Iranian President Sees End of World
Order
Kenneth R. Timmerman, NewsMax.com
Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2006
In a country of religious zealots, the extremism of Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has even his own countrymen sounding
alarms
Dissidents within Iran say their country's president is such a
crazed fanatic that he will try to usher in the end of the world as
we know it.
On Dec. 16, gunmen opened fire on the motorcade of Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as he toured the southeastern
province of Sistan, along Iran's border with Pakistan.
According to news reports, Ahmadinejad's personal bodyguard and
driver were killed in the ambush, although the president was
unhurt. The government-controlled media in Tehran attributed the
attack to "bandits," a term used to denote a wide range of armed
groups, from drug dealers to opposition guerrillas.
But in this case, the attack may have been part of a plot to remove
the Iranian president by a faction within the ruling clergy. At
least, so believes a Western source who has just returned from
talks with top officials in Tehran.
The faction seeking to remove Ahmadinejad does not object to the
substance of the Iranian president's repeated vows to "wipe Israel
from the map" and destroy America. Nor do they believe Iran should
abandon its secret nuclear weapons program, top Iranian government
officials said, according to the source.
Rather, they object to the fact that he has made such comments
openly and without ambiguity. They believe that his frankness
dangerously exposes them to attack from the United States, Israel
or both.
"This guy is not a politician," the source quoted one top Iranian
official as saying. "He is certifiably insane. And he is obsessed
with the Imam Zaman," the legendary 12th imam, or Imam Mahdi, whom
many Shiite Muslims believe will return in the "end times" after a
period of horrific battles, famine and pestilence.
Americans may find it curious that government officials in Tehran,
who have actively supported the Islamic republic for years, object
to Ahmadinejad's religious zealotry. After all, this comes in a
regime whose constitution declares that the supreme leader is God's
representative on earth whose edicts can not be challenged by
elected representatives.
But for more than two decades, Iranian leaders such as former
President Hashemi Rafsanjani have walked a fine line between openly
defying the United States and conducting covert aggression through
terrorists and sophisticated intelligence operations. Under
Ahmadinejad, these officials believe, that fine line has been
crossed.
Ahmadinejad's messianic beliefs and his obsession with the 12th
imam have become an open subject of debate in Tehran. Meeting with
his cabinet shortly after taking office last August, the new
president reportedly had Cabinet members sign a loyalty oath to the
12th imam, which they dropped into a well near where the Shiite
messiah is believed to be hiding.
In September, when Ahmadinejad took the podium to address the
United Nations in New York City, he felt surrounded by light. It
wasn't the stage lighting, he said. It was a light from
heaven.
He related his otherworldly experience in a videotaped meeting with
a prominent ayatollah in Tehran. A transcript of his comments and
sections of the videotape wound up on a hard-line, pro-regime Web
site, baztab.com
Ahmadinejad's "vision" at the United Nations could be dismissed as
pure political posturing if it weren't for a string of similar
statements and actions that clearly suggest he believes he is
destined to bring about the return of the Shiite messiah.
The mystical 12th imam, who is venerated by many in Iran,
disappeared as a child in the year 941. Shiite Muslims believe he
will return and rule for seven years in perfect justice.
In a Nov. 16 speech in Tehran, Ahmadinejad said that the main
mission of his government was to "pave the path for the glorious
reappearance of Imam Mahdi (May God Hasten His
Reappearance)."
Reports in government media outlets in Tehran have quoted
Ahmadinejad as having told regime officials that the 12th imam will
reappear in two years. That was too much for Iranian legislator
Akbar Alami, who publicly questioned Ahmadinejad's judgment, saying
that even Islam's holiest figures have never made such
claims.
At the same time he has made such statements, the new president has
repeatedly vowed to pursue Iran's nuclear programs, in open
defiance of the International Atomic Energy Agency and European
Union negotiators.
While many Shiite Muslims worship the 12th imam, a previously
secret society of powerful clerics, now openly advising the new
president, are transforming these messianic beliefs into government
policies.
Led by Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, who frequently appears with
Ahmadinejad, the Hojatieh society is considered by many Shiite
Muslims as their own bona fide lunatic fringe. During the early
years of the Islamic Revolution, even Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
found their beliefs too extreme for public commerce and sent them
scurrying underground.
Since taking the reins of government in August, Ahmadinejad has
placed Hojatieh devotees in his Cabinet and through the
bureaucracy, where they are leading a crackdown on students, women,
Western music and religious minorities.
On Nov. 22, a Christian pastor was murdered after the president
told a gathering of some 30 provincial governors, "I will stop
Christianity in this country." Other Christians have been arrested
and Bibles confiscated in recent weeks.
The president's opponents within the regime believe that the
widespread replacement of competent bureaucrats with Hojatieh
supporters having little government experience could prove fatal to
him. "The new guys don't know what they are doing, and the fired
people are angry," said the source who just returned from Tehran.
"So there is a window of opportunity."
But hints of "regime change from within," carried by emissaries to
Washington, may not be enough to deter the United States and Israel
from using military force to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear
weapons.
"The business community in Iran is afraid of two things," the
source who just returned from Tehran told NewsMax. "They are afraid
of international sanctions, and they are afraid of a military
strike by the U.S. or Israel. And they believe Ahmadinejad is
bringing both."
American Enterprise Institute scholar and former CIA operations
officer Reuel Marc Gerecht agrees that the new president could be a
blessing in disguise for those who would support regime change in
Iran.
"The only way Iran is going to get better is for it to get a lot
worse -- and Ahmadinejad may just possibly be the man to galvanize
a broad-based opposition to the regime," he wrote recently.
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The world is ending! The world is
ending! 
