http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profi...ticle338625.ece

 

More worrying for some is that Ahmadinejad is closely identified with the cult of the "hidden imam", the 12th and last of the line of imams revered by Shia Muslims. In a clear parallel with Jewish and Christian visions of Armageddon, Shias believe the imam zaman will return at a time of great turmoil to defeat the forces of evil; recently the president urged Iranians to work hard for this moment. As one commentator pointed out, this was like Tony Blair telling Britons to prepare for the Second Coming.

 

The most extreme zealots, a group called the Hojjatieh, say total chaos should be created to hasten the coming of the Mahdi, and there have been claims that Ahmadinejad, if not a member, sympathises with them. This explains his reckless attitude, say his critics. If the final triumph of Islam can be brought closer by provoking a nuclear war with Israel or America, why hold back?

 

It might be possible to dismiss this as scaremongering if it were not for a DVD circulating in Iran which shows the president in conversation with a conservative ayatollah. Ahmadinejad is speaking about his defiant address to the UN General Assembly last autumn, in which he refused to back down on Iran's nuclear programme.

 

"One of our group told me that when I started to say 'Bismillah Muhammad', he saw a green light come from around me, and I was placed inside this aura," he says. "I felt it myself. I felt the atmosphere change, and for those 27 or 28 minutes, all the leaders of the world did not blink. When I say they didn't move an eyelid, I'm not exaggerating. They were looking as if a hand was holding them there."

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Man, yet another reason that I love unflinching belief in any religion without critical thought processes involved. /soaked in green

 

Perhaps it is just me but many of the major pundit spokespeople for religions (Robertson, Lindsay, this Iranian schmuck, etc.) that say they are based on the sanctity of life really have a fixation with mass death.

Come on LCR, I have it on good authority that Ahmadinejad's quote about Israel was just mis-translated. What he really said was... " Mister Bush would you please send your cruise missiles to destroy our nuclear facility, Thank You".

while i'd like to whipe out the people in power in iran, i have to say that its about time the citizens there grew some cajones and started some overthrow s***. the people in power there are determined to turn iran into the next north korea

And this guy could own a nuclear weapon in as little as months...

couldn't bush sell him some of those nu-ku-ler weapons he's talking about?

 

they're filled with candy and confetti; THAT would give them a surprise.