Saturday, January 19, 2008

Tag Team Armaggedon

People who pay attention to pointless bloodshed are familiar with the concept of the Mahdi, the Moslem Messiah who will lead the forces of righteousness in the Moslem last days. Sad to say, many people have claimed to be the Mahdi. One, for example, is the leader of the Mahdi revolt in Sudan. His descendent Saddiq al Mahdi was the elected Prime Minister* of Sudan who couldn't even get a bill passed in Parliament releasing non Moslem Southern Sudan from the Sharia and was overthrown by the current non messianic but depraved General Omar Hassan al-Bashir (my joy at the thought of British imperialist turning over in their graves ended when I discovered how many Sudanese would join them due to Al Mahdi's fecklessness).

However, I have just learned how little I know about Islamic Eschatology. It turns out that the Occulted Imam was (according to Shi'ites still is hidden somewhere) named Muhammad al-Mahdi or Hujjat al-Mahdī (المهدى) or Hujjat ibn Hasan ibn Ali. According to Shi'ites he is the last true heir of Mohammad (others including King Abdullah of Jordan and King Mohammed of Morocco have made the claim IIRC) is currently hidden and will return in the last days. He has been returning with alarming frequency in Iraq recently.

Still more amazingly, I learn that to Shi'ites and Suffi's the final battle of good against evil will be a tag team match with the Mahdi and Jesus Christ teaming up against the bad guys. I wasn't sure the Los Angeles Times's got this right but Wikipedia agrees.


Don't you think that the Shi'ite "Left Behind" alliance could be potent ?

* the internet disagrees about Mr al Mahdi's exact title. I'm pretty sure he was Prime minister but, according to google, Saddiq al-Mahdi President beats Saddiq al-Mahdi Prime Minister 1370 hits to 502.

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