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Ahmadinejad is on record as stating he believes he is to have a personal role in ushering in the age of the Mahdi. In a Nov. 16, 2005, speech in Tehran, he said he sees his main mission in life as to "pave the path for the glorious reappearance of Imam Mahdi, may Allah hasten his reappearance." According to Shiites, the 12th imam disappeared as a child in the year 941. When he returns, they believe, he will reign on

A striking bit of journalistic malpractice seems to have affected the mainstream media web sites this morning, as news site after news site failed to provide their readers with the transcript of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speech last night to the United Nations. As of noon at ABC News, it is as if Ahmadinejad never spoke, as their was no reference to his address in front of the United Nations on their Web site’s front page, and is notably absent from the headlines of their political section as well. I had to search Google News to find this report on...

Because of Ahmadinejad's goal of ushering in the coming of the Mahdi, I thought for context that these film clips, pointed out on another forum, would be interesting to Freepers for Context. It helps to explain his and other people's mindset. It is from an Islamic point of view, and interestingly refers to 9/11 as a Terrorist attack. http://youtube.com/results?search_type=search_videos&search_sort=relevance&search_query=the+end+times+and+the+mahdi&search=Search

The Role of Hidden Imam in the history and the politics of the Islamic republic of Iran. The notion of the Hidden Imam (Islamic Messiah) has a central role in the Islamic Shiite thoughts. There are countless references to the Hidden Imam in the Shiite books. However, following the victory of the so-called Islamic Revolution in Iran (or as some people say: the hijacking of the Iranian revolution by the Mullahs), in 1979, the references to the Hidden Imam has gained a new importance. The main reason is that the power and wealth of an important oil-exporting contrary, with a...

The notion of the Hidden Imam has gained a new weight. Ahmadinejad’s letter to President Bush was not based on the political considerations, Ahmadinejad thinks he has a divine duty from the Hidden Imam take certain measures. The Hidden Imam was born in 868 AD, named Abu'l-Kasim Muhammad. When the Eleventh Imam died, the seven year old boy declared himself to be the Twelfth Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi. God hid him from the eyes of men to preserve his life. The Hidden Imam entered the period of Greater Occultation, in which the Imam is the spiritual guide and light of the...

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.

Iranian President Mahmoud's Ahmadinejad's mystical pre-occupation with the coming of a Shiite Islamic messiah figure – the Mahdi – is raising concerns that a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic could trigger the kind of global conflagration he envisions will set the stage for the end of the world. While Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been making headlines lately by questioning whether the Holocaust actually happened, by suggesting Israel should be moved to Europe and by demanding the Jewish state be wiped off the face of the earth, his apocalyptic religious zealotry has received less attention. In a videotaped meeting with Ayatollah Javadi-Amoli in Tehran,...

Saturday, December 17, 2005 EDITORIAL Here’s the first Imam Mehdi for our eschatologists Last Thursday Faisalabad police played hide-and-seek on the Lahore-Islamabad Motorway with a group of armed men led by a man claiming to be Imam Mehdi. The men had hijacked a bus on the Motorway and demanded to speak to General Pervez Musharraf. The men later surrendered and let the hostages go when the police captured the leader Shahbaz Khan aka Imam Mehdi after a shootout which left one person dead and three injured. According to the police, 35 to 40 armed men wearing orange uniforms raided an...

Islam and Apocalyptic There is power in apocalypse. Fundamentally, the belief in the imminent end of the world changes people, and gives them the strength of absolute conviction that God is on the side of the believer, a very definite goal, and the impetus to excel above and beyond one's ordinary abilities. All three of these components are present in a truly apocalyptic group, and serve to mold it together into a possibly (though not necessarily) destructive organism, to which the outside world is an enemy to be conquered and dominated. While all of the above is well known and...

N.B. -- This is one of those column types where the author first summarizes a news item in one paragraph, and then expresses his opinion afterwards. The news item paragraph will be in bold type and Khaled Ahmed's comments in plain type (as they are at the source). And thanks, AdmSmith, for showing me the article! SECOND OPINION Khaled Ahmed’s Review of the Urdu press Friday, November 11, 2005 The Tradition of Imam Mehdi in Jeopardy Maybe lawyer MD Tahir should take both Allama Qadiri and Dr Israr to court and seek some kind of decision or punishment for them....

Asia Times Online, Front Page May 20, 2005 ARMAGEDDON: BRINGING IT ON By Syed Saleem Shahzad "And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon [Har Megiddo]." - Revelation 16:16 KARACHI - A short sentence in an American magazine has managed to do what al-Qaeda has not been able to achieve since September 11, 2001 - inflame large sections of the Muslim world and reignite passions between Islam and the Christian West. A report in Newsweek that US military interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had desecrated the Koran - subsequently retracted - initially set off...

Al-Sadr's Militia Named After Messianic Image By Tish Wells San Jose Mercury News Wed, Apr. 07, 2004 [EXCERPT] WASHINGTON - Muqtada al-Sadr summoned one of Shiite Islam's most messianic images when he chose the name Mahdi Army for his militia. The mahdi is believed to be the successor to Muhammad who will return to save the world. The word isn't mentioned in the Quran or in the collected sayings attributed to Muhammad, known as the hadiths. But the term is common to both Sunni and Shiite branches of Islam as the term for a leader who will bring righteousness to...

<p>BAGHDAD — The brooding, bearded young man stared at the ground during the interview, his words seething with anger at the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority and its handpicked Governing Council.</p> <p>He minced no words about his intentions.</p> <p>"Why give the Governing Council a chance? To prove what?" Muqtada al-Sadr asked during a rare interview last year in his cramped Najaf office. "We'll create our own government, set up our own Governing Council and create our own army called Mahdi's Army."</p>

CHARLOTTE, N.C./BAGHDAD (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) vowed to arrest a radical Shi'ite Muslim cleric leading spiraling anti-U.S. violence that has sparked fears of all-out war in Iraq (news - web sites). "We just can't let (the violence) stand," Bush said on Monday as U.S. authorities branded Moqtada al-Sadr an outlaw and U.S. helicopters blasted a Baghdad district where the cleric has a stronghold and sent in tanks to quell the violence. Bush said he would not retreat from Baghdad, but a new opinion poll as he campaigns for re-election in November showed support among U.S....

Canada's intelligence service has warned police that members of one of the deadliest terrorist groups in the Middle East may try to infiltrate Canada to set up a support base, a newly released report reveals. The report says the discovery of a Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) fundraising network in Florida "raises the possibility of PIJ elements crossing the border to develop a similar infrastructure in Canada." It also claims Iran and Syria have provided money, training and safe haven to the radical Palestinian group, responsible for a wave of suicide bombings in Israel. Marked "For Police and Security Officials' Use...

An Israeli intelligence analyst sees a frenzy of jihadist Internet communications as part of a "dangerous Islamic messianic whirlpool" featuring a number of prophecies culminating in the coming of the "Mahdi," reports the latest issue of the premium online intelligence newsletter Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. Some of the documents obtained in a sweep of Internet communications just before the attack on the Madrid trains are signed by an unknown sheikh – assumed to be a nom de guerre for Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri or others in leadership in al-Qaida. The communications make a number of predictions about world events...

MEMRI's President Yigal Carmon presented the following paper to the 2004 Stockholm International Forum on Preventing Genocide: [1] IntroductionJews, Christians, and Sabians [2] are, according to Islam, 'Ahl Al-Kitab,' or 'People of the Book,' and thus have special status. Their lives are protected, although their status is inferior to that of Muslims. However, non-Muslims who are neither Jews nor Christians are defined as infidels belonging to 'Dar Al-Harb,' the camp which Muslims must fight until Islam dominates. Although these definitions are clearly set out by Islamic law, they are disregarded by extremist Islamist circles, which brand both Jews and...

MUSLIM APOCALYPTIC WRITERS INDICATE FUTURE STRIKES ON NEW YORK AND VATICAN Muslim apocalyptic writers indicate that the long-term targets of terrorism will continue to be Washington and New York -- along with the Vatican. This is apparent from recent Islamic literature that focuses on what many Muslims believe is a coming anti-christ-like figure called the Dajjal, who will supposedly spring up from the U.S. and "Greater Israel," defined by many Muslims as worldwide Jewish influence propelled by the United States. They see endless mishaps for America and its largest city, from nuclear war to natural calamities by which -- in...

Dajjal (The Deceiver)by Sheikh Al-Khail bin YousufQUESTION: WHAT OR WHO IS DAJJAL? Answer:DAJJAL is not a person with one eye, “chained” at unknown islands (as claimed by many so-called Aalims, taken from Daeef-Hadith’s). In fact, DAJJAL is an evil concept or mission (Anti-Allah and its commandments) which will be carried out by a powerful group, not by one country but almost every country of the world. A powerful leader whose string will be controlled by the Jews will be the leader of this group.DAJJAL with “one eye” means “new world order”, a concept initiated by former President of United...

February 28, 2003 9:00 a.m.Sound Familiar? Understanding Islamic End-Times beliefs. any Evangelical Christians in America are watching events unfold in the Middle East with great interest, seeing in the preparations for war the possible unfolding of the End-Times scenario predicted in the Bible. A small segment of ultraorthodox Judaism shares an apocalyptic vision, centering around rebuilding the Temple on Mount Zion (where the Islamic Dome of the Rock Shrine and al-Aqsa mosque, now sit). What many Americans don't realize, though, is that Islam also has an eschatological endgame, and that like any Left Behind-reading American, many Muslims see current events...