"Iran's populist President has a divine mission on his mind" -- article

[Matt Holcomb]

WHILE Iran stares down worldwide disapproval of its nuclear activities, uppermost in the minds of Western leaders is what is moving President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to such recklessness.

Political analysts say Iran feels strong because of high oil prices while America has been weakened by insurgency in Iraq.

But listen carefully to the utterances of Mr Ahmadinejad and there is another dimension, a religious messianism that, some suspect, gives him a dangerous sense of divine mission.

In November, the country was startled by a video showing Mr Ahmadinejad telling a cleric that, in September, while he addressed the UN General Assembly, he had felt the hand of God entrancing world leaders.

And when a plane crashed in Tehran, killing 108 people, he thanked the dead, saying, "they have shown the way to martyrdom, which we must follow". Most remarkable is his piety, his devotion to the Hidden Imam (the Messiah-like figure of Shiite Islam), and his belief that his Government must prepare for the return.

One of the first acts of Mr Ahmadinejad's Government was to donate about $24 million to the Jamkaran mosque, where the pious drop messages to the Hidden Imam into a holy well.

All streams of Islam believe in a divine Saviour, known as the Mahdi, who will appear at the "end of days". A rumour — denied by the Government but widely believed — is that Mr Ahmadinejad and his cabinet have signed a "contract" pledging themselves to work for the return of the Mahdi and sent it to Jamkaran.

Iran's dominant "Twelver" sect believes this will be the "12th imam" (righteous descendant) of the Prophet Muhammad.

The 12th imam is said to have gone into hiding in the ninth century, at the age of five, and his return will be preceded by cosmic chaos, war and bloodshed.

After a cataclysmic confrontation with evil and darkness, the Mahdi will lead the world to an era of universal peace.

This is similar to the Christian vision of the Apocalypse. Indeed, the Hidden Imam is expected to return in the company of Jesus.

Mr Ahmadinejad appears to believe these events are close at hand and that ordinary mortals can influence the divine timetable.

The prospect of such a man obtaining nuclear weapons is worrying. The unspoken question is whether he is tempting a clash with the West because he feels safe in the belief of the imminent return of the Hidden Imam.

Worse, he might try to provoke chaos in the hope of hastening his reappearance.

Mr Ahmadinejad, 49, (a former top engineering student, member of the Revolutionary Guards and mayor of Tehran), overturned Iranian politics when he unexpectedly won last June's presidential elections.

The main rift is no longer between "reformists" and "hardliners", but between the clerical establishment and Mr Ahmadinejad's brand of revolutionary populism and superstition.

Its most remarkable manifestation came with his international debut, his speech to the UN.

World leaders had expected a conciliatory proposal. Instead, they heard a speech in apocalyptic terms of Iran struggling against an evil West that sought to promote "state terrorism" and divide the world into "light and dark countries".

He ended with the messianic appeal to God to "hasten the emergence of your last repository, the Promised One, that perfect and pure human being, the one that will fill this world with justice and peace".

A video on an Iranian website in November had Mr Ahmadinejad describing how an Iranian colleague claimed to have seen a glow of light around the President as he began his speech to the UN.

"I felt it myself too," Mr Ahmadinejad recounts. "I felt that all of a sudden the atmosphere changed there. And for 27-28 minutes all the leaders did not blink … They were astonished, as if a hand held them there and made them sit. It had opened their eyes and ears for the message of the Islamic Republic."

Western officials said the real reason for open-eyed stares was that Western leaders "couldn't believe what they were hearing".

The sneaking suspicion is that Iran's President actually relishes a clash with the West, believing it would rekindle the spirit of the Islamic revolution and, perhaps, speed the return of the Hidden Imam.

TELEGRAPH

[Aurel]

Maybe he got the `divine mission` idea from GW Bush...

Aurel

[Leland Pate]

Is it just me or is this particular brand of Islam very similar to how Christianity was in the 13th century?
Violence and intolerance.

[techweenie]

Originally posted by Leland Pate
Is it just me or is this particular brand of Islam very similar to how Christianity was in the 13th century?
Violence and intolerance.

Yes, I think you're right. The need to disempower, torture and kill the people who don't believe like you do seems tied into all sorts of fundamentalism.

[Nathans_Dad]

I agree Tech, damn liberal fundamentalists always killing people...

[aways]

The moral relativism expressed in some of the posts here is nausiating...

[Joeaksa]

Originally posted by Leland Pate
Is it just me or is this particular brand of Islam very similar to how Christianity was in the 13th century?
Violence and intolerance.

Agreed and its very worrisome. The parallels to the Crusades are starting to worry a lot of people...

JoeA

[Mulhollanddose]

Originally posted by Joeaksa
Agreed and its very worrisome. The parallels to the Crusades are starting to worry a lot of people...

JoeA

The Crusades were a reaction to Islamic imperialism...Nothing has changed.