Posted on 12/31/2005 6:55:17 AM PST by l33t
Is Iran's Ahmadinejad a messianic medium?
By Kenneth R. Timmerman
Friday, December 30, 2005
With negotiations over Iran's nuclear program looming once again, understanding Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is critically important. Perhaps the best place to start is the moment the world first gained a glimpse of Ahmadinejad's character and hard-line program.
When Ahmadinejad addressed the United Nations in New York last September, he suddenly felt himself surrounded by light. It wasn't the stage lighting, he said. It was light from heaven. Ahmadinejad related his otherworldly experience in a videotaped meeting with a prominent ayatollah in Tehran. A transcript of his comments and sections of the videotape wound up on a hard-line, pro-regime Web site, baztab.com.
According to the transcript, Ahmadinejad said a member of his entourage at the UN meeting first told him of the light. "When you began with the words 'In the name of God'... I saw a light coming, surrounding you and protecting you to the end [of the speech]." Ahmadinejad confirmed sensing a similar presence. "I felt it myself, too, that suddenly the atmosphere changed and for 27-28 minutes the leaders could not blink... They had their eyes and ears open for the message from the Islamic Republic," he told Ayatollah Javadi-Amoli.
Ahmadinejad's "vision" at the UN could be dismissed as political posturing if it weren't for a string of similar statements and actions that suggest he believes that he is destined to bring about the "end times" - the end of the world - by paving the way for the return of the Shiite Muslim messiah. Given that Iran continues to pursue suspect nuclear programs, which could bring the Islamic Republic dangerously close to a weapons capability, a leader with messianic visions is worrying. After all, this is the same man who recently pledged to use Iran's newfound powers to "wipe Israel off the map" and to "destroy America."
In a November 16 speech in Tehran to senior clerics who had come from all over Iran to hear him, the new president said that the main mission of his government was to "pave the path for the glorious reappearance of Imam Mehdi (may God hasten his reappearance)." The mystical 12th imam of Shiite Islam disappeared as a child in 941, and Twelver Shiites have awaited his reappearance ever since, believing that when he returns he will reign on earth for seven years, before bringing about the Last Judgment and the end of the world.
To prepare for the Mehdi, Ahmadinejad said, "Iran should turn into a mighty, advanced, and model Islamic society." Iranians should "refrain from leaning toward any Western school of thought" and abstain from "luxurious lives" and other excesses. Three months into Ahmadinejad's presidency, his views of the 12th imam are being widely discussed in Tehran. According to one rumor, as mayor of Tehran, Ahmadinejad drew up a new city plan for the imam's return.
In recent weeks, Ahmadinejad's aides have denied another rumor that he ordered his Cabinet to write a pact of loyalty with the 12th imam and throw it down a well near the holy city of Qom, where some believe the imam is hiding. Those who give credence to the rumor point to an early decision of his Cabinet to allocate $17 million to renovate the Jamkaran mosque, where devotees of the 12th imam have prayed for centuries.
Similarly, reports in government media outlets in Tehran have quoted Ahmadinejad as having told regime officials that the Hidden Imam will reappear in two years. This proved too much for one Iranian legislator, Akbar Alami, who publicly questioned Ahmadinejad's judgment, saying that even Islam's holiest figures have never made such claims.
While many Shiite Muslims worship the 12th imam, a previously secret society of powerful clerics, now openly advising the new president, is transforming these messianic beliefs into government policies. Led by Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, who frequently appears with Ahmadinejad, the Hojatieh society is considered by many Shiites as the lunatic fringe. During the early years of the Islamic Revolution, even Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini found their beliefs too extreme and sent them scurrying underground.
As devotees of the 12th imam, the Hojatieh believe only great tribulation will warrant his coming. Akin in some ways to Lenin's doctrine that worsening social conditions would hasten revolution, the Hojatieh believe that only increased violence, conflict and oppression will bring the Mehdi's return.
Since taking office last August, Ahmadinejad has installed Hojatieh devotees in his Cabinet and throughout the bureaucracy. The Ministry of Information and Security, largely sidelined by former President Mohammed Khatami, has re-emerged as a powerful repressive force, using plainclothes agents, allied with the paramilitary Bassij and non-government vigilantes, to crack down on potential opponents of the regime.
As the world prepares to confront an Iranian regime that continues to defy the International Atomic Energy Agency over its nuclear programs, we must listen to what Iran's leaders say as we watch what they do. A religious zealot with nuclear weapons is a dangerous combination the world cannot afford to tolerate.
Kenneth R. Timmerman is executive director of the Foundation for Democracy in Iran (www.iran.org), and author of "Countdown to Crisis: The Coming Nuclear Showdown with Iran." THE DAILY STAR publishes this commentary in collaboration with Project
Syndicate (www.project-syndicate.org).
Crazy as a S#ithouse rat IMO.
I would define this as a psychotic episode.
Nuttier than squirrel turds.
Yes, but did he see a host around the sun?
"Crazy as a S#ithouse rat IMO.
Nuttier than squirrel turds."
All very true. Now let's see if we can make him as dead as door nail.
Maniacal medium?
When it comes to maniacal, I'd say he's actually an XL.
Ahmadinejad is a tool being used by Khamenei. When Khamenei has finished the job that requires the tool called Ahmadinejad, he will get rid of him.(and his followers)
Messianic or Satanic, not much of a distinction for those moon worshippers.
I would like to see his head surrounded by the infra red light of sniper scopes.
In other words Khamenei believes that the lunacy of Ahmadinejad will scare the west and Israel into sitting on their hands and allowing Iran to proceed with the development of nuclear weapons?
About as messianic as Adolf Shicklegrubber the failed painter from Austria. He and his nation could well suffer the same fates as a result of his lunacy.
I consider him more well done and soon (I hope) burnt.
Yep, he is. He's about to lead a large segment of his population straight to hell, where he came from. It appears this may happen very soon with aid provided by the US military and Israel.
No. The word you want is "lunatic".
Iran belongs with us and the free world.
The enlightened Iranians know this and will find a way to transfer ruling clerics into an obedient titular symbolic group with no real authority in world affairs.
War with Iran is unthinkable.
Their power and might is precisely what's needed to knuckle under the insane Arab nationstates who ,along with Russia,China and certain European countries, are underwriting the Worldwide Terrorism War.
Yeah, but, there's the fact that man already walked on the moon...Muslims say their thing ends with that, so...
Seems they just can't quite figure out which prophetic whatnot to follow.
I do agree that this guy seems surrounded by light but it's THE FALSE LIGHT, to no one's surprise otherwise. False light, as in, antichrist, devil, satan, angel of light sorta' light.
And that he's one crazy guy. Crazy as in insane. But that he's probably going to do his utmost to see that he ushers in the Apocalypse. Which is what crazy messianic types do, they try their utmost to usher in the Apocalypse. Been trying throughout recorded history.
The entire problem with this Iran vs. Israel thing is that once nuclear weapons enters into the issue, then the rest of the world is at risk of also Apocalyps-ing.
And what with also Kim Yong, and now Chavez, the world has some problems on the horizon.
Is this a bad time to point out that Satan's name is Lucifer - literally "Light Bringer"?
The anti-christ? The seven years of tribulation?
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