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FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN
Iran leader's messianic end-times mission
Ahmadinejad raises concerns with mystical visions

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Posted: January 6, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com  (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48225) <= link

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, Ahmadinejad discussed candidly a strange, paranormal experience he had while addressing the United Nations in New York last September.

He recounts how he found himself bathed in light throughout the speech. But this wasn't the light directed at the podium by the U.N. and television cameras. It was, he said, a light from heaven.

According to a transcript of his comments, obtained and translated by Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, Ahmadinejad wasn't the only one who noticed the unearthly light. One of his aides brought it to his attention.

The Iranian president recalled being told about it by one of his delegation: "When you began with the words ‘in the name of Allah,' I saw a light coming, surrounding you and protecting you to the end."

Ahmadinejad agreed that he sensed the same thing.

"On the last day when I was speaking, one of our group told me that when I started to say 'Bismillah Muhammad,' he saw a green light come from around me, and I was placed inside this aura," he says. "I felt it myself. I felt that the atmosphere suddenly changed, and for those 27 or 28 minutes, all the leaders of the world did not blink. When I say they didn't move an eyelid, I'm not exaggerating. They were looking as if a hand was holding them there, and had just opened their eyes – Alhamdulillah!"

Ahmadinejad's "vision" at the U.N. is strangely reminiscent and alarmingly similar to statements he has made about his personal role in ushering in the return of the Shiite Muslim messiah.

He sees his main mission, as he recounted in a Nov. 16 speech in Tehran, 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 earth for seven years, before bringing about a final judgment and the end of the world.

Ahmadinejad is urging Iranians to prepare for the coming of the Mahdi by turning the country into a mighty and advanced Islamic society and by avoiding the corruption and excesses of the West.

All Iran is buzzing about the Mahdi, the 12th imam and the role Iran and Ahmadinejad are playing in his anticipated return. There's a new messiah hotline. There are news agencies especially devoted to the latest developments.

"People are anxious to know when and how will He rise; what they must do to receive this worldwide salvation," says Ali Lari, a cleric at the Bright Future Institute in Iran's religious center of Qom. "The timing is not clear, but the conditions are more specific," he adds. "There is a saying: 'When the students are ready, the teacher will come.'"

For his part, Ahmadinejad is living up to at least part of his call to the faithful. According to reports, he lives so modestly that declared assets include only a 30-year-old car, an even older house and an empty bank account.

Ahmadinejad and others in Iran are deadly serious about the imminent return of the 12th imam, who will prompt a global battle between good and evil (with striking parallels to biblical accounts of "Armageddon").

An institute set up in 2004 for the study and dissemination of information about the Mahdi now has a staff of 160 and influence in the schools and children's magazines.

In Iran, theologians say endtimes beliefs appeal to one-fifth of the population. And the Jamkaran mosque east of Qom, 60 miles south of Tehran, is where the link between devotees and the Mahdi is closest.

Ahmadinejad's cabinet has given $17 million to Jamkaran.

Shiite writings describe events surrounding the return of the Mahdi in apocalyptic terms. In one scenario, the forces of evil would come from Syria and Iraq and clash with forces of good from Iran. The battle would commence at Kufa – the Iraqi town near the holy city of Najaf.

Even more controversial is Ahmadinejad's repeated invocation of Imam Mahdi, known as "the Savior of Times." According to Shiite tradition, Imam Mahdi will appear on Judgment Day to herald a truly just government.

Missed by some observers in Ahmadinejad's speech at the U.N. was his call to the "mighty Lord" to hasten the emergence of "the promised one," the one who "will fill this world with justice and peace."

All I hope is that we get a democratic president in office BEFORE we take on Iran.

So your opinion is to not worry about it and let Iran nuke us?

According to Shiites, the 12th imam disappeared as a child in the year 941. When he returns, they believe, he will reign on earth for seven years, before bringing about a final judgment and the end of the world.

5 - provide a means for universal education, but not necisarilly the method

You'll get your wish in 08! Well, at least, you'll get your wish of seeing a democrat back in the office cleaning up the mess of the current administration. Whether we will take on Iran is another story. If they truely have nukes and are a threat (and not an maginary, fabricated WMD threat like Iraq was) to use them, you can count on a tough US response (or initiative)

Here's the thing - YOU could have a nuke and I wouldn't worry about you "nuking us."  In order to "nuke" a country, the country wishing to get their nuke on needs one of two things:  (1) long range ballistic missle strike ability and / or a sub program.  Iran has neither.  You don't just walk into Wal-Mar and buy a ballistic missle that can travel far enough to "nuke us."

Iran would be a geographic threat to their immediate neighbors.

I hope you understand the third world countries that already HAVE nukes?  Pakistan was going to nuke Israel if they got them.  Huh.  Never happened.  India was going to just start tossing nukes around like candy when they got them.  Huh...never happened.

Worry more about nations developing a true risk to the United States directly.  Long range missles are much harder to come by.

This is a religious belief, and this guy believes that he's been notified by some supreme power that this 12th imam is on his way.  

This is not to be confused with "I'm going to end the world myself!"

Not everything to do with the middle east has to have a quick trigger attached to it.

If I'm reading this wrong, someone please enlighten me.

If I didn't know any better, I would smell a "wanna fight" all through this thread.

This was discussed on the radio here in Seattle yesterday - that's the only reason I knew to google the article.

I'm not familiar with Islam so please correct me if I've been misinformed.  

There needs to be some apocalyptic event for the 12th iman to return.  ALLEGEDLY, the President of Iran believes he can create this event.

There needs to be some apocalyptic event for the 12th iman to return. <= from the radio discussion about the article.

Ahmadinejad and others in Iran are deadly serious about the imminent return of the 12th imam, who will prompt a global battle between good and evil (with striking parallels to biblical accounts of "Armageddon").

So your opinion is to not worry about it and let Iran nuke us?

Muhammad al Mahdi
 
Arabic: 'abū l-q&#257;simi muhammadi bni hassan
 
(868- ?) Muhammad al Mahdi (the guided) is the 12th and last Imam of the Twelver Shi'i, and is also known as Muhammad al Muntazar (the awaited).
Very little can be said of him with any certainty. In fact, the non-Twelver might very well question whether there was an historical person associated with the name. Jafar, the brother of the Eleventh Imam denied the existence of any child and claimed the Imamate for himself. In fact, accounts of public appearances by Muhammad al Mahdi often involve his mysterious arrival at key moments to challenge his uncle's claims.
In brief, the Twelver Shi'i believe that he was born to a Byzantine slave named Narjis Khatun, and that his birth was kept quiet by his father, the Eleventh Imam, Hassan al Askari, because of the intense persecution of the Shi'is at that time.
Hidden since birth, he reappeared at age of 6 to assert his claim to the Imamate, only to then disappear down a well to avoid the sad fate of his father and grandfather. For the next seventy years he maintained contact with his followers through a succession of four assistants, each known as Bab (Gate), Uthman al Amir; his son Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Uthman; Abu'l Qasim Husayn ibn Ruh an Nawbakhti; and Abu'l Husayn Ali ibn Muhammad as Samarri. The period when he used the 4 Babs as his form of contacting the Shi'is is known as the Lesser Occultation.
On his deathbed in 941 CE, the fourth Bab, as Samarri produced a letter from the Imam stating that there should be no successor to as Samarri and that from that time forward the Mahdi would not be seen until he reappeared as champion of the faithful in the events leading to the Judgement Day. Therefore, after 941 CE there has been no earthly expression of the Imamate. This period is known as the Greater Occultation. However, it is still possible to seek the Twelfth Imam's advice or intercession by writing him a letter and leaving it at one of the Shi'i shrines. To explain the doctrine of the Occultation, Shi'i theologians draw an analogy to the idea of the sun being occulted by clouds. While the sun is out of sight, it still exists and warms the earth.

OK, well the radio guys contradict the article, then.  Who's right, and who's wrong?

There are also such things as dirty bombs that do not require a long range ballistic missile to deliver them. When you consider that, they very well could indeed be a direct threat.

I have no idea. I just thought it was an interesting article.

Nope, I didn't find it funny and I don't think it was intended to be that way.

And I also take your cutting and pasting my entire statement as trying to pick a fight.

I know how countries came to be (nuclear power, wise) and I realize who is a threat to whom.  Trust me, I know it better than you.

You specifically said "nuke us."  Not our allies / interests.

I can play that game too.

don't worry about it (1) and Iran CAN'T nuke us.

I think the radio show you heard was simply trying to stir the friggin' pot (as apparently they have done here very nicely).

I like how the article came from:
FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN

That is a very reputable source. I'm sure he had editor after editor fact checking his piece.