Bernard Lewis, the celebrated scholar and expert on Islam, has warned that August 22nd might be a cataclysmic date for the Middle East and the world. As an article in WND today reports:
A
top expert on the Mideast says it is possible Iran could pick Aug. 22,
the anniversary of one of Islam's holiest events, for a cataclysm
Shiite Muslims believe will forever resolve the battle between "good"
and "evil."
Princeton's
Bernard Lewis has written an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal
advising that the rest of the world would be wise to bear in mind that
for those who believe the end of the world is imminent and good, there
is no deterrent even to nuclear warfare.
As WorldNetDaily
has reported, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has urged his
people to prepare for the coming of an Islamic "messiah," raising
concerns a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic could trigger the kind of
global conflagration he envisions will set the stage for the end of the
world. . . .
In
Islam, as in other religious, certain beliefs describe the "cosmic
struggle" at the end of time. For Shiite Muslims, Lewis wrote, this
will be "the long awaited return of the Hidden Imam, ending in the
final victory of the forces of good over evil."
The significance, he said, is that there's a "radical" difference between Iran and other governments with nuclear weapons.
"This
difference is expressed in what can only be described as the
apocalyptic worldview of Iran's present rulers," he wrote. Iran's
leaders now "clearly believe that this time is now, and that the
terminal struggle has already begun and is indeed well advanced." . . .
Lewis
wrote, "This might well be deemed an appropriate date for the
apocalyptic ending of Israel and if necessary the world. It is far from
certain that Mr. Ahmadanejad plans any such cataclysmic events
precisely for Aug. 22. But it would be wise to bear the possibility in
mind." More
UPDATE 8/10/06:
Bernard Lewis's piece appears in the Opinion Journal as well.
Joel Rosenberg weighs in on the subject over at National Review Online. What's interesting about Rosenberg's article, is that he states he has written two novels on radical Islam. Radical Islam has followed the very script he had outlined in his novels! Prescient? Up till now, it seems so. Rosenberg writes:
It is hard for many Americans to imagine an Iranian leader (or any
other world leader) actually trying to bring about the end of the world
by launching a nuclear attack to destroy millions of Jews and
Christians. But it is precisely this type of attack that I wrote about
in my recent political thrillers, The Ezekiel Option and The Copper Scroll.
One of my goals was to help people understand this brand of radical
Islamic thinking and its implications for Western civilization. On page
358 of The Ezekiel Option, a fictional Islamic character insists that Israel is going to be “wiped off the face of the map forever.” Five months after Option
was published last June, Ahmadinejad gave a speech vowing to wipe
Israel “off the map” forever. In the novel, Iran forms a military
alliance with Russia and starts buying state-of-the-art weaponry from
Moscow to accomplish its apocalyptic objectives. Last December, fiction
again became reality, when Iran signed a $1 billion deal with Russia to
buy missiles and others weapons.
Muslims are not the only ones
who have apocalyptic end-times views, of course. As an evangelical
Christian from an Orthodox Jewish heritage, my novels are based on a
number of “end times” prophecies that the Bible says will be fulfilled
in “the last days.” For example, the Hebrew Prophet Ezekiel — writing
2,500 years ago — described a future Middle Eastern war to annihilate
Israel that is known today by Bible scholars as the “War of Gog and
Magog.” Jews and Christians who take Ezekiel’s prophecies seriously
believe that at the last minute the God of Israel will supernaturally
intervene to defeat Israel’s enemies in this war. By contrast, the Muslim version of the “War of “Gog and Magog“ found in the Koran concludes with Muslims winning. The Ezekiel Option and The Copper Scroll
imagine how such prophecies could play themselves out in modern times.
But suddenly this is no longer the stuff of fiction. Ahmadinejad
actually seems intent on launching the “War of Gog and Magog.” (More here)