blog.Tribulationperiod.com

Persian Shiite Jihad power frightens Sunni Arabs!

Obama has learned dialog doesn’t work with Iran!

I think he is learning a Middle East War is Inevitable,

And is planning to provide antimissile defenses to Arab

Nations standing against Iran in fear of being Conquered

I believe this is one of the reasons Libya is now building Up

Its antimissile defense by buying Russian defensive Systems!

Islamic nation leaders are preparing for War to Stay in Power!

Each passing year will increase likelihood for war prior to 2015!

February 1, 2010

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Begin Excerpt 1 from DEBKAfile Special Report

US speeds up its own and Gulf allies’ preparations for clash with Iran

DEBKAfile Special Report

January 31, 2010, 1`2:27 AM (GMT+02:00)

The Obama administration took the unusual step Saturday night, Jan. 30, of leaking word to major US media that the United States, Saudi Arabia and Gulf allies – the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain – have accelerated the deployment of new defenses against possible Iranian missile attacks.

They are preparing for Iran, or its surrogate Hizballah, to hit back for a possible US or strikes on Tehran’ s nuclear facilitie

s.

DEBKAfile’s US military sources confirm that Washington plans to treble the 10,000-strong US troop contingent, already present in Saudi Arabia for guarding its oil fields and port facilities against medium or short-range Iranian missile attack, or sabotage by Hizballah marine units trained for their mission by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Additional US Aegis missile interceptor cruisers with advanced radar and anti-missile systems were also reported to be heading for round-the-clock patrol around Iranian shores,

with more Patriot anti-missile missiles to reinforce the eight batteries already deployed in the four emirates.

The Obama administration set these exceptional steps in motion, DEBKAfile reports, in anticipation of nuclear provocations from Tehran while the regime celebrates the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution from Feb.1-11.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has promised to announce Iran’s attainment of a 20 percent uranium enrichment capability, a short step to weapons grade material.

Some high-ranking Revolutionary Guards officers have also said that Iran will parade a new type of surface missile during the celebrations, without revealing its features, while Iranian space scientists predicted the launch of a new spy satellite of the Toloo series.

All this was taken in Washington as a challenge that could not be left without an appropriate response. Administration officials also feared that Israel might be goaded into going forward with a military operation against Iran’s nuclear facilities. The Gulf Arab states were in need of reassurance too.

The White House’s decision to deploy additional defenses in the Gulf came only a day after National Security Adviser James Jones warned that Iran was liable to react to pressure by having its proxies Hizballah and Hamas attack Israel. The abruptness of this step pointed to the administration having woken up to the realization that its diplomatic and military position in the region was in grave jeopardy and in dire need of shoring up without delay.

Begin Excerpt 2 from Jerusalem Post

US expediting Persian Gulf anti-missile systems

By JPOST.COM STAFF

31/01/2010 01:12

According to New York Times, at least 4 Arab countries to host systems; move to deter Iran from attack in face of upcoming sanctions, and prevent Israeli strike at nuclear facilities.

The US is placing special ships off the Iranian coast and antimissile systems in at least four Arab countries, according to administration and military officials, in what appears to be the deployment of new defenses against possible Iranian missile attacks in the Persian Gulf, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

In his recent State of the Union address, US President Barack Obama warned that his administration’s diplomatic outreach to will now be combined with the “consequences.” Obama’s administration is attempting to garner broad international consensus for imposing sanctions against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, which apparently controls the military side of the nuclear program.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s public warning of Beijing on Friday, that its opposition to sanctions was shortsighted, were part of this effort.

The deployments are an attempt to show Jerusalem that there is no immediate need for military strikes against Iranian nuclear and missile facilities, according to administration officials, all of whom requested anonymity, the Times reported, and in part meant to forestall any Iranian escalation of its confrontation with the West if a new set of sanctions is imposed.

Begin Excerpt 3 from YNet News

Putin: Libya, Russia agree $1.8 billion arms deal

Interfaz quorwa military-diplomatic source as saying Libya prepared to buy some 20 fighter planes and S-300PMU2 air defense systems

Reuters

Published: o1.30.10, 19:12 / Israel News

Libya has signed an arms deal with Russia worth 1.3 billion euros ($1.8 billion), Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was quoted as saying on Saturday.

“Only yesterday we signed a contract worth 1.3 billion euros,” Putin said, according to RIA Novosti.

“And it’s not only small arms,” he added, without specifying which weapons Libya intended to purchase.

Interfax news agency quoted a military-diplomatic source as saying Libya was prepared to buy around 20 fighter planes and S-300PMU2 air defense systems.

The deal was signed after talks with Libyan defense minister, Major General Abu-Bakr Yunis Jabr, earlier this week in Moscow.

It comes days after the Libyan Investment Authority bought into the Hong Kong IPO of UC RUSAL, the world’s biggest aluminum producer.

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January light breeze of War will turn into a Tornado before 2015!

This current breeze will be a breeze until U.S. troops are pulled Out

And Iran has acquired a sufficient deterrent arsenal of nuclear Missiles

Then Hizbollah Will launch an Array of Missiles and Israel

Will Push North

Until this happens there will naturally be periods of tension & saber Rattling

With each passing year the Odds of Daniel 11:40 beginning Will BE Increasing!

January 31, 2010

http://www.tribulationperiod.com

Daniel 11:40 to 12:1 – And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. [41] He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. [42] He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. [43] But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans

and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. [44] But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. [45] And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

[1] And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

Begin Excerpt 1 from Zeebee via World News

Israeli minister warns of new war with Hezbollah

Jerusalem: Israel is heading toward a new war with Lebanon’s Shiite movement Hezbollah, a cabinet minister warned on Saturday in remarks carried by military radio and the popular Ynet news website.

“We are heading toward a new confrontation in the north but I don’t know when it will happen, just as we did not know when the second Lebanon war would erupt,” said Yossi Peled, a minister without portfolio and a reserve army general.

He was referring to the devastating war Israel fought with Hezbollah in 2006, which killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, most of them civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

Hezbollah is part of a new coalition government formed in November by US-and Saudi-backed Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

The group is also the only faction still armed after Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war.

“Although Hezbollah is part of the Lebanese government, the latter has no influence on it,” Peled said, adding the Jewish state will hold Hezbollah and its ally Syria responsible for any attack on Israel.

Israeli officials have repeatedly warned in recent weeks that any attack by Hezbollah would be met with a strong response.

PTI

Begin Excerpt 2 from Middle East Online via World News

Hezbollah warns Israel against launching new war

Lebanon’s Nasrallah: Israel again beating drums of war to try to restore its military’s reputation.

BEIRUT – Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said Friday he was confident that any new conflict with Israel would see his powerful group emerge victorious and change the face of the region.

“I promise you, in view of all the threats you hear today… that should a new war with the Zionists erupt, we will crush the enemy, come out victorious and change the face of the region,” he said via video link to an Arab and international forum for resistance movements in Beirut.

“The future of this region is the resistance, dignity, freedom,” Nasrallah told an audience that included representatives from Iran, Syria and other countries, as well as Hamas’s exiled leader Khaled Meshaal.

“God willing, Israel, the occupation, hegemony and arrogance are in the process of disappearing.”
Nasrallah said that Israel was again beating the drums of war to try to restore its military’s reputation as an invincible regional force.

Israel waged a bloody 34-day war on Lebanon in the summer of 2006 after Hezbollah fighters seized two Israeli soldiers in a deadly cross-border raid that aimed to free Lebanese soldiers from Israeli prisons. The bodies of the soldiers were returned in a prisoner swap.

The war claimed the lives of more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, most of them civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers.

Hezboll ah, origin

ally a resistance group formed to counter an Israeli occupation of south Lebanon, had forced the Israeli military out of Lebanon in 2000.

Israel, however, continues to occupy the Lebanese Shabaa Farms.

Israeli flights over Lebanon occur on an almost daily basis and are in breach of UN Security Council resolution 1710, which in August 2006 ended the war.

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THE GREAT ENEMY WE FACE AS INFIDELS IS ISLAMIC!

AND THE TWO MAIN BRANCHES ARE SUNNI AND SHIITE!

THE SHIITE ARE COMMANDED TO AWAIT MAHDI’S RETURN

WHICH THEY THINK COULD SUDDENLY OCCUR ATANY TIME!

PART 4

January 31, 2010

The following Excerpt is from The Middle East Media Review, “The Doctrine of Mahdism: In the Ideological and Political Philosophy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Mesbah-e Yazdi.

May 31, 2010

Inquiry & Analysis Series

Report Number 357

Reformist Intellectuals Criticize the Politicization of Mahdism

Intellectual Mohsen Kadivar: “Hasn’t the Time Come for [the Ayatollahs] and the Clerics to Clarify Their Position on These Claims?”

The intellectual and cleric Mohsen Kadivar pointed to the danger posed to Islam by Ahmadinejad’s messianic leanings. In a speech on the occasion of Eid Al-Fitr, Kadivar criticized the incorporation of the Mahdist doctrine in Ahmadinejad’s political platform. The report was originally published by the ILNA news agency, and is cited on Kadivar’s website:

“[Kadivar said:] ‘We can point to the past year as the heyday of religious nonsense.’ [He] sharply criticized the proud declarations by [government officials] that ‘the number of visitors to the fictitious place (i.e. the well at Jamkaran Mosque) is several times larger than the number of pilgrims [visiting] the grave of the eighth Imam [Reza, in the city of Mashhad].’ [Kadivar] described this calamity as ‘the result of propaganda for false beliefs,’ saying that ‘as long as the regime propagates false beliefs, we should naturally expect [these beliefs] to become more and more prevalent in the country.’ Kadivar declared that ‘[claims that the Hidden Imam] gives special attention to the Ahmadinejad government are a sign of the propagation of false beliefs… Hasn’t the time come for [the ayatollahs] and the clerics to clarify their position on these claims?’”[xxxiii]

Intellectual Hashem Aghajari: “In the Era of the Mahdi’s Occultation, No One Can Claim to a Have Prophetic Mission or to Represent Him”

Hashem Aghajari, the academic who has twice received a death sentence for challenging the religious establishment in Iran and calling for religious reform, criticized Ahmadinejad for his professed connection with the Hidden Imam. In a speech to students at Amir Kabir University in Tehran on marking Laylat Al-Qadr,[xxxiv] Aghajari said: “… We are today in the era of [the Hidden Imam’s] occultation, and since the Prophet [Muhammad] was the Seal of the Prophets, and the Mahdi is the last of the Imams – and he is in occultation – no one else can claim [to have] a prophetic mission or to represent [the Hidden Imam], nor can they base themselves on such a prophetic mission… in order to rule over the people…”[xxxv]

Spokesman for the Reformist Mojahedin-e Enqelab-e Eslami Party: “When Some in the Government… Say That the Hidden Imam Will Be Revealed in the Coming Two Years, This Has No Result Other Than to Weaken the Faith of the Masses”

Mohsen Armin, former member of the Sixth Majlis and speaker for the reformist Mojahedin-e Enqelab-e Eslami Party, came out strongly against statements attributed to Ahmadinejad that the Hidden Imam will be revealed in the next two years: “When some in the government are planning to prepare the ground [for the Mahdi’s coming] and say that the Hidden Imam will be revealed in the coming two years, this has no result other than to weaken the faith of the masses. The propagation of such statements by private parties endangers our future…”[xxxvi]* A. Savyon is Director of the Iranian Media Project; Y. Mansharof is a research fellow at MEMRI.

FOOTNOTE REFERENCES – Parts 1 to 4

[i] The Twelfth Imam, the Shi’ite messiah, is also called Muhammad Al-Muntazar (“the expected”), Imam Al- Zaman (“The Imam of the Age”) and “the Hidden Imam.”

[ii] Sobh-e Sadeq (Iran), April 30, 2007.

[iii] For details about Ahmadinejad’s rise to power and about the “Second Islamic Revolution,” see MEMRI Inquiry and Analysis No. 253, “The ‘Second Islamic Revolution’ in Iran: Power Struggle at the Top,” November 17, 2005,

http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA25305

[iv] Aftab (Iran), November 16, 2005, quoted in Rooz (Iran), December 12, 2005.

[v] Emrooz (Iran), December 20, 2006.

[vi] This refers to a Koranic verse (7:73).

[vii] Iran News (Iran), October 15, 2006. For more information on Ahmadinejad’s claims regarding his connection with God, see MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 1328, “Iran President Ahmadinejad: ‘I Have a Connection With God, Since God Said That the Infidels Will Have No Way to Harm the Believers’; ‘We Have [Only] One Step Remaining Before We Attain the Summit of Nuclear Technology’; The West ‘Will Not Dare To Attack Us,’”
http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP132806.

[viii] Fars (Iran), April 1, 2007.

[ix] Rooz (Iran), October 1, 2006.

[x] For examples, see Kayhan, September 29, 2005; Fars news agency, October 11, 2005; Sharq, November 12, 2005; ISNA news agency, November 16, 2005; IRNA news agency, April 16, 2006; Kayhan, November 23, 2006; Emrooz, December 20, 2006; Jomhouri-ye Eslami, December 24, 2006.

[xi] Aftab, (Iran), May 10, 2007

[xii] ILNA (Iran), October 17, 2005.

[xiii] Shi’ite scholars are divided regarding the status of this mosque.

The daily Jomhouri-ye Eslami, which is affiliated with the religious seminaries in Qom and which represents the views of important Ayatollahs from the seminaries, stated that the mosque is no different than any other (September 13, 2006), while the weekly Parto-ye Sokhan, affiliated with Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-e Yazdi, cited the traditional belief that the mosque had been built at the order of the Hidden Imam and that it holds special importance for him (September 20, 2006).

[xiv] The Shi’ites celebrate the birthday of the Hidden Imam on the 15th day of the Muslim month of Sha’ban, which, in 2006, coincided with September.

[xv] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 1436, “Waiting for the Mahdi: Official Iranian Eschatology Outlined in Public Broadcasting Program in Iran,” January 5, 2007, http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP143607.

[xvi] The reports stated that “the distribution of a distorted map… showing the route [that will be taken] by the Mahdi [upon his return] has been stopped [following critical] reactions from political and religious circles. The map was distributed by Tehran municipality… but the copies were soon recalled following [criticism] by senior officials in the regime.” (Hatef website – apparently the website Hatef News, associated with supporters of Rafsanjani – December 5, 2005,

quoted in Rooz, December 5, 2005).

[xvii] ISNA (Iran), September 6, 2006.

[xviii] Parto-ye Sokhan (Iran), October 11, 2006.

[xix] ISNA (Iran), September 6, 2006,

http://www.isna.ir/Main/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-784304&Lang=P .

[xx] Rooz, October 16, 2006, as cited by the Entekhab website on October 16, 2006, http://www.entekhab.ir/display/?ID=6760&page=1.

[xxi] Kayhan (Iran), September 10, 2006.

[xxii] Parto-ye Sokhan (Iran), October 11, 2006.

[xxiii] Parto-ye Sokhan (Iran), March 1, 2006.

[xxiv] Parto-ye Sokhan (Iran), October 9, 2005.

[xxv] ILNA (Iran), August 9, 2005.

[xxvi] Ruidad, September 25, 2005, as quoted in Rooz, December 5, 2005.

[xxvii] Jomhouri-ye Eslami (Iran), September 13, 2006; On September 20, 2006, Qassem Ravanbakhsh published an article in Parto-ye Sokhan in which he denied Jomhouri-ye Eslami’s accusations.

[xxviii] The reference is to Ahmadinejad’s claim that he felt that he was surrounded by a halo of light when he spoke at the U.N. General Assembly in September, 2005.

[xxix] Jomhouri-ye Eslami (Iran), October 11, 2006.

[xxx] Ruidad, August 13, 2005, as reported in Rooz, December 5, 2005.

[xxxi] Ayatollah Montazeri was removed from the line of succession by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989, following his expression of criticism of the regime’s violations of human rights.

[xxxii] From Montazeri’s
website:http://www.amontazeri.com/Farsi/Payamha/90.htm .

[xxxiii] From Kadivar’s website,
http://www.kadivar.com/Index.asp?DocId=1571&AC=1&AF=1&ASB=1&AGM=1&AL=1&DT=dtv .

[xxxiv] According to Muslim tradition, Laylat Al-Qadr marks the beginning of Muhammad’ s prophetic revelation.

[xxxv] ISNA, October 23, 2005.

[xxxvi] Rooz, October 18, 2005.

In addition, in a Rooz article from January 30, 2006, the intellectual ‘Abd Al-Karim Soroush accused Ayatollah Mesbah-e Yazdi of “educating [people] to an extremist and incorrect use of [the name of] the Hidden Imam, and in general of using religion as an instrument.”

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Comparison OF David AND Goliath!

David is made up of Six MILLION Jews,

And 1/3 of 1% of Middle East Land Mass!

Goliath is now made up of 300 Million Arabs,

And 99.9% of the entire Middle East Land Mass!

The Jews are outnumbered in personnel by 50 to 1!

And Against Number of Arab States by Ratio of 22 to 1!

Ratio of deliverable Israeli nuclear war heads is 200+ to 0!

Iran wants Conventional war since it can’t win a Nuclear One!

January 30, 2010

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Begin Excerpt 1 from Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs via Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs/Daily Alert

David and Goliath in the Middle East

Danny Ayalon

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told the plenum of the Council of Europe on Tuesday: “We have been alone sitting at the negotiating table for nine months…but we are still waiting for the Palestinians to take their seat….There is absolutely no reason to place more obstacles than were placed before; we once again reiterate our call for the Palestinians to meet with us without preconditions from either side.” In response to the contention that the Palestinians are foregoing 78% of historic Palestine, Ayalon stated that there has never been a Palestinian state in history and the word “Palestine” is Roman in origin and not Arabic.

In reaction to a comment that Israel was Goliath and the Palestinians are David, Ayalon responded: “If anyone is David in the Middle East, it is Israel. There is one Jewish state with 22 Arab states, and 6 million Jews compared with 300 million Arabs in the Middle East. Israel’s territory totals a third of one percent of the whole land mass in the Middle East.” (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

Begin Excerpt 2 Levant in Focus Blog via Jerusalem Post

Levant in Focus: Lebanon’s next war may also be Syria’s

Posted by Tony Badran

Thursday January 28, 2010

Media reports in recent days have painted dire scenarios for what is, supposedly, the inevitable conflict between Israel and Hizbullah.

Of particular note are persistent indicators that the next round, if or when it comes, will very likely involve Syria as well.

For quite a while now, the official position in Israel has been that the next war in Lebanon would be waged against the Lebanese state, not just against Hizbullah. The Israelis have also been warning Damascus that they would not tolerate Syria’s passing on to Hizbullah weaponry that might alter the military balance of power, namely air defense systems.

At that point, two recent reports are of interest. The first, in the Qatari daily Al-Watan a couple of weeks ago, quoted Syrian sources as saying that “there is a strategic decision taken by Damascus not to allow Israel to defeat the resistance movements.” One might have been tempted to dismiss this as rhetorical bluster, but another news report only a few days later called for a somewhat different assessment.

Speaking to the Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai al-Aam, an unnamed American official sent a shot across Syria’s bow, telling the newspaper that should Syria deliver to Hizbullah anti-aircraft missiles, “a war would doubtlessly break out, and this time Israel would strike targets in Damascus.” The official added that the Syrians, according to intelligence reports, had allowed Hizbullah fighters to train on the SA-2 anti-aircraft (AA) system on Syrian soil. Those accusations were repeated last weekend by Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Daniel Ayalon, after his meeting with Michael Williams, the United Nation’s special coordinator for Lebanon.

The SA-2 itself may not be much of a threat to the Israel Air Force. However, another pair of Russian-made AA systems – the mobile Pantsir and the shoulder-fired Igla-S systems – would cause concern. Both Syria and Iran have been persistently trying to obtain them from Russia, with conflicting reports about whether the systems have been delivered. Nor is it clear if Hizbullah has gotten its hands on the weapons. From an Israeli standpoint, however, this would qualify as a casus belli.

The result of a new war would doubtless be devastating for Lebanon – far worse than what happened in 2006 – and would likely spread to Syria. In a throwback to the policy of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, this past weekend Yossi Peled, an Israeli minister without portfolio, pointedly noted that Israel would “hold Syria and Lebanon alike responsible.”

There are other reasons why Syria could find itself engulfed in a future conflict. Although recent incidents, such as the explosion in a weapons depot in Khirbet Silm, indicate that Hizbullah has been reestablishing its positions in southern Lebanon since the 2006 war, the militia is said to have relocated its bunker infrastructure and dispersed its longer-range rockets throughout the Bekaa Valley and, reportedly, northern Lebanon.

Notwithstanding Hizbullah’s intentionally-leaked information about its intention to take the war to Israel by invading Israeli villages near Lebanese territory, this relocation of the bunker complex would mean that, aside from the expanded destruction befalling Lebanon, the war would be fought nearer the border with Syria. This border, along with Lebanon’s various ports, has served as Hizbullah’s weapons supply route.

During the 2006 war, the Assad regime took the bold step of supplying Hizbullah directly from Syrian military stocks – particularly when it came to longer-range 220mm Katyusha rockets, such as the ones that hit a train station in Haifa, and Kornet anti-tank missiles. If this were to be repeated, not to mention the possible detection of Syrian logistical support during combat,

the probability of an escalation involving Damascus would be raised. Israel’s armed forces would have to consider that possibility if it were to decide in favor of a ground incursion into the Bekaa Valley.

The security regime established under UN Security Council Resolution 1701 has failed to curb Hizbullah’s rearmament, both by land and by sea (or, for that matter, to prevent Israeli overflights). Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has been quite explicit about his intention to continue supplying Hizbullah.

Meanwhile, the sea routes to Lebanon have evidently been used to great effect. The arms-carrying ship intercepted by Israel in November of last year was reportedly bound for the port of Lattakia in Syria.

That was surely the tip of the iceberg, and one must wonder how many such ships have docked in Lebanese ports as well.

There have been a number of reports in recent years indicating deepening military and intelligence coordination between Iran, Syria and Hizbullah, and that includes Iranian listening posts and other technical assets present in Syria. Syria’s direct arming of Hizbullah, like the numerous reports on the Russian air defense systems, speaks much to the evolution of Syria’s view of the party. More than ever Hizbullah (not to mention Iran, its patron) is becoming integrated in Syrian military strategy.

This would explain Damascus’ “strategic decision” to extend to Hizbullah all possible support in the event of a new war with Israel.

However, it could be a decision Assad, ever the gambler, might live to regret. One thing for sure is that Lebanon – all of Lebanon – will certainly regret it.

Tony Badran is a research fellow with the Center for Terrorism Research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

This article first appeared on NOW Lebanon.

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For more detailed information go to:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.

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THE GREAT ENEMY WE FACE AS INFIDELS IS ISLAMIC!

AND THE TWO MAIN BRANCHES ARE SUNNI AND SHIITE!

THE SHIITE ARE COMMANDED TO AWAIT MAHDI’S RETURN

WHICH THEY THINK COULD SUDDENLY OCCUR AT ANY TIME!

PART 3

January 30, 2010

The following Excerpt is from The Middle East Media Review, “The Doctrine of Mahdism: In the Ideological and Political Philosophy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Mesbah-e Yazdi.

May 31, 2010

Inquiry & Analysis Series

Report Number 357

Clerics Criticize Ahmadinejad’s Messianic Policies

Ahmadinejad’s messianic policies have drawn growing criticism from ayatollahs and senior religious figures in the religious seminaries in Qom who oppose the politicization of the messianic doctrine.

Two articles published in the daily Jomhouri-ye Eslami, the newspaper of the religious seminaries in Qom which represents the views of important Ayatollahs from the seminaries, emphasized the danger posed to the Shi’ite faith by the encouragement of messianic messages and by their propagation by Ahmadinejad, his supporters, and, by implication, Ayatollah Mesbah-e Yazdi as well – a group they label “the spreaders of superstitions”:

1. Jomhouri-ye Eslami: Superficial Propaganda “Exposes Society to the Danger of Spiritual Weakness and [Leads to] Lack of Faith in the Fundamentals of Religion”
In a September 13, 2006 editorial titled “The Danger of Superstitions: The Task of the Elected [Officials],” Jomhouri-ye Eslami expressed reservations about turning the Jamkaran Mosque into a holy site of

the highest level of sanctity, and expressed doubt as to

the validity of the traditions tying the mosque to the Hidden Imam. The article stated that clerics should fight the danger posed to Shi’ism and to Shi’ites by Ahmadinejad, his supporters, and his messianic policies. The article even derided Ahmadinejad for presuming to present himself as having contacts and meetings with the Mahdi, and accused him of destroying the faith:

“…Look at the ceremonies in the middle of the month of Sha’ban [celebrating the birth of the Mahdi]. The faith in the promised Mahdi, as expressed in Shi’ite culture and education, is the most advanced and most spiritual of religious beliefs.

The Iranian people are arduously preparing themselves for this great day… But in essence, what is the benefit of all this preparation in terms of the people’s spiritual growth and the advancement of their level of religious thought and culture

? What pure religious knowledge fills the thirsty mouths of the public, which tenaciously turns [to the sources of Shi’ite jurisprudence] in order to quench its thirst?…

“Unfortunately, the true answer is that we are not just failing to quench the people’s [thirst] with pure spirituality and pure religious knowledge, but, on the contrary, we are filling [their heads] with the greatest possible amount of idiotic beliefs, superficialities and falsities. Uneducated [people] have come to control the celebrations [of the Mahdi’s birthday], and they are instilling the masses with a material [approach] that is unacceptable in both ideological and material terms.

[These people rely] on the prestige of the religious leadership [an allusion to Ayatollah Mesbah-e Yazdi], in opposition to the clear view of the Supreme Leader [Ali Khamenei] and of the senior clerics, who are the sources of religious authority in Shi’ism…

“This criticism… is a warning that comes to explain… that the propagation of a superficial view and of superstitions – especially in the field of religious knowledge – [exposes] society to the danger of spiritual weakness and [leads] to lack of faith in the fundamentals of religion…

“When we raise the sanctity of the Jamkaran Mosque to the point where it is presented as more important than mosques like the Holy Mosque [in Mecca], the Prophet’s Mosque [in Medina]… the Al-Aqsa Mosque [in Jerusalem], the Kufa Mosque [in Iraq] and the Sahla Mosque [in Iraq]… and when it is announced that some three million pilgrims came to this mosque on the holiday of the Mahdi’s birthday; when they drag the people, who are thirsting for spirituality, from every corner of the country to Jamkaran, using the unprecedented propaganda [employed by Ahmadinejad]… and when speeches of praise and thanksgiving [are made] in which the people are promised that the Hidden Imam will make the pilgrimage to [the Jamkaran Mosque]… we know, of course, that there will be no pilgrimage or anything else.

“How long will people continue to believe this propaganda before their faith is eventually shaken and emptied [of content]?… On what basis is [the Jamkaran Mosque] associated with all the propaganda, the miracles, and the [special] status [that is attributed to it], which are instilled among the people

?

“In order to realize the implications of these actions, look at the people who exploit the superstitions and present themselves as being in contact with the Mahdi, [the people who say] that they meet with him, or even that they are the Mahdi himself. [Then you will realize] what religious beliefs they have destroyed… how many harmful elements they have introduced into religion, and what danger lies in superstitions… The proponents of religion and senior religious thinkers and scholars must step into the ring and launch the difficult battle against the danger of superstitions. They must not rest until they arrive at a clear outcome.”[xxvii]

2. Jomhouri-ye Eslami: “Myths Like ‘The Halo of Light’… Make the Fight [Against False Beliefs] Even More Difficult”

Another Jomhoui-ye Eslami editorial, published October 11, 2006 under the title “Take this Warning Seriously,” expressed strong reservations about Ahmadinejad’s messianic pronouncements and the propagation of popular traditions tying the Jamkaran Mosque to the Hidden Imam:

“…[It is] saddening that false and idiotic beliefs have recently received reinforcement backed by force.

Myths like ‘the halo of light’ [which Ahmadinejad felt surrounding him during his U.N. speech][xxviii] and claims of esoteric knowledge and clairvoyance – coming from people who are supposed, as one of their tasks, to fight these very things – are making the battle [against false beliefs] even more difficult…”[xxix]

Senior ayatollahs also expressed reservations following the allocation of huge budgets for projects connected with the Jamkaran Mosque. Jomhouri-ye Eslami stated: “Most of the senior ayatollahs are not happy with the worsening [of the situation] regarding ossified and erroneous [beliefs] about the Jamkaran Mosque [i.e. the encouragement and propagation of popular messianic traditions regarding the Jamkaran Mosque]. Some time ago, one of the ayatollahs in Qom vigorously opposed the erroneous steps [being taken] in this mosque, like the [practice of] writing personal requests [to the Hidden Imam] and dropping them into the well near the mosque…” In addition, there were reports of the Qom seminaries’ angry reactions to the fact that development funds allocated to the district were intended largely for developing the Jamkaran Mosque.[xxx]

3. Ayatollah Montazeri: “The Fact That We Believe in [The Future Appearance of] the Hidden Imam Does Not Mean that Some [Government Officials] Should Exploit His Name for Politics

In a January 31, 2006 interview, Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who is considered one of the most senior religious authorities in the Shi’ite world and in Iran, expressed his disgust at the political capital that Ahmadinejad is trying to derive from the name of the Mahdi.[xxxi] In the interview, Montazeri noted that “the fact that we believe in [the future appearance of] the Hidden Imam does not mean that some [government officials] should exploit his name for politics.

I am opposed to this kind of exploitation. The exploitation of the holy names causes the people and the younger generation to be disgusted with religion, since there is no flaw in the essence of Islam, and every flaw that exists [due to exploitation of religion] will hurt our Islam… In the early days of the Islamic Revolution, the people shouted slogans like: ‘Independence, freedom and Islamic Republic’… [The term] Islamic [means] based on the fundamentals of Islam —Islam in which the qualified [authorities] are religious authorities, great and wise people, and not [Islam] in which anybody who has a little learning [immediately] wishes to express an opinion on Islamic issues…”[xxxii]

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