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Islamist End-Time Prophecies
Paul and Fred, you may have read this before. These are a couple of popular prophecies circulating around Islamist circles world-wide. They represent the kernel of what has always been so frightening to me about the Deobandi/Salafist/Wahhabi mindset. Namely, that they can initiate any sort of atrocity against the West (America in particular), and in the end, Allah or his agent the Mahdi (or Issa, one supposes), will step in and save their bacon from the fire. The problem is that you get enough idiots believing this crap, someoneâs going to act on it. This is a very long article. I just posted an excerpt from the conclusion. Anyway, I thought that this fit in well with Paulâs article. There can be no doubt of the profound hostility entertained by Muslim apocalyptic writers towards the United States, and their intense desire to humiliate it and see it destroyed forever. While this is not the full fantasy of every one of the apocalyptic writers surveyed, it is definitely the dominant discourse, and fits in well with the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory. Muslims have not been able to understand the reasons why the United States would want to support Israel, and have therefore been misled into conspiracy theories about the United Statesâ being ruled by the Dajjal and the "world Zionist government." This fallacious interpretation is so widespread that one frequently hears it in casual conversation with Arabs who have no obvious hatred of the U.S. It is often simply stated as an obvious fact, and those who contest it are looked upon as profoundly naive and ignorant. There is a pernicious effect to this propaganda which is causing the larger Muslim audience to perceive conspiracies where there are none, and to lead them astray in the correct analysis of events. Qurâanic commentary has proved to be a fertile field for Muslim apocalyptists and it is clear that they are making every effort to maximize the possibilities of the text. This is in sharp contra-distinction to classical trends in which the Qurâan was rarely quoted and never used as a source for apocalypses. The interpretation of `Ad = the U.S. is one example of the contemporary trend of trying to anchor important apocalyptic beliefs about present-day peoples in the Qurâan. This is most likely a reaction to the heavy use of Biblical passages which is more common in Muslim apocalyptic writings. Many conservative opponents of apocalyptists condemn them for using the Biblical passages; by the use of the `Ad interpretation writers such as `Abdallah and `Abd al-Hamid are showing that they are knowledgeable about the Qurâan as well, and capable of producing an entirely new line of commentary on it. This level of fantasy (especially that of Muhammad `Isa Daâud) shows in a strange manner the perception of the outer world. For example, the appearance of the Mahdi gives us insight into the perception of how the world would be conquered for Islam. However, it shows no realistic approach; indeed the principal battles are not won because of preparation, intelligence or strategy. They are won because of Godâs active support of the Muslim armies. The attack on the U.S. is facilitated by the incredible strategic blunders made by the American forces (which are not out of the question of course, but recent wars should give Daâud no cause for optimism on this account). It is also remarkable how Daâud has such a blatant desire for power and domination for the Muslims over the world, and at the same time he is unable to comprehend how like the hated westerners he himself is in his pronouncements. There is absolutely nothing in what the Mahdi says, either in rationalization or in justification of his actions, which has not been used by western leaders many times over. He sounds exactly like many who have been prominent on the world scene, claiming to bring peace and being aggrieved when their "peaceful" overtures are rejected (most notably Hitler, but he has a strong strain of the "White Manâs burden" as well). There is an unbelievable level of arrogance in the Muslim apocalyptic writersâ rendition of the end-times, and their hypocrisy in saying that the U.S. alone is guilty of it, is quite startling and one finds new examples all the time (one hardly has to read very far in Muslim historical writings before one realizes that the Muslims were just as arrogant when they were dominating the world). Therefore, the self-criticism necessary to judge others is not present in these visions. Posted by: 11A5S 2003-08-11 |
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