Iranian President Ahmadinejad

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has done it again. He has warned the world that an Islamic Messiah is coming. On September 26 he again stood at the podium of the United Nations in New York to tell a worldwide audience that this current world order will soon be over and that an era of peace and justice will soon be here!  Here is part of what said:

“God Almighty has promised us a man of kindness, a man who loves people and loves absolute justice, a man who is a perfect human being and is named Imam Al-Mahdi, a man who will come in the company of Jesus Christ (PBUH) and the righteous. By using the inherent potential of all the worthy men and women of all nations and I repeat, the inherent potential of “all the worthy men and women of all nations” he will lead humanity into achieving its glorious and eternal ideals.  The arrival of the Ultimate Savior will mark a new beginning, a rebirth and a resurrection. It will be the beginning of peace, lasting security and genuine life.  His arrival will be the end of oppression, immorality, poverty, discrimination and the beginning of justice, love and empathy.”

And just who is this “Imam Al-Mahdi” he said is coming? He is the Muhammad ibn Hassan, the “Hidden 12th Imam” (the “Mahdi”) of the sect of Shiite Islam to which Ahmadinejad and the ruling mullahs of Iran are fanatically dedicated.  It is their burning zealous conviction that very soon the world will endure an apocalyptic war between the forces of evil (i.e. the United States, Israel, and other western nations) and the forces of Allah God (radical Muslims led by Iran).  They believe that the victory of Allah’s armies will come when the Mahdi returns from his 1240 year occultation. These “Twelver Shiites” say Hassan (born AD 869- vanished AD 874), is the “Twelfth Imam” or “Hidden Imam”, the Mahdi (“The Rightly Guided One”), who will come at end of days to destroy the enemies of Islam.

The most frightening aspect of all this is the current Iranian rulers’ likely conviction that it is their divinely appointed duty to ignite the world wide conflagration that will usher in the Mahdi’s return. For that reason, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech the next day to same UN audience, the world cannot wait until Iran builds an atomic bomb and assume they can contain it as was done with the Soviet Union in the Cold War.  Unlike Communists, radical Muslims assume that if they die as martyrs in the holy war, they immediately will go to Paradise.  Plus, they are convinced that victory is inevitable so they have nothing to lose. That is indeed a chilling scenario! But history is full of cases of whole nations (consider Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan) going into wars believing they were invincible only to have their delusions crushed at terrible costs to themselves and others.

Netanyahu is right. It is time for the United States government and the rest of the world to recognize the seriousness of the situation and do what is necessary to stop the Iranian fanatics now before it is too late!