as president, particularly with regard to Israel and the Middle East. Why was there such hesitancy, then, when it came to questioning the religious beliefs of an Islamic leader who has called for the Jewish state to be wiped off the planet and urged fellow Muslims to envision a world without the United States?
As I complete this manuscript in the fall of 2008, not a single Western reporter who has interviewed Ahmadinejad—one of the most dangerous men in the world—has ever asked him directly about his eschatology. Yet he wants to talk about what he believes and why he believes it. His religion shapes who he is and what drives him. He unapolegetically talks about it all the time. He talked about it as mayor of Tehran. He talked about it while campaigning for president of Iran. He has repeatedly prayed about it before the entire U.N. General Assembly and a phalanx of cameras and international reporters. He gives major addresses on it at eschatology conferences. He talks about it with small groups of friends and religious leaders. He references it in letters to world leaders.
Nevertheless, the mainstream media refuses to ask him about it. Are journalists somehow bewitched in Ahmadinejad’s presence? Or are they so slavishly devoted to their own secularism that they are befuddled, unable to comprehend the notion that a man’s private religious beliefs could so profoundly and completely affect his public persona and political decision-making?
In a 2006 column for National Review Online, I offered five questions Mike Wallace and/or his colleagues should have asked the president of Iran. So long as Ahmadinejad or someone holding similar views remains in office, the questions remain valid. Asked politely, not provocatively, I have no doubt they would unlock a door into an intriguing and internationally significant story. I remain curious, therefore, to see who will ask them first.
1. Mr. President, you are telling colleagues in Iran that you believe the end of the world is rapidly approaching. Why do you believe this? How are these views shaping your foreign policy?
2. Could you tell us in the West more about your belief that the “Twelfth Imam” (or “Hidden Imam”) will soon reappear and why you believe that the way to hasten the coming of this Islamic messiah is to launch a global jihad against Israel and the U.S.?
3. Mr. President, in Islam, Jesus Christ is considered a great prophet and teacher. In your lengthy letter to President Bush, you talked a lot about Jesus Christ. You criticized the president for, in your view, not following the teachings of Jesus. What are some of your favorite teachings of Jesus? Do you believe Jesus was Jewish? Do you believe that He lived and taught and performed His miracles in Israel? Do you believe Jesus wished for Israel to be wiped “off the map”? In the current crisis, what would Jesus do, in your opinion?
4. You have told colleagues that when you were speaking at the United Nations in the fall of 2005, you were surrounded by a light from heaven and that for about twenty-seven or twenty-eight minutes everyone in the General Assembly was mesmerized by your speech—that not a single person blinked for that entire time. Would you describe that experience for us? Do you believe that God or an angel was with you at that moment? Do you believe Allah has chosen you to be the leader of Iran at this moment in history?
5. You say that the era of bombs is over. Why then did you sign a $1 billion deal with Moscow in December 2005 to buy Russian missiles and other arms? Why are you sending missiles, bombs, and $100 million a year to Hezbollah? Why are you sending bombs and bombers into Iraq?321
Though the media elite have not shown much curiosity either in these kinds of questions or in the answers to them, fortunately the same cannot be said of a small but growing number of American policy makers and national security officials. As Ahmadinejad’s statements and actions have become more outrageous—and as economic sanctions and diplomacy have proved increasingly ineffective—interest in the religious motivations of Iran’s leaders has grown steadily among government insiders.
Since 2006, I have been invited to Capitol Hill and the Pentagon numerous times to speak privately and informally with Congressmen and Senators of both major parties, chiefs of staff from both the House and the Senate, legislative policy advisors, and generals and other high-ranking military leaders. I have also had the privilege of being invited to meet with past and present officials from the Central Intelligence Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, as well as with foreign ambassadors, diplomats, and political leaders. Some of these have been one-on-one meetings. Some have been in small groups of a dozen or so.
In the fall of 2007, I had the honor of addressing about 125 officials at the Pentagon on “Why Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Eschatology Is Driving Iranian Foreign Policy: An Evangelical Christian Perspective.” All of these meetings have been off the record, meaning I am not at liberty to share who was in the meetings or what they said. I can, however, share what I said. On most occasions, my message was an executive summary of the material that follows.
Welcome to Shia Eschatology
The Twelfth Imam was a real, flesh-and-blood person who lived during the ninth century AD. Like the eleven Shia leaders who went before him, he was an Arab male who, as a direct descendent of the founder of Islam, was thought to have been divinely chosen to be the spiritual guide and ultimate human authority of the Muslim people. His name was Muhammad Ibn Hasan Ibn Ali, and it is generally believed by Shi
as that he was born in Samarra, Iraq, in AD 868, though few details of his brief life are certain or free from controversy. Sunnis, for example, believe he was born later.
Before he could reach an age of maturity, when he could teach and counsel the Muslim world as was believed to be his destiny, Ali vanished from human society. Some say he was four years old, while others say five and some say six.322 Some believe he fell into a well in Samarra but his body was never recovered. Others believe the Mahdi’s mother placed him in the well to prevent the evil rulers of the time from finding him, capturing him, and killing him—and that little Ali subsequently became supernaturally invisible. This is where the term “Hidden Imam” is derived, as Shias believe that Ali is not dead but has simply been hidden from the sight of mankind—Shias refer to this as “occultation”—until the end of days, when Allah will reveal him once again.
It is worth noting that on February 22, 2006, Sunni Radicals blew up the golden dome of the Al-Askari Mosque in Samarra, the mosque that houses the tombs of the tenth and eleventh Shia Imams and marks the site of the well where the Twelfth Imam mysteriously vanished.
Shias believe the Mahdi will return at the end of history—during a time of chaos, carnage, and confusion—to establish righteousness, justice, and peace. When he comes, they say, the Mahdi will bring Jesus with him. Jesus will be a Muslim and will serve as his deputy, not as King of kings and Lord of lords as the Bible teaches, and he will force non-Muslims to choose between following the Mahdi or death. “The spiritual position of the Mahdi is higher than that of Jesus in Shiism, but Jesus will appear when the Mahdi rises,” notes Mehdi Khalaji of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, author of Apocalyptic Politics. “According to the tradition, Jesus will: perform jihad under the Mahdi’s commandership and kill Dajjal—the Muslim concept close to that of the Christian ‘Devil’; [he will] invite people to Islam, killing Christians and destroying churches; and also die before the Mahdi.”323
By most accounts, Shia scholars believe the Mahdi will first appear in Mecca and conquer the Middle East, then establish the headquarters of his global Islamic government—or caliphate—in Iraq. But there is not universal agreement. Some believe he will emerge from the well at the Jamkaran Mosque in Iran and then travel to Mecca and Iraq. Some say that he will conquer Jerusalem before establishing his caliphate in Iraq. Others believe Jerusalem must be conquered as a prerequisite to his return. “When the Mahdi returns he will fight with Jews and kill all of them,” wrote a Shia cleric in 1409. “Even if a Jew hides behind a rock, the rock speaks and says, ‘O Muslim! A Jew is hiding behind me. Kill him!’”324
None of this is actually written in the Qur’an, and Sunnis reject this eschatology, so there is little clarity and plenty of room for debate and disagreement. But one thing that is fairly well agreed upon among devout “Twelvers” is that the Mahdi will end apostasy and purify corruption within Islam. He is expected, therefore, to conquer the Arabian Peninsula, Jordan, Syria, and “Palestine,” and then he and Jesus will kill between 60 and 80 percent of the world’s population, specifically those who refuse to convert to Islam.325
Signs of the Mahdi’s Return
The Bright Future Institute in Qom is a theological think tank established by Shia scholars in 2004 to study “Mahdism” in depth and to prepare Shias for the return of the Islamic Messiah.326 The Institute teaches that five “distinct signs” will precede the arrival or the revelation of the Hidden Imam:327
1. The first [sign] is the rise of a fighter from Yemen called the Yamani, who attacks the enemies of Islam.
2. The second sign is the rise of an anti-Mahdi militant leader named Osman Ben Anbase, who will also be known as Sofiani. He will be joined by another anti-Mahdi militant called Dajal, whom many Muslim clerics have compared to the Antichrist. The uprising of Sofiani will precede the reappearance of the Mahdi in Mecca by exactly six months. These two forces, known as the forces of evil, will occupy Syria and Jordan and advance from there. The forces of good in this battle will be led by a man from Khorasan, a province in Iran, and the opponents will meet for an epic battle near the city of Kufa, in the Shiite heartland of southern Iraq.
3. The third distinct sign will be voices from the sky. The most distinctive voice will be that of the angel Gabriel, who will call the faithful to gather around the Mahdi.
4. The fourth sign will entail the destruction of Sofiani’s army.
5. The fifth and final sign is the death of a holy man by the name of Muhammad bin Hassan, called Nafse Zakiye, or the pure soul. Fifteen days after he is killed, the Mahdi will appear in Mecca. [Then] the Mahdi will appoint Jesus Christ as his deputy. People will recognize the Mahdi because there will be an angel above his head shouting, “This is the Mahdi. Follow him.” The Mahdi will be wearing a ring that belonged to King Solomon and will hold the wooden stick that Moses held when he parted the Red Sea. His army of 313 will grow into ten thousand, fifty of whom will be women.
A similar perspective is taught by the Ayatollah Ibrahim Amini, a professor at the Religious Learning Centre in Qom and one of Iran’s most respected Shia scholars. In his book Al-Imam al-Mahdi, the Just Leader of Humanity, Amini described the signs of the coming of the Mahdi in great detail.328 Chief among them are a massive earthquake and the launching of a global war to kill or subjugate Jews, Christians, and other “infidels.” In one passage, Amini quotes Muhammad (from a hadith, not from the Qur’an), saying: “Listen to the good news about the Mahdi! He will rise at the time when people will be faced with severe conflict and the earth will be hit by a violent quake. He will fill the earth with justice and equity as it is filled with injustice and tyranny. He will fill the hearts of his followers with devotion and will spread justice everywhere.”
Wrote Amini:
When the world has become psychologically ready to accept the government of God and when general conditions have become favorable to the idea of the rulership of the truth, God will permit the Mahdi to launch his final revolution. . . .
A few selected individuals . . . will be the first ones to respond to his call, and will be drawn to him like iron to a magnet in that first hour of his appearance. . . . On seeing the fulfillment of many of the signs promised in the traditions, a large number of unbelievers will turn towards Islam. Those who persist in their disbelief and wickedness shall be killed by the soldiers of the Mahdi. The only victorious government in the entire world will be that of Islam, and people will devotedly endeavor to protect it. Islam will be the religion of everyone, and will enter all the nations of the world. . . .
The Mahdi will offer the religion of Islam to the Jews and the Christians; if they accept it they will be spared, otherwise they will be killed. . . . It seems unlikely that this catastrophe can be avoided. . . . Warfare and bloodshed [are] inevitable. . . .
The Imam of the Age and his supporters will overcome the forces of disbelief and godless materialism by undertaking jihad. It will be with the power of just warfare that the forces of God’s enemy and the supporters of disbelief and injustices will be exterminated. There are numerous traditions that speak about the impending use of force to achieve the goal.
Preparing People for the End
Muslim leaders and scholars tell me an unprecedented number of books, articles, pamphlets, and Web sites have been produced since the end of the 1980s, and specifically in the last few years, teaching people how to prepare for the end of days. Many such books have been huge best sellers in Iran and throughout the Middle East.
But Ahmadinejad and his advisors want everyone to be ready, not just those who can or want to read Islamic eschatology. Toward that end, a documentary film series called The World Towards Illumination was launched on Iranian television in the fall of 2006, designed to help answer the many questions Iranians have about the end of the world as we know it. Echoing the Bright Institute, the Ayatollah Amini, and other noted Shia scholars, the series explained the signs of the last days and what to expect when the Islamic messiah arrives. A
mong the key points the series made:329
• The world is now in its “last days.”
• The Mahdi will first appear in Mecca, then in Medina.
• The Mahdi will conquer all of Arabia, Syria, and Iraq, destroy Israel, and then set up a “global government” based in Iraq, not Iran.
• Jesus will come back to earth, but not as the Son of God or even as a leader. Rather, He will serve as a deputy to the Mahdi to destroy the infidels.
• The Mahdi will send ten thousand of his troops to the east and west to uproot the “oppressors.” During this time, “God will facilitate things for him, and lands will come under his control one after the other.”
• “He will appear as a handsome young man, clad in neat clothes and exuding the fragrance of paradise. His face will glow with love and kindness for the human beings. . . . He has a radiant forehead, black piercing eyes, and a broad chest. He very much resembles his ancestor [the] Prophet Muhammad. Heavenly light and justice accompany him. He will overcome enemies and oppressors with the help of God, and as per the promise of the Almighty, the Mahdi will eradicate all corruption and injustice from the face of the earth and establish the global government of peace, justice, and equity.”
• Before the Mahdi appears to the world, “a pious person . . . a venerable God-fearing individual from Iran” will meet with him. This individual will pledge allegiance to the Mahdi as he “fights oppression and corruption and enters Iraq to lift the siege of Kufa and holy Najaf and to defeat the forces of [Islam’s enemies] in Iraq.”330
An Israeli news site was the first to pick up the story and its significance to Israeli national security, noting that the program also said that the Mahdi will soon “form an army to defeat Islam’s enemies in a series of apocalyptic battles” and “will overcome his archvillain in Jerusalem.”331
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