FOOD FOR THOUGHT ? Yes/No
The reigning authority on Twelver Shi”ism is the historian Emmanuel Sivan, who in his magisterial volume on the subject, warned that an integral part of Shi”a Islam’s belief and thought involves the initiating of a planetary conflagration. This belief system posits that Allah’s kingdom will be established on earth by the Twelfth or Hidden Imam, also known as the Mahdi, whose advent can be hastened by creating the right set of circumstances: friction and misunderstanding among the nations and violent upheavals in a welter of blood and fire.
Incredulous westerners who would pass this off as merely a quaint belief to be taken with a grain of salt, or indeed with a whole salt shaker, should reconsider. Sivan spends many pages describing and analyzing the Shi”ite vision of an “ideal, legitimate state to be instituted by its leader, the Hidden Imam.” Over the course of history, he writes, a “minority of Shi”ites, quite substantial and dangerous at times, would move from pessimistic idealism to an optimistic brand of the same approach””the imam’s arrival is imminent, God’s kingdom is bound to be brought upon earth by this messiah (mahdi), and one should help precipitate its descent by armed revolt.” The Mahdi’s arrival has been eagerly anticipated and rumor has it that Iran’s former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad””like Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, a fervent believer in the Mahdi’s parousia””widened a boulevard in Tehran to welcome the savior with public celebrations.