Holiest wars

A new Winston Churchill?

HOLIEST WARS
Islamic Mahdis, their jihads & Osama bin Laden
By Timothy R. Furnish
Praeger Publishers (http://www.greenwood.com/international). 180 pages. £25.99
ISBN 0 275 98383 8

Christians look forward to the return of our Lord Messiah Jesus to earth. But Christians are not always aware that most Muslims, too, believe that he is still alive in the heavens and will return to earth. However, there is a significant difference: Muslims believe that he will return as a Muslim and correct the ‘error’ of those who worship him as the Son of God. Furthermore, many believe he will return as the assistant of the Mahdi, God’s end-time world ruler.

Who or what is the Mahdi? ‘Mahdi’ means ‘rightly-guided one’. The future Mahdi is expected to be a man of Arab stock who will arise somewhere in the Near East to usher in worldwide Islam, and so restore the Caliphate which has not really operated since the death of the Muhammad’s four successors, or ‘rightly-guided caliphs’. He is expected to rule for seven or nine years, after which he will die a natural death. The Prophet Jesus is also expected to die a natural death after having married and raised a family.

Ongoing Mahdi

Not all Muslims believe in the Mahdi. After all, he is not mentioned either in the Qur’an or in the two most prestigious collections of Hadith (Muslim traditions). In spite of this, the mythology surrounding this mysterious figure has strong popular appeal — even among the majority of Sunnis. Accordingly, the author of Holiest Wars examines the origins of this concept, questioning whether it originated among the Shi’ah or the Sufis (Muslim mystics), or indeed penetrated Islam from Judaism, Zoroastrianism, or even Christianity.

Interestingly, a number of Muslim leaders have already arisen claiming to be the endtime Mahdi, a man who has authority to change Islamic law openly. They posed as liberators, but ended up more repressive and brutal than anyone ever overthrown by them. As the author states: ‘All the rules are off when a Mahdi is on the stage’. Conversely, there are those who have never claimed this title yet who were dubbed ‘Mahdi’ by their followers — this title being one which most Muslims would regard as a liability rather than a privilege!

This shows how critical this concept is for the future of world security. It has taken the Western world a long time to admit the dangers of ‘Islamic fundamentalism’. But the phenomenon of Mahdism is far more dangerous, yet still largely unrecognised. Anyone claiming to be ‘Mahdi’ has entered a state of total and irrevocable disinhibition. He is capable of virtually anything in the way of terror, even if it might involve the destruction of the entire world through nuclear weapons.

What’s the difference?

The author explains the difference between so-called Islamic fundamentalism and Mahdism, and shows how one stream can flow into the other. He writes: ‘So, the difference between Islamic fundamentalism and Mahdism is really, at root, one of degree and not of kind. Put another way, fundamentalist Islam can be seen as a river that during parts of its course flows near a cliff hanging over the raging sea of Mahdism. When the riverbed is near this cliff, it might take very little to wear away the soil and allow the waters of fundamentalism to pour themselves into Mahdism’ (pp.152-3).

Will bin Laden bid?

In the final chapter, the author asks whether Osama bin Laden will make a bid for the title of Mahdi, and shows how dangerous such a development would be for the world. Of course, bin Laden’s Yemeni birth contradicts Muslim expectations, as does his murder of Muslims in Tanzania, Kenya, New York, and Afghanistan. Also there is the problem that both the Dajjal (the Muslim equivalent of the anti-Christ) and Jesus are missing from the world-stage, whereas both are expected to appear on earth at the same time as the Mahdi.

Shi’ah Muslims all accept the idea of the Mahdi and, not so long ago, some thought the Ayatollah Khomeini might actually be the Mahdi. He denied it, but stated that he had been sent to prepare the way for the Mahdi. Significantly, he also said: ‘I say let Iran go up in smoke, provided Islam emerges triumphant in the rest of the world’. Then, significantly, President AhmadiNejad of Iran stated that, when he addressed the UN in October 2005, he had been surrounded by a halo of light and that his audience stared at him as though in a trance: ‘When I say they didn’t bat an eyelid, I’m not exaggerating, because I was looking at them.’ Of course, AhmadiNejad is not an Arab, but these statements shows that expectations are running high as far the Mahdi is concerned and that the political impact of this will certainly make global waves.

Quoting Reuel Grecht, the author concludes from an admittedly US perspective: ‘Let us hope that if such a grim eschatological play is ever acted out, our leaders in Washington are not “good secular sorts, [who] view so mundanely the causes of the holy war” but, rather, politicians, intellectuals, and military leaders who truly understand how to deal not just with holy wars but, rather, with the radical power of the holiest war: that of the Mahdi’ (p.163).

Churchill needed

Fortunately for us, it was Winston Churchill who became Prime Minister as the Nazi movement was growing in power in Germany. Churchill was one who took the threat seriously and was not held back by a naive sentimentalism, unlike Neville Chamberlain who foolishly believed Hitler’s assurances!

The soil is fertile and all it takes is for a charismatic figure to arise and sow the right seed and the plant will shoot up. Or to take another image, the paper is dry and waiting for a match to be thrown into it. Then the fire will take and many will be burnt in its flames.

It is the height of folly for Westerners to think that this phenomenon is necessarily the fault of unwise Western foreign policy or the existence of an Israeli state and that Western leaders can defeat it by a policy of appeasement. As the author states: ‘Mahdi movements and their religion-based insurrections often — indeed, usually — have more to do with the internal dynamics of the Islamic world than with Western foreign policy’ (pp.62-63).

Appeasement?

So, although Fascism exploited discontent to extend its appeal, people do not excuse it on that account. Appeasement failed. Similarly, Arab leaders do not attempt to keep such movements in check in their own countries by appeasement. On the contrary, appeasement merely fans the flames. Aggressors simply see it as confirmation that they can achieve their ends by bullying. Mahdism has been around for centuries and has very little indeed to do with such factors.

The author is certainly well qualified to write this book. Having learned Arabic while serving in the US Army Intelligence, he went on to become fluent in both Farsi and Turkish, which give him access to most of the key literature on this topic. Indeed, his specialty is Islamic eschatology, particularly modern Mahdism and how such beliefs have influenced Muslim political thought.

This is probably the single most important book in English on this topic. I hope it will be made available as a paperback.