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THURSDAY Five Signs of the Mahdi's Return? by Joel Rosenberg [novelist] 5/17/07

First, the good news: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Jordan's King Abdullah II will meet Tuesday in Petra and Aqaba to discuss peace. Olmert is expected to personally invite the King to visit Jerusalem to discuss the future of the region.

Now, the bad news: Olmert will return from Jordan to oversee a major IDF war games exercise as Israeli intelligence officials warn him that this summer could see a major war.

Latest warning signs: The New York Times is reporting this morning that Iran is enriching uranium faster and on a much larger scale than previously known. According to a new report by the IAEA, "Iran could have 3,000 centrifuges operating by June - enough to make one bomb's worth of material every year. Tehran may...be able to build an additional 5,000 centrifuges by the end of the year, for a total of 8,000."

There are new reports this week that Iran may join Central Asian military alliance with Russia. Syria has just moved up its schedule for a major military exercise. It was planned for the late summer and early fall. Now it will begin in May and run through July. This has intensified speculation among intelligence analysts that Syria could be preparing for a summer war. Palestinian leaders, meanwhile, are marking the "catastrophe" of Israel's rebirth by vowing to recapture Jerusalem. The European Union is boycotting "Jerusalem Day," which marks the 40th anniversary of Jerusalem coming back under Jewish control for the first time in 2,000 years. Meanwhile, an Israeli newspaper is running a big story this morning entitled, "If the Bomb drops...", giving people details of how to protect oneself in case of a nuclear attack.

In that context, if you're looking for some light summer reading, you might want to skip "The Nuclear Sphinx of Tehran: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the State of Iran" by Yossi Melman, a leading Israeli investigative journalist, and Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian-born Mideast analyst who works closely with the BBC, Voice of America and the Los Angeles Times. But if you're interesting in revealing new insights into Ahmadinejad's apocalyptic religious beliefs, look no further.

Major American news outlets like CBS's "60 Minutes," NBC News, CNN and Time have covered Ahmadinejad extensively -- even interviewed him exclusively this year -- yet keep missing the big story: the end of the world theology driving his foreign policy. But Melman and Javedanfar get it and report it in detail.

Excerpts from their new book:

* "Ahmadinejad is the first Muslim leader who has prayed for the hastening of the return of the Shiite Messiah, known as the Mahdi, at teh U.N. General Assembly, an act that reinforced his conviction that he was carrying God's words and acting on behalf of the Messiah....Never before had an Iranian leader so publicly acknowledged his messianic beliefs." (p. 42)

* "The Ayandeye Roshan (Bright Future) Institute, based in Qom, specializes in theological research about the Mahdi. It points to at least five 'distinct signs' that need to happen before the Mahdi appears." (p. 43-44)

1. "The first is the rise of a fighter from Yemen called the Yamani, who attacks the enemies of Islam.

2. "The second sign is the rise of an anti-Mahdi militant leader named Osman Ben Anbase, who will also be known as the Sofiani. He will be joined by another anti-Mahdi militant called Dajal, whom many Muslims clerics have compared to the Antichrist. The uprising of Sofiani will precede the appearance of the Mahdi in Mecca by exactly six months. These two forces, known as the forces of evil, will occupy Syria and Jordan and advance from there....[for] an epic battle near the city of Kufa, in the Shiite heartland of southern Iraq.

3. "The third distinct sign will be voices from the sky. The most distinct voice will be that of the Angel Gabriel, who will call the faithful to gather around the Mahdi.

4. "The fourth sign will entail the destruction of Sofiani's army.

5. "The fifth and final sign is the death of a holy man by the name of Muhammed bin Hassan, called Nafse Zakiye, or the pure soul. Fifteen days after he is killed, the Mahdi will appear in Mecca. The Mahdi will appoint Jesus Christ as his deputy. People will recognize the Mahdi because there will be an angel above his head shouting, 'This is the Mahdi. Follow him.' The Mahdi will be wearing a ring that belonged to King Solomon and will hold the wooden stick that Moses held when he parted the Red Sea. His army of 313 will grow into 10,000, fifty of whom will be women."

An additional indicator of the Mahdi's arrival, say the religious scholars to whom Ahmadinejad is listening, will be "the death of 80 percent of the world's population in a massive war."

The authors note that Ahmadinejad is telling associates time is very short, noting that in 2005, he "made the timetable more specific, saying the Mahdi would reappear in 2007." He thus increased government funding for the leading Islamic school that teaches about the coming of the Mahdi by 1,000% to $3.5 million.

"With Iran now able to enrich uranium, it could become nuclear in 2007," the authors conclude. "If that happens, Iran's nuclear arsenal might give the regime the confidence it needs to start a war, which could then become the 'platform' that Ahmadinejad has said he wants to create for the reappearance of the Mahdi."

NOTE: I leave Thursday for a week in Israel. Will send updates on the situation from there. CRO

copyright 2007 - Joel Rosenberg

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