Islam's Mahdi: Bringer of peace or war?

Imagine for a moment, if you would, that each year the American president, vice president, Congress and the Senate gathered together to strategize with Christian leaders to discuss how to "introduce Jesus Christ to the world and pave the way for his return." As surreal as this may sound, this is in effect what happens each year in Iran. But instead of paving the way for Jesus, the Iranians are paving the way for both the Islamic "Mahdi" and Jesus.

When the newly elected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stood before the U.N. General Assembly in 2005, very few in attendance understood what he was talking about when he prayed for the soon return of his messiah figure known as the "Mahdi." Four years later, many in the world media are still in the dark concerning who or what the Mahdi is.

Last week, the leaders of Iran held their Fifth Annual Conference on Mahdism Doctrine. For the past five years, the Iranian religious and political leaders have annually gathered together for two days in the city of Qom for what is called "The International Conference of Mahdism Doctrine," sponsored by the Bright Future Institute. The purpose of the Bright Future Institute is "to introduce Imam Mahdi to the world," to "pave the ground for his reappearance." After attending last year's conference, Dr. Timothy Furnish, in an article entitled "The Importance of Being Mahdist," featured in the Weekly Standard, also cited President Ahmadinejad as describing the purpose of the conference as helping to "bring all of humanity to the knowledge of the true savior of mankind, Imam al-Mahdi." This year, a growing number of "government officials, seminary and university students and religious figures" attended the event. While most of the conference attendees are Shi'a Muslims, each year a growing number of Sunni Muslims and Christians also attend. This year, 400 articles were presented and 40 were selected for presentation. After the completion of the conference each year, the conference papers are published in book form and also placed on the Bright Future website at mahdaviat-conference.com.

Understand the significance of the Muslim's Mahdi 'messiah' in Joel Richardson's new book, "The Islamic Antichrist: The Shocking Truth about the Real Nature of the Beast." Note: The book is also available in electronic form at reduced price through Scribd.

The theme of the conference this year was "the Society and Government which Prepares the Ground for the Appearance [of the Mahdi]: Missions and Strategies." Each year, a special tribute is also paid to 30 key individuals who are recognized as being particular bright lights in the ongoing effort to spread the knowledge of the Mahdi worldwide. These 30 are known as "the Helpers of the Mahdi."

The Bright Future's website this year also exploits both the Iraqi war as well as the global economic downturn to call all to devotion to the Muslim Mahdi:

With the collapse of communism as with the failure of liberalism and the disclosure of America's plots to plunder and massacre the nations from one side, and the expansion of communication means and trends toward the Global Village as well as globalization from the other side, and to quench the thirst of today's parched and weary generation, a new plan should be proposed which can compete with the hypotheses of the great world theoreticians concerning the End of History and man's final destination, and as a result, manage to fascinate the hearts of whole peoples, including the common and the erudite ones. We have to seek for a comprehensive theological, universal, trans-religious, inter-religious, noble, deep, ideal and reviving precept which can cherish hope in our hearts and our age, end the whole religious and non-religious clashes, solve man's problems, fulfill his desires, specify and reform the movement of nations, present role models in whole facets of man's life, and at last, achieve the nation's full potential to stand against the injustice and oppression of any kind. The only teaching, which enjoys these features and potentiality, is "Mahdism," and among the common terms, prevalent in the world literature, "Doctrine" sounds the most appropriate. Among the religious teachings, "Mahdism" is the sole teaching, which includes all these features. It is not a choice but the only one, and not a way, but the only one.

While the belief in the Mahdi has been widely held by Shi'a Muslims, it has taken on a dramatically more political tone in recent years since the election of Ahmadinejad. According to Savyon and Y. Mansharof, an Iranian scholar, "From the establishment of the Islamic Regime in 1979 to Ahmadinejad's rise to power in August 2005, Mahdism had been a religious doctrine and a tradition that had no political manifestation. The political system operated independently of this messianic belief and of the anticipation of the return of the Mahdi. It was only with Ahmadinejad's presidency that this religious doctrine has become a political philosophy and taken a central place in politics."

Mahdism is now increasingly being used as a political tool by appealing to the religious and nationalistic tendencies of various Muslims groups.

With news arriving that Iran now has the capability to develop nuclear weapons, this conference takes on an added dimension of interest. Dr. Furnish also notes that last year, one of the presenters, Dr. Mariam Tabar, asserted that the "military capabilities of the future Mahdist state depend on Islamic governments in the here and now acquiring abilities to stand against the enemies of the Imam [al-Mahdi]."

This year representatives from the Science Research Institute, the organization of Turkish Intellectual Adnan Oktar (also known as Harun Yahya) attended. Mr. Oktar has written extensively on the subject of the Mahdi and is highly regarded throughout much of the Sunni Muslim world. I met recently with Oktar in Istanbul. There, he described the coming of the Mahdi in the following very peaceful terms:

The Mahdi is a person who will appear before the coming of the Prophet Jesus, who will unite Muslims in the Islamic world, whose aim is love, who will take affection and compassion as basis, who seeks to eradicate all weapons from the world, who will disarm the world, who will eliminate all weapons from the world and build peace and brotherhood.

Many others disagree with Mr. Oktar's view of a peaceful Mahdi, however. Last year for instance, as Dr. Furnish's article describes, Ali Larijani, the chairman and speaker of the Iranian Parliament stated: "The time of the supremacy of one religion over another is not over, and Islam is promised final victory. The Islamic Republic and other Islamic governments need to prepare for the Mahdi's governance by promoting justice and development and, although we have long-distance missiles, we are not war-like." To Muslims like Oktar, Larijani responded by quoting Imam Muhammad Baqir, a famous early Muslim scholar, who said, "There must be bloodshed and jihad to establish Imam Mahdi's rule." Ayatollah Ibrahim al Amini, professor at the Religious Learning Center at Qom, affirms Larijani, when he states that "The Mahdi will offer the religion of Islam to the Jews and Christians; if they accept it they will be spared, otherwise they will be killed."

Joel Richardson is the author of the latest WND Books offering, "The Islamic Antichrist: The Shocking Truth about the Real Nature of the Beast." Note: The book is also available in electronic form at reduced price through Scribd.