A Nuclear Iran Looms Closer!

While the United States immerses itself in a self-flagellating debate on illegal immigration across its southern border, and the UN dithers about an uneasy and perilous peace in Darfur, while ignoring the looming crisis of Iran, the president of Iran pulls the world ever closer to the brink.

Today, WorldNewDaily.com has an article detailing how Mahmoud Ahmadinejad views the world, and his role in bringing about the end of times.

Iranian President Mahmoud's Ahmadinejad's mystical pre-occupation with the coming of a Shiite Islamic messiah figure – the Mahdi – is raising concerns that a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic could trigger the kind of global conflagration he envisions will set the stage for the end of the world.

We ignore Ahmadinejad at our own peril. As we have often detailed here, Ahmadinejad sees himself as a messianic figure, ushering in the return of the 12th Imam. This mystical figure will, according to Islamic belief, return to earth bringing about a final struggle ending in an Islamic caliphate across the entire world.

Ahmadinejad and others in Iran are deadly serious about the imminent return of the 12th imam, who will prompt a global battle between good and evil (with striking parallels to biblical accounts of "Armageddon").

An institute set up in 2004 for the study and dissemination of information about the Mahdi now has a staff of 160 and influence in the schools and children's magazines.

In Iran, theologians say endtimes beliefs appeal to one-fifth of the population. And the Jamkaran mosque east of Qom, 60 miles south of Tehran, is where the link between devotees and the Mahdi is closest.

Some point to divisions within Islam itself as a safety valve against this type of end of time scenario. But this article suggests our concerns on the subject are well founded.

Over the past few decades, expectation of the Mahdi has spilled over into Sunni doctrine. The Shi'ites believe him to be the returning 12th Imam, the Sunnis think he will be a restorer of the Caliphate. But both believe he will lead an army which will kill all the infidel Westerners, will convert the pliant Westerners, and will govern the world in a shar'ia utopia for an era before Allah wraps things up on Judgment Day.

Add to that the fact that al Qaida is predominantly made up of Wahabi, a breakaway sect that believes that both the Sunni and Shia are too secular, and will do anything to attack the infidels, and it does not bode well for the West. Wahabi doctrine is not above using both Sunni and Shia to accomplish their aims, then eliminating them after their usefulness is over, since, in their eyes, both sects are infidels as well.

Ahmadinejad truly sees himself as a messianic figure. Following his speech to the UN General Assembly last year he said this;

Ahmadinejad said that someone present at the UN told him that a light surrounded him while he was delivering his speech to the General Assembly. The Iranian president added that he also sensed it. "He said when you began with the words 'in the name of God,' I saw that you became surrounded by a light until the end [of the speech]," Ahmadinejad appears to say in the video. "I felt it myself, too. I felt that all of a sudden the atmosphere changed there, and for 27-28 minutes all the leaders did not blink."

By his words and actions, it is clear that Ahmadinejad believes that the return of the 12th Imam and the end of days is close at hand. It is also important to note that although Europe and Russia have offered Iran low-grade uranium enrichment for peaceful energy use, Ahmadinejad has dismissed their proposals out of hand. In addition, as reported here Iran has successfully enriched uranium.

Iran has successfully enriched uranium for the first time, a landmark in its quest to develop nuclear fuel, hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday. He insisted, however, that his country does not aim to develop nuclear weapons.

While this enrichment of Uranium has not apporached weapons grade, traces of weapons grade Uranium have been found in Iran. Supporters claim these traces come from the equipment purchased from Pakistan.

Still, they said, further analysis could show that the traces match others established to have come from abroad. The International Atomic Energy Agency determined earlier traces of weapons-grade uranium were imported on equipment from Pakistan that Iran bought on the black market during nearly two decades of clandestine activity discovered just over three years ago.

However, this link makes it clear that the Iranians have been lying about their program all along.

However, those traces were found at their civilian research facility, where the Iranians claimed all the equipment from the AQ Khan network had been installed. Finding the enriched uranium at a military facility would call the earlier explanation into question as well as generate questions about why the Iranian military has involved itself in what Teheran purports to be a civilian use of nuclear technology.

Whatever the explanation, the implication is crystal clear: the Iranians have weapons-grade uranium somewhere. The gap between the enrichment level of energy-production and weapons-grade material (5% vs 90%+) is so wide that there is no other explanation for the possession of the latter.

Meanwhile, he now possesses missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons anywhere in the Mideast. Soon, he will have missiles with a 5000 km range, easily putting all of Europe within his sights.

While the immigration issue is of importance to the security of our nation, we dare not take our eye off Iran, lest we wake up one day to find it too late!