Awaiting
the Iranian messiah
A glimpse into the apocalyptic ideology gripping the Iranian
government
Yaakov Lappin
Published: 11.12.06, 22:42
He challenges the largest superpower on earth, threatens a regional
superpower with annihilation, and mocks international efforts to
keep tabs on his nuclear program. Where does the unswerving
confidence of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad come
from?
To whom did Ahmadinejad refer to when he told the United Nations in
September: "I emphatically declare that today's world, more than
ever before, longs for
the perfect righteous human being and real
savior who has been promised to all peoples and who will establish
justice, peace and brotherhood on the planet. Almighty God
make us
among his followers and among those who strive for his return and
his cause. "
According to Shiite Islam, the twelfth Imam, named Mahdi, is the
awaited messiah who will establish the rule of Islam around the
world following a massive war during which Islam's enemies are
expected to be decimated. Iran's official state websites are filled
with information about the Islamic Republic's messiah.
"Imam Mahdi was unseen from the eyes of common people and nobody
could see him except special group of Shiites... After the
martyrdom of his father he was appointed as the next Imam. Then he
was hidden by God's command and he was just observable by the
special deputies of his own," the Islamic Republic of Iran
Broadcasting website declares.
'One strike to end infidels'
Iran's state broadcasting website also contains a special hadith
(tradition) prayer, to be recited on
the birthday of the Mahdi: "Today is Friday, a day you are expected
to come; the faithful will be free of cares and troubles when you
shall arrive, and with one strike shall put an end to the intrigues
of the infidels."
Speaking to Ynetnews, Professor Raymond Tanter, one of the authors
of the forthcoming book 'What Makes Iran Tick,' which explores the
Shiite Islamist ideology of Iran, said there was no questioning the
belief of Iran's leaders in the coming of the Mahdi.
Tanter, President of the Iran Policy Committee , a Washington-based
organization comprised of former officials from the White House,
State Department, Pentagon, and intelligence services, said: "The
Iranian leadership, particularly Ahmadinejad, welcome the
apocalyptic vision of the return of the hidden Imam. And all the
strains of Islam believe in the eventual return of the Mahdi, also
known as the twelfth Imam, or the Shiite messiah. After a period of
great destruction, once the forces of evil are defeated, the
so-called twelfth Imam is supposed to reign over a period of great
prosperity."
"When Ahmadinejad was mayor of Tehran, he set up an urban renewal
program that would make it easier to facilitate the Mahdi's return.
He created passageways and roadways that would allow the Mahdi to
return triumphantly. He operationalized this concept," Tanter
added. The Iranian president did not view himself as the Shiite
messiah though, according to Tanter.
'Man of a thousand bullets'
"Ahmadinejad was called the man of a thousand bullets. Because he
would give the last bullet for someone who has been tortured, and
primarily executed by firing squad. Ahmadinejad's role was to put
the last bullet in, in case the person was still squirming. After a
thousand people had been killed, supposedly he said, he had it with
that particular job," Tanter said.
Tanter noted Ahmadinejad's comments after a speech to the UN
General Assembly in 2005, which he also concluded with a call for
the Mahdi to return. After the speech, Ahmadinejad said that "the
hand of God had held all of them" in a hypnotized-like state, and
had "opened their eyes and ears."
"Before the return of the Mahdi, there must be a suitable
representative to govern in the Mahdi's place," Tanter
explained.
"They are ruling until the Mahdi comes. That is the justification
for Khamenei to rule," he added.
Tanter said that "most of the ayatollahs in Iran don't buy this,
that you can facilitate the return of the messiah," adding that
Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah probably "doesn't take it that
seriously."
"Ahmadinejad is taking steps well beyond the rest of Islam," he
said.
Messianic nuclear weapons
"There is a link between Irans nuclear weapons program on one
hand, and its ideology of trying to facilitate a cataclysmic event
to hasten the return of the Mahdi. As a result, no conceivable
positive or negative incentives will influence the leadership of
the clerics and the revolutionary guards from acquiring nuclear
weapons. They need nuclear weapons in order to facilitate the
ideological precepts of the return of the Mahdi," said
Tanter.
"The process of diplomacy as far as Ahmadinejad and Khamenei are
concerned is to prevent sanctions that would constrain the nuclear
weapons progress, and to that extent Iran has done well to drag out
this process," he added.
Citing realist arguments that Iran needs nuclear weapons "to deter
neighbors in a tough neighborhood," Tanter said such views were
misguided. "These nuclear weapons are tied to the return of the
Mahdi, and no one says this," he says.
An excerpt from 'What Makes Iran Tick' left no doubts over the
authors view of Iran's intentions: "Just as it is in the nature of
the scorpion to sting, so it is in the nature of the ayatollahs
ruling Iran to establish an Islamic empire and destroy
Israel."
It continued: "Toward these ends, the regime pursues nuclear
weapons, subverts Iraq, and supplies money and arms to Islamist
terrorist groups like Hizbullah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic
Jihad
The deliberate initiation of war with Israel in July 2006 by
Hizbullah, most probably at the direction of the Iranian regime,
confirmed the worst fears about Ahmadinejad
a nuclear-armed Iran
the single greatest security threat to the international community
in general, and to the United States and Israel in particular."