The most dangerous attitude of Ahmadinejad’s administration, and at the same time the most satirical one, was the allegations on his relationship with the idea of the emergence of the Hidden Imam. There were rumors that he was part of a messianic Shiite sect, led by the clecic Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi.
According to the Shiite lore, the Hidden Imam had disappeared in a well in Basra, and it is from there that he will emerge when the time comes. Ahmadinejad, as a devoted disciple of Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, took these stories literally.
From the news that leaked from the government, it was said that Ahmadinejad was a puppet to this dangerous messianic sect that had gradually infiltrated all the centres of power in the regime, especially the Revolutionary Guards Army. Information leaked out that he was preparing for the Armageddon; that he had planned to build a road from Basra to Tehran, so that when the Hidden Imam or Mahdi emerged, he could come directly to Tehran to establish his headquarters from there to wage war on all the infidels in the world. It was also said that there was someone that Ahmadinejad consulted very often, who claimed that he was in Direct contact with Mahdi and he had asked Mahdi to seal the pact between Ahmadinejad and his cabinet, most of whom had backgrounds in the Revolutionary Guards Army.
It might seem rediculus to someone unfamiliar with the Shiite messianic lore. But the belief that the Hidden Imam will emerge is very much alive in Iran, and as Islam is a highly political religion, the idea has overtaken the regime. If you review Ahmadinejad’s behaviour during the past five years, signs that he really believes that he has been chosen to prepare the atmospher for Mahdi’s reappearance become clear.
According to the lore, right before Al-Mahdi emerges, the world will be in a state of Chaos; Christian rule will be dominant; a sunni leader will emerge from the Middle Easet and will get engaged in a war with the Christians. There will be dispute over who has won the war, the Christians or the Muslims, until a big battle happens in which the Sunni Ruler will be kicked.
The first and second Gulf war between Saddam Hussein and the US and its allies was interpreted by this sect as the sign that Saddam Hussein was the Sunni ruler defeated by the Christians.
It is also said that before Mahdi’s coming, the red and the white death will arrive. The red death is the sword and the white death is plague. There will be a great conflict in the land of Syria until it is destroyed. Death and fear will afflict the people of Baghdad and Iraq. A fire will appear in the sky and redness will cover them.
At the time, adultery and fornication will be prevalent and performed in the open, the consumption of alcohol will be widespread, women will outnumber men, there will be conflict among the Muslims, the nations will gather against the Muslims like hungry people going to sit down to a table full of food, rain will be acidic or burning, children of fornication will become widespread, gains will be shared out only among the rich, with no benefits to the poor, men obey their wives and disobey their mothers, people will walk in the marketplace with their thighs exposed, great distances will be traversed in short spans of time, the people of Iraq will receive no food and no money due to oppression by the Romans (ie. Westerners), people will hop between the clouds and the earth, female singers and musical instruments will become popular, people will dance late into the night, smog will appear over cities because of their wrongdoings, earthquakes will increase, there will be attempts to make the deserts green, false messengers will appear, women will be naked in spite of being dressed, India will be conquered by the Muslims, people will begin to compete with others in the construction of taller buildings, two large groups, adhering to the same religious teaching will fight each other with large numbers of casualties, bearing false witness will become widespread, men will lie with men and women with women, trade will become so widespread that a woman will be forced to help her husband in business, a woman will enter the workforce out of love for this world, family ties will be cut, There will be many women of child-bearing age who will no longer give birth, men will begin to look like women and women will begin to look like men.
According to the rumors, these signs were traced and interpreted by this sect that had taken over the Revolutionary Guards Army. The emergance was eminent.
It is said that right preceding the coming of Mahdi, an army bearing black signs, created by a man from Khorasan and led by his general called Mansour (Victourious) will come to prepare the people. This army, on their way to conquer Jerusalem, will kill many infidels. No power will be able to stop them and they will eventually reach and conquer Jerusalem, where they will erect their flags. When the black flags of the Army of Khorasan appears on the dome of the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, the appearance of Mahdi will happen.
Ali Khamenei, the current Supreme Leader of Iran, grew up in Khorasan, a province in the north-east of Iran. The idea of the Supreme Leader being the vicar of the Hidden Imam and the Rule of the Jurisprudent is compatible with the prophecy of the man, who right before the emergence of Mahdi, will rule the Muslims and will conquere Israel and defeat the Jews. In this Shiite apocalypse, the Jews are the main enemies that should be wiped out, before the appearance of the Saviour.
Ahmadinejad publicly announced that Israel should be ‘wiped out from the maps’; and if you count the number of times he has mentioned the word ‘victory’ in his speeches, you might get a gut feeling that he doesn’t mind being called ‘the Victorious’.
The Army of Khorasan will help Al-Mahdi when he emerges, and together they will conquer the world. They will fight the Jews and they will kill them all. According to the saying quoted from the Prophet Mohammed, ‘The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him…’
Ahmadinejad clearly said in one of his speeches that the main reason behind US attacking Iraq, was that they new that a descendent of the Prophet Mohammad will emerge from Irac to burn the roots of all the oppressors in the world. According to Ahmadinejad, the US attacked Iraq to prevent the emergence of Al-Mahdi. He also claimed in one occasion (which is documented) that he was surrounded by a halo during his speech at the UN.
It was obvious since the beginning of Ahmadinejad’s presidency that he was not looking at his presidency as a political position, but a ‘mission’ assigned to him by God. Israel should be destroyed before the Hidden Imam would emerge. What the western countries don’t understand, is that someone who lives under the delusion that he is chosen to accomplish a mission, cannot be reasoned with. He will not give up his mission, as he is convinced that he will be victorious.
There is also another important element in this doctrin: Taqiyya; referring to a dispensation allowing Shiite Muslims to conceal or disquise their beliefs, convictions, ideas, feelings, opinions or strategies at a time of imminent danger; in other words: lying. This element has been widely used by Ahmadinejad’s administration.
