More ominous news out of Iran

News that the MSM seems to be largely ignoring:

As Iran rushes towards confrontation with the world over its nuclear programme, the question uppermost in the mind of western leaders is "What is moving its President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to such recklessness?"

Political analysts point to the fact that Iran feels strong because of high oil prices, while America has been weakened by the insurgency in Iraq.

But listen carefully to the utterances of Mr Ahmadinejad - recently described by President George W Bush as an "odd man" - and there is another dimension, a religious messianism that, some suspect, is giving the Iranian leader a dangerous sense of divine mission.

In November, the country was startled by a video showing Mr Ahmadinejad telling a cleric that he had felt the hand of God entrancing world leaders as he delivered a speech to the UN General Assembly last September.

When an aircraft crashed in Teheran last month, killing 108 people, Mr Ahmadinejad promised an investigation. But he also thanked the dead, saying: "What is important is that they have shown the way to martyrdom which we must follow."

The most remarkable aspect of Mr Ahmadinejad's piety is his devotion to the Hidden Imam, the Messiah-like figure of Shia Islam, and the president's belief that his government must prepare the country for his return.

One of the first acts of Mr Ahmadinejad's government was to donate about £10 million to the Jamkaran mosque, a popular pilgrimage site where the pious come to 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 common 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 Mohammed ibn Hasan, regarded as the 12th Imam, or righteous descendant of the Prophet Mohammad.

He is said to have gone into "occlusion" in the ninth century, at the age of five. 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.

While the media elite and their secular and religious sycophants worry about a theocracy here in the United States or suffer from the stress and anxiety brought on by Bush Derangement Syndrome, something I think to be laughably silly, they turn what seems to be a blind eye to a madman in the Middle East who may soon have nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them and who apparently thinks that good portions of the Left Behind series, with a Muslim twist, should soon be unfolding.

Back in August, PresbyPoet left these related comments on the blog:

When we pull back [from Iraq] to secure bases to prepare for Iran, the local forces will finish the job. We need more time for training, the bombings do slow down some recovery, it isn't easy, but compared to where I expected us to be after two years, we are on track. I expected a five year program. We are after all building up a democracy from scratch. When did our occupation forces leave Japan and Germany?

...

This war isn't over. It will not be over until those who think they can impose Islam are completely defeated.

I cringe at every report of yet another American death in Iraq or Afghanistan.  And yet I continue to see the necessity to face down this kind of evil militarily.  This guy in Iran gives me the creeps.  I hope and pray that he can be contained in some other way and yet I'm a student of history and a realist.

I think PresbyPoet is being prophetic.

God have mercy.

MORE: From this morning's Guardian Unlimited:

Iran stepped up its defiance of international pressure over its nuclear programme yesterday by warning of soaring oil prices if it is subjected to economic sanctions. As diplomats from the US, Europe, Russia, and China prepared to meet today in London to discuss referring Tehran to the UN security council, Iran's economy minister, Davoud Danesh-Jafari, said the country's position as the world's fourth-largest oil producer meant such action would have grave consequences.

"Any possible sanctions from the west could possibly, by disturbing Iran's political and economic situation, raise oil prices beyond levels the west expects," he told Iranian state radio.

In a provocative move, Iran also announced plans yesterday to convene a "scientific" conference to examine the evidence supporting the Holocaust. The news comes weeks after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad provoked a global outcry by describing the slaughter of 6 million Jews by the Nazis in the second world war as a "myth".

Many have used the term Islamofascism to describe the radical elements found within the Muslim community.

Can there be any doubt now that we are seeing a new fascism?  Some of us need to wake up.

Comments

[Presbypoet]

I hope if I am prophetic, it is in line with the prophecy of Jonah who warned of danger, and Nineveh repented. Iran does not seem about to repent.

Bush promised Iran will not get nukes. This is the great question of 2006. Will Bush keep his promise?

With Iraq ready to stand on its own, the time is now for Iran to choose either peace, or attack by the U.S. on its nuclear facilities. The danger of a nuclear bomb in Iranian hands scares me.

The leader of Iran has as much as promised that they will use a bomb if they get one. While it may be hard to get it to America, Israel is much closer.

My greatest fear is Israel has set up a Samson (MAD) option, (if a bomb goes off in Israel, all the major Arab/Moslem Capitals go up in response). No more passively going to the ovens. So it may not simply be a matter of one bomb going off, but fifty. If one of those is targeted at Pakistan, how do they respond? Do they have a "MAD" response to India? The world gets very dangerous very quickly. That is what scares me. Grave danger threatens if we fail to act.

Iran seems to think we will not act. Are they right?

[chuckels]

Not wanting to take away from the seriousness of this situation, but sometimes I think these idiots mouth this type of rhetoric to keep their hate filled masses in lock-step with them, a popular thing. Then again there was once this idiot named Saddam that ran his mouth and took action on his madness!

I'm ready to lob a few bunker-busters into their development labs myself. That would seem to me to be appropriate for having Iran's leader take responsibility for his words. Where is the outcry from the MSM about the threat to the human-rights of the Jewish people this man in his hate-speech is threatening to destroy?

chuckels

[Leslie]

This from Chuck Colson gives a person even more cold chills:

Iran's president is not only a devout Shiite Muslim; he is also what is known as a Mahdaviat. The term means "one who believes in and prepares for the Mahdi." The Mahdi, also known as the "Twelfth Imam," is the Shiite equivalent of a messiah: "the restorer of religion and justice who will rule before the end of the world."

For Ahmadinejad, preparing for the Mahdi has included "secretly [instructing]
the [Tehran] city council to build a grand avenue to prepare for the Mahdi," the
building of a special mosque dedicated to the cult of the Mahdi, and construction of a railroad line to transport pilgrims there.

And his "preparation" is not limited to actions within Iran: When he addressed
the UN, Ahmadinejad prayed for God to "hasten the emergence of . . . the
Promised One . . . that will fill this world with justice and peace."