My research has at last turned toward Islamic apocalypticism; the details of the traditional, orthodox teaching are themselves interesting, and I’ll be elaborating as time goes on, but what is most striking as I begin is the affirmation of two important lessons.
- No religious system stands alone and complete. All of them, all of them, borrow and plagiarize outright from each other. This is happening now in modern Islam, where the orthodox Sunni and Shia teachings have been displaced by a pop apocalypticism that combines Biblical prophecy, Nostradamus, and Protestant evangelicalism.
- Religion prospers on bad news. The twin humiliations of Westernization, and poverty, are big contributors to the radical, apocalyptic beliefs that drive the one-time fringe, now not so fringe-ish, edge of al Qaeda.
Sunni Islam proposes an End of Days scenario similar, but not identical, to Christianity’s.
In the Sunni narrative, Jesus returns to fight the anti-Christ in Damascus, defeats him in Lud, and leads the army of the faithful at the end of time.
The Shia narrative is similar, but hopes are invested in figure called the Hidden Imam, or Mahdi.
In the predominant Shiite narrative, the occulted twelfth imam, also referred to as the “Hidden Imam” or Mahdi, will appear in Mecca and lead the Mahdi’s Army, defeating the unbelievers.
Again, a cataclysmic good vs. evil conclusion to ol’ planet earth, the wicked perish and the good guys live happily in peace forever. The vital difference? No Muslim could propose that he is Jesus, returned, but there is nothing to prevent anybody from claiming that he is the long-awaited Mahdi, or his messenger. The leader of the most violent of al Qaeda’s Iraqi militias does exactly that.
Which raises exactly the question we encounter when we meet the Intelligent Design crowd, Oral Roberts, others of that ilk: Do they actually believe it, or are they cynical opportunists exploiting simpletons?
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