MahdiWatch.org

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al-Mahdi is "the rightly-guided one" who, according to Islamic Hadiths (traditions), will come before the end of time to make the entire world Muslim.  Over the last 1400 years numerous claimants to the mantle of the Mahdi have arisen in both Shi`i and Sunni circles.  Modern belief in the coming of the Mahdi has manifested most famously in the 1979 al-`Utaybi uprising of Sa`udi Arabia, and more recently in the ongoing Mahdist movements (some violent) in Iraq, as well as in the frequently-expressed public prayers of former Iranian President Ahmadinezhad bidding the Mahdi to return and, in the larger Sunni Islamic world, by claims that Usamah bin Ladin might be the (occulted) Mahdi.  Now in 2014 Mahdism is active in Syria, as the jihadist opposition group Jabhat al-Nusra claims to be fighting to prepare the way for his coming; and in the new "Islamic State/caliphate" spanning Syrian and Iraqi territory, as its leadership promotes the upcoming apocalyptic battle with the West at Dabiq, Syria.  This site will track such Mahdi-related movements, aspirations, propaganda and beliefs in both Sunni and Shi`i milieus, as well as other  Muslim eschatological yearnings.
For a primer on Mahdism, see my 2005 article, "What's Worse than Violent Jihadists?," at the History News Network: http://hnn.us/articles/13146.html; for more in-depth info, see the links here to my other writings, including my book on Mahdism.

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Tuesday, November 24, 2015

The Waiting Has Been The Hardest Part: New Furnish Book on Islam

FINALLY, the first of my two books on Islam--specifically on Islamic eschatology and Mahdism--is available on Amazon for Kindle (and other e-readers) as well as in hard copy (paperback)

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3:00 pm est          Comments

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Inigo Montoya (and Me) on Apocalyptic--Iranian and Otherwise

The term "apocalyptic" is not only overused in many sectors of modern American public discourse--it is often employed inappropriately or flat-out wrongly.  (For a prime example of its ubiquity, how about ESPN's application of the term to the college football playoffs?)  At the most basic, level, ἀποκάλυψις means "unveiling" or "revealing," not "getting-rid-of-via-mushroom-cloud."  But that ship has long since sailed, and my pendantic finger in the dike will not really stem the tide (metaphors mixed intentionally, and gleefully). More specifically, Iran is regularly alleged to have "apocalyptic" plans for its nuclear weapons program--a contention which I have refuted at length both in print and, back in 2010, in a lecture at the Hudson Institute.  To paraphrase that philosopher and swordsman Inigo Montoya

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10:40 am est          Comments

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Wars, Holy and Secular: Putin v. Obama in the Middle East

On October 12, 2015 I gave a talk at the greater Atlanta Madison Forum on the respective policies of Putin's Russia and Obama's America in the Middle East.  Moral supported was provided by one Marion "Duke" Morrison

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4:31 pm est          Comments


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Jamkaran Mosque near Qom, Iran (during my trip there Aug. 2008)

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