[Dajjal]

Gents (and ladies),
I am a college prof whose dissertation was on the Mahdi. Go to www.meforum.org/article/159 for my article in "Middle East Quarterly" from 2002 on the topic!!!!
Tim Furnish
14 posted on 04/23/2004 11:20:58 AM PDT by Desertdoc

ping to #14

[AdmSmith]

Osama bin Laden graduated from King Abdul Azziz University in 1979 (Muslim year 1400) Certainly he was affected by the Grand Mosque episode with that self proclaimed Mahdi.

[FairOpinion]

Thanks for the ping to TIm Furnish's article.

http://www.meforum.org/article/159


Very interesting.

Tim, since you are an expert on Islam, what is your one paragraph assessment on the current radical trend of Islam. Is is possible to modernize/moderate Islam?

[FairOpinion]

I just went to your page, lots of interesting stuff.

Obviously you know a lot about Muslim beliefs.

After reading Desertdoc's article and the info on your page, I realize how little we (the rest of us) know about what drives these fanatics.

I think we do need to learn more and fight it on both fronts, as Tim mentions in his Bin Laden Mahdi article: both by force and by having more moderate Imams debunk them.

This is exactly what President Bush has been trying to do.