Iran's New Man (Mahdi ? Oh No!)

That new fellow heading Iran is part of a Shia sect that expects the return of the 12th Imam. (The Mahdi) This guy disappeared 1000 years ago and his expected return would be preceded by a world turned to chaos. The Iranian president does not seem to mind creating conditions that would optimize the return. He has diverted government funds to a shrine promoting the sect.

They still need to build more WMDs, but his aim is to create unrest. We went after the wrong guy in the mid-east. We should have waited a bit longer for this guy to come into prominence.

It sounds like the Muslim equivalent of the second coming except they place their Imam in a higher position. In turn, the Christian belief is that there would be someone born of the Ten nations of Rome who would assist the anti-christ. So what is happening seems to be a face off between two factions who zealously interpret their futures in the context of a mission to rescue the world from an evil. The face-off could be avoided except for the fact that the western world depends on mid-east oil, the Jews want to do damage to Iran before they get the capability to do likewise, and we have armed forces already in at least 4 Muslim countries. Unless we leave (unlikely while the oil dependency exists), or Israel is accepted as a nation (unlikely ) , our continued presence over there galvanizes the radicals and gives them a larger following. I am guessing we have no more than 5 years before something happens. It doesn't matter if one is religious or not. What matters is that enough people believe that prophecy is soon to be fulfilled that they will assist in making it possible (from both sides). I had always thught it was our antagonism that would do it for our own high-minded reasons...but I did not appreciate that the Islamic world has a fundamentalist sect that is counterposed to create conditions for an Armageddon as well. So each side faces off with a sense of mission, and recognizes the terrible extent of some final battle that becomes necessary as a pretext for something better afterwards.

Now if we knew with some certainty that it was possible for time travel to occur, these events could all be a pre-condition to humble the progress of humankind, and to prepare them for the resultant rule to come. If a future intelligence could have seen the foibles of man or even human "progress" , and wanted to create a permanent humbling change or control, would one have planted seeds to create a battle between good and evil, and then step in to act as mediator? It seems odd that this event would come as we are about to uncover the secrets of our DNA, to become a space-faring people, and to wander into areas that might be deemed intrusive or too progressive for our own good. Seriously, any thoughts on the matter?

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[edit on 27/3/2006 by Umbrax]

Originally posted by NoGrinia
That new fellow heading Iran is part of a Shia sect that expects the return of the 12th Imam. (The Mahdi) This guy disappeared 1000 years ago and his expected return would be preceded by a world turned to chaos.

I beleive that almost all shia beleive this, and that almost all muslims beleive that there will be a mahdi and an end of the world, as do all christians, and most jews. In fact, it seems to be something that is just part and parcel of semitic religions.

It sounds like the Muslim equivalent of the second coming except they place their Imam in a higher position.

The Mahdi returns, usually to reform any excesses or innovations within Islam, and the Jesus comes back for the 'real' apocalypse.

The big difference within islam is that the Shia beleive in one line of 'command' from mohamed, with the 12th 'successor to the prophet' being "Imam Mahdi Mohammed", who, they beleive, went into hidding, and eventualy became 'occulted', that is, entirely hidden from view, but will become un-occulted at the end of the world. The sunni muslims accept a different line of successors as the legitimate successors to Mohamed, and do not accept Mahdi Mohammed as an Imam, and beleive that the Mahdi at the end of the world will be someone entirely different.

many muslimz believe that Imam Mahadi will come as a guide to save them from 'dajjal' -refer to the person..country..evil..or others that bring disaster to world n d residents. The Imam will act as a saver to people who still have strong believe in Lord.