In a column written nearly one year ago entitled ‘Deterring Those Who Are Already Dead?,’ Laurent Murawiec questions how can you rationalize with the unrational, namely how the United Nations can negotiate with Iran over the nation’s nuclear program.  And Murawiec’s column has much to do with the Iranian President’s deep convictions over seeing the return to Earth of the 12th Imam (the Mahdi).

Contemporary jihad is not a matter of politics at all (of ‘occupation, of ‘grievances,’ of colonialism, neocolonialism, imperialism and Zionism), but a matter of Gnostic faith. Consequently, attempts at dealing with the problem politically will not even touch it. Aspirin is good, and so is penicillin, but they are of little avail to counter maladies of the mind. I am emphatically not saying here that the jihadis are “crazy.” I am saying that they are possessed of a disease of the mind, and the disease is the political religion of modern Gnosticism in its Islamic version . . .

Soldiers kill. Terrorists kill. Modern Jihadis lap the blood. Inseparable from contemporary Arab-Muslim jihad are the idealization of blood, the veneration of savagery, the cult of killing, the worship of death. Gruesome murder, gory and gleeful infliction of pain, are lionized and proffered as models and exemplary actions pleasing to Allah. These are no merely reflections of a pre-modern attitude toward death . . .

If you depreciate and deprecate life and conversely focus all your desires upon death, the devoutly-wished passage into the glorious afterlife by means of shahada, ‘trading’ (as Quran says) one’s own earthly life for one’s afterlife is much easier, and taking the life of others is a mandate, it is an obligation, an offering.

These words ring true today, when news was announced for a summit in Iraq with several nations including Syria and Iran.  It is the latter that leaves me wondering what exactly is the objective of the summit.

The United States, England and France will argue they want a peaceful Iraq and one that is both democratic and pluralistic. Iran and Syria, on the other hand do not want Democracy to flourish on their nation’s borders.  The two allies also present an interesting dilema.  Does the Sunni Syria goal to not see an extension of a Shia state in Iraq supercede the Shia Iran’s quest to do just that?

But how do nations that cherish life discuss an end to sectarian killings and the advancement of Islamism to nations that are furthering the advancement thereof?  With regard to the Iranian pipe-dream of the return of the Mahdi, how can nations not in the Ummah discuss issues with a nation thirsting for an apocalyptic scenario?  Further, how does a nation who repeatedly calls for the death of at least three other nations, two of whom will be at the summit, and considers their opinions worthless simply because they don’t share their apocalyptic vision engage those nations in serious talks?

It appears we’ll find out, but I’m not holding my breath for anything of substance to come out of that meeting.  Though I would love to be a fly on the wall and see which direction Russia goes; either recognizing the threat of Islamism that encroaches their own borders or reliving the ‘glory’ days of Cold War past.

For further reading on the 12th Imam and recent callings for the return of by Iranian leaders, read this well thought out article by Crusade Media.

After the conclusion of a day-long battle near the Shia holy city of Najaf,  those who are against the religion of Islam can celebrate the killing of the 12th Imam (the Mahdi) who rose and ended up in Iraq instead of Iran despite Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s repeated letters down a well in Qom, Iran.

The leader of the cult, Abu Gumer al-Yamani, claimed he was the Mahdi, meaning the 1,400 year old living man who is set about to bring peace to earth by slaying those who are against Allah and those who do not believe or do not believe the way Allah wishes they believe.

Now here’s where it gets interesting.  Reports, such as this one by the Washington Post, indicate the attack by joint Iraqi-U.S. forces against this compound containing “hundreds” of insurgents ended up foiling an attack that had planned on killing Shia pilgrims and Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.  Sistani’s death would have been a major blow.

Since the attack would have been on a revered Shia political and religious leader, and it would have killed a number of Shia and aimed at destroying the Shia holy city of Najaf, we would assume the attack was done by Sunnis.  If the reports indicating the leader of the group believed he was the Mahdi, the compound was full of Shia and it was a Shia cult planning to attack the Shia religion.

An estimated 200-300 insurgents were killed in the Iraqi military-led attack on the compound.  I’d like to know, however, how a group that large could just nestle up in a city without prior action taken against it before it could reach such a large size.  Could this be part of the Iraqi government’s new decision to do something about the Shia death squads and insurgent groups too?

Eli Lake of The New York Sun reports some rather groundbreaking news, or at least news that adds one more layer to Iranian involvement with the insurgency in Iraq. According to documents found during the arrest of two key Iranians within Iraq about one week ago, Iran is supporting both Shia and Sunni insurgent groups.

Iranian support of Shia groups, namely the Muqtada al-Sadr led Mahdi Army, is of no surprise at all. That has been a known for quite some time now, though rarely stressed when discussions persist on how to move forward in Iraq and what to do with an Iranian state hell-bent on defying the IAEA pursuant to the nation’s nuclear program.

It has also long been pondered, perhaps by just myself, if Iran was assisting Sunni groups within Iraq, joining forces if you will with the known Syria support for Sunni insurgent groups. Ponder no more.

An American intelligence official said the new material, which has been authenticated within the intelligence community, confirms “that Iran is working closely with both the Shiite militias and Sunni Jihadist groups.” The source was careful to stress that the Iranian plans do not extend to cooperation with Baathist groups fighting the government in Baghdad, and said the documents rather show how the Quds Force — the arm of Iran’s revolutionary guard that supports Shiite Hezbollah, Sunni Hamas, and Shiite death squads — is working with individuals affiliated with Al Qaeda in Iraq and Ansar al-Sunna.

Another American official who has seen the summaries of the reporting affiliated with the arrests said it comprised a “smoking gun.” “We found plans for attacks, phone numbers affiliated with Sunni bad guys, a lot of things that filled in the blanks on what these guys are up to,” the official said.

One of the documents captured in the raids, according to two American officials and one Iraqi official, is an assessment of the Iraq civil war and new strategy from the Quds Force. According to the Iraqi source, that assessment is the equivalent of “Iran’s Iraq Study Group,” a reference to the bipartisan American commission that released war strategy recommendations after the November 7 elections. The document concludes, according to these sources, that Iraq’s Sunni neighbors will step up their efforts to aid insurgent groups and that it is imperative for Iran to redouble efforts to retain influence with them, as well as with Shiite militias.

Ansar al-Sunnah is the parent group of Tawhid wal Jihad, later renamed to Al Qaida in Iraq. All three were led at one time by the now departed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

In October of 2005, it was reported 25 high-ranking Al Qaida members were living in Iran, supposedly under house arrest though Iran later denied any such talk. A report by the German daily Die Welt last August noted Iran is believed to have sent one of Osama bin Laden’s sons, Saad bin Laden, to set up camp in Syria and recruit jihadis for a war against Israel during the Israel-Hezbollah war. There are many, many more links between Iran and Al Qaida, far too many to dismiss them until two years after a Coalition topples the Iranian government and so-called ‘peaceniks’ are running for election here in the States.

Lake continues:

The news that Iran’s elite Quds Force would be in contact, and clandestinely cooperating, with Sunni Jihadists who attacked the Golden Mosque in Samarra (one of the holiest shrines in Shiism) on February 22, could shake the alliance Iraq’s ruling Shiites have forged in recent years with Tehran. Many Iraq analysts believe the bombing vaulted Iraq into the current stage of its civil war.

While Al Qaida in Iraq has never claimed responsibility for the Golden Mosque bombing, all indications point to the group as the culprits of the attack. Zarqawi was alive at the time and on numerous occassions he had openly declared war upon Shia and urged inciting a civil war by implenting sectarian attacks.

Why would a Sunni group who is openly at odds with all Shia join forces with the Shia nation of Iran, or vice versa? Back in 1995, Ayman al-Zawahiri stated in an interview with Nashrat al-Ansar “As we have mentioned before, we are committed to the path of true righteousness, the path of the Sunna, and–thus–there are clear differences between our faith and the faith of the Shiites who believe in the 12th Imam.” In the theological sense, that is completely true and the main reason why Sunni and Shia have been at war with each other for centuries. Zawahiri said the same.

But Dr. Walid Phares takes a different approach, and suggests while the two sects of Islam are at war with each other, they do converge on key ideas and key issues that would allow the Salafists (Sunnis) to join forces with the Khomeinists (Shia).

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A rather curious statement from the mouth of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or at least one that has been translated as shown below.

The world’s monotheistic faiths should form a “common front aimed at wiping off the map the fake state of Israel, created through the help of lies and against God’s will,” Iran’s hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday.

Ok, forget his repeated calls for the end of Israel, they have grown tiresome, but should we believe Ahmadinejad wants all monotheistic faiths to align with each other on any measure?  I believe him, but it’s not what is first seen.

Islamists believe Christianity is a polytheistic religion, as I’ve outlined before (see comments).  As a brief refresher, Islamists believe the very idea of the Trinity means Christians believe in three dieties, thus polytheistic.  I have no clue what Islamists believe of the Jewish faith, other than the belief Jews are the direct descendents of apes and pigs.  Since Islam is an Abrahamic faith, I suppose that speaks of what they believe their own self-worth is.

But now we’ve stricken Christians from being involved in this alliance of the wills, and since Ahmadinejad has repeatedly spoken out against those of the Jewish faith, we must conclude Jews won’t be invited to the party either.  Are Hindus invited? Hinduism is not an Abrahamic religion, therefore unworthy of placing in the same line as Islam.  Therefore this ‘alliance’ would only be of Muslims with Muslims.  Oh, but wait, since Ahmadinejad is a Shia we must conclude Sunni Muslims would not be able to take part because Shia Islamists (Khomeneists) believe Sunni Muslims are apostates.  Now we’re only talking about roughly 10 percent of the Islamic population and roughly 2 percent of the world’s population (about 20 percent of the world is Muslim).  That’s a rather small alliance of two percent.

What is so striking about this statement though is that is completely fits with Ahmadinejad’s own final solution to the non-Muslim problem.  He firmly believes it is his quest to pave the way for the return of the 12th Imam (the Mahdi).  The Mahdi will, Shia Islamic lore tells us, unify the world under the flag of Islam.  Ahmadinejad is, in essense, trying to be the Mahdi and unify the world under his banner to wipe Israel from the map.  It is striking how consumed Ahmadinejad is with a strip of land.

Within the AKI report is this bit of news:

Former US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, Nobel peace prize winner Elie Weisel, and former Canadian attorney general Irwin Cotler, and former Israeli ambassador to the UN, Dore Gold, were expected to call on Thursday for legal proceedings against Ahmadinejad for incitement to genocide.

Really it’s about time this type of case was made, but it’s too bad it’s coming from Bolton who stepped down from his post as U.S. Ambassador to the UN due to partisan politics within the United States.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also wanting to try Ahmadinejad for incitement to genocide.  Debbie has the details.

I can’t wait for the mail today. Word has it Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has written a letter to me and every other American citizen. Fox News has an advanced copy of the letter, and I must say it’s really no different than the other letters Ahmadinejad has supposedly written before.

Missing is my invitation to Islam, something I was looking for based upon Ahmadinejad inviting both President Bush and Pope Benedict XVI to Islam. Since Ahmadinejad certainly feels Islam is the true path of Allah, does he not consider the American civilian to be worthy of Islam? Why then does he repeatedly call me, a Xstian dog, a “noble American?”

UPDATE: There’s certain times when you just want to knock yourself in the head and wonder how you missed something. This is one of those times for me.

Ahmadinejad did indeed invite me to Islam, and it’s in his opening and closing remarks.

O, Almighty God, bestow upon humanity the perfect human being promised to all by You, and make us among his followers.

[snip]

We should all heed the Divine Word of the Holy Qur’an:

“But those who repent, have faith and do good may receive Salvation. Your Lord, alone, creates and chooses as He will, and others have no part in His choice; Glorified is God and Exalted above any partners they ascribe to Him.” (28:67-68)

The “perfect human being” would be the 12th Imam or Mahdi. It continues to amaze me how little these dawahs are reported within the American press or how little the American press reports upon Ahmadinejad’s fascination with the return of the Mahdi, or the Islamic apocalypse.

Over the holidays, one of my uncles brought up Iran to me. I said something about Ahmadinejad’s desire to bring about the end of the world, to which he had never heard about. He follows the news yet he’s never heard about Ahmadinejad and the 12th Imam. Are we merely sitting on news that the rest of the public doesn’t know about, assuming they do?

Top Democrats in the U.S. Senate claim they will block a vote for current U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton. This is utter insanity and goes beyond the political cheap shot name calling saying the Democratic Party is the party of obstruction. Sure, they have obstructed and look like they will again, but to not confirm Bolton proves those Democrats in power are part of a party of the spineless.

Let us sit back just a bit and take a look at the last year on a country-by-country basis and see how things transpired within the United Nations. Iran is developing nuclear weapons, North Korea claims they have them and Africans are being slaughtered at the hands of Muslim militias in Darfur.

DARFUR – Islamic militias aided by the Sudanese government are involved in ethnic clensing against Africans (blacks) in the Darfur region of Sudan. No matter how many calls, internationally, have been made to end the crisis, the UN has done nothing to move in that direction. Nothing. As a few countries ban together outside of the UN to try to put some sort of peace keeping force in Darfur, the Sudanese government raises its head from its slumber and cries there is no reason for an international force. Meanwhile more people are being killed because they are black, not arabs and not of the specific ideological Islamic faith the Muslim militias are a part of.

John Bolton has been trying to put together an international coalition to circumvent the feckless UN to put some sort of peacekeeping unit on the ground in Darfur.  He has not been successful, but there is far more talk of intervening in Darfur today than there was even one year ago.

NORTH KOREA – To properly analyze North Korea, we must look at history longer than just one year ago and remember the failed diplomatic courses of previous years and previous administrations. This is not to pick on the Clinton Administration or the ridiculously stupid Jimmy Carter, picking on the latter is for another time, but we must learn from mistakes made in the past and adapt current situations to those lessons.

One decade ago, the United States negotiatiated one-on-one with North Korea to end NK’s military nuclear program. The U.S. gave NK a lightwater reactor, drafted rules in which NK could not use certain nuclear techniques thought to be the only known way to build nuclear weapons and gave the nation millions upon millions in aid to be spent on the NK populace.

The result? North Korea diverts the funds intended to feed a country rife with famine and puts it to its military, thus increasing the threat the nation poses to all nations in the reason and their arch-enemy, the United States. All funds were used to upgrade the NK army. The NK’s used the lightwater reactor and circumvented all rules drafted to build an unknown number of nuclear weapons. The exact number is unknown because NK has claimed it has nukes more times than Iran claims it isn’t building nuclear weapons; both likely are small truths behind much bigger lies.

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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s closing remarks to the UN yesterday:

Whether we like it or not, justice, peace and virtue will sooner or later prevail in the world, with the will of the almighty God. It is imperative and also desirable that we, too, contribute to the promotion of justice and virtue.

The almighty and merciful God, who is the creator of the universe, is also its lord and ruler. Justice is his command. He commands his creatures to support one another in good, virtue, and piety, and not in decadence and corruption.

He commands his creatures to enjoin one another to righteousness and virtue, and not to sin and transgression. All divine prophets, from the prophet Adam, peace be upon him, to the prophet Moses, to the prophet Jesus Christ, to the prophet Mohammad, have all called humanity to monotheism, justice, brotherhood, love and compassion.

Is it not possible to build a better world based on monotheism, justice, love and respect for the rights of human beings and thereby transform animosities into friendship?

I emphatically declare that today’s world, more than ever before, longs for just and righteous people, with love for all humanity, and, above all, longs for the perfect righteous human being and the real savior who has been promised to all peoples and who will establish justice, peace and brotherhood on the planet.

Oh, almighty God, all men and women are your creatures and you have ordained their guidance and salvation. Bestow upon humanity that thirst for justice, the perfect human being promised to all by you, and makers among his followers and among those who strive for his return and his cause.

All prophets “called humanity to monotheism, justice, brotherhood, love and compassion.”  That’s very interesting indeed, but it’s also very misguided.  Moses and Jesus did not call on all of humanity to live under monotheism, rather they brought forth the message of God as they saw it.  Neither Moses nor Jesus advocated nor participated in any wars and neither urged its peoples to bring forth an apocalypse.

Clearly I am not saying Muhammed did want to bring forth the end of the world, but the followers of Muhammed in Iran to want that very ending and the bringing forth of “justice, peace and virtue will sooner or later prevail in the world,” of course with the will of God. What’s rather alarming about this one short excerpt is that I have not seen anywhere, perhaps it’s out there but I haven’t found it, any critique on why this one small passage should be cause for alarm.

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Senator Rick Santorum gave a rousing address on the Senate floor on September 12.  Below is the full address.  It was a rough transcript of the address partially proofed by Regime Change Iran.
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The day of reckoning is upon us and Iran has indeed launched an attack, but the attack Ahmadinejad allegedly promised was upon Jerusalem. Unless a Romanian oil rig in the Persian Gulf is codenamed ‘Jerusalem,’ Ahmadinejad failed to deliver upon his promise.

There is no word if the Mahdi has climbed out of his well in Qom, Iran.  I repeat, there has been no confirmation of the 12th Imam climbing out of the well. If the Mahdi has indeed not come out of hiding, presumably he didn’t appreciate Ahmadinejad’s call to “true Islam” in his last letter dropped down the well.

Heh.  “I hope that the Left will condemn this obvious war for oil.”

Debbie posts on the August 22 phenomena that seems to be sweeping this nation and bringing out the ‘apocalytes’ claiming ancient prophesies will be fulfilled. The date is actually the night of August 21st through to the moon rise on the 22nd, but that really doesn’t matter.

I have had discussions with a few other bloggers pertaining to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s declaration he will “light up the sky” of Jerusalem on Rajab 27, the anniversary of Muhammed’s night flight and ascension into heaven. I certainly don’t know what Ahmadinejad plans, if anything, but does anyone outside of the crickets in his head really know what moves that man?

It should be noted though that possible failed translations of Ahmadinejad’s and other Iranian leaders’ statements could have brought upon this hysteria. Who said Rajab 27? Who interpreted, incorrectly I might add and found out once I started looking more in depth to the Islamic calendar, August 22 was indeed the date?

Yes, I have posted upon this story in the past and did post upon Bernard Lewis’ assertion the dates are accurate and that U.S. intelligence officials are silently concerned, and I have written of what the possible implications or planned events might be, but in reality I’m pretty confident it it will be a day just like any other except Iran will officially announce it’s intentions regarding it’s nuclear program. Or will it?

Iran now claims they are open to ending uranium enrichment, a key to the proposed deal sent earlier this summer, but all of this is so damn tiresome and comparable to watching an arena football game; only tune in for the last two minutes. For all of the Iranian bluster over the course of the past two months, the threats and starting a war in Lebanon, not to mention three to four years of constantly walking away from negotiations and then heading back to negotiations, Iran is once again trying to toy with the international community. Iran has no intention of cooperating with the IAEA, the so-called international community nor will the nation try to work it’s own nuclear program into the framework of the discussions at hand.

All of this should be obvious, but it also feeds into the August 22 scenario for it is that date Iran has announced it has a surprise for the world and a day of great Islamic celebration. It certainly won’t be a shock if Iran were to reject the proposal, and they will, and the date is already a day of Islamic celebration over the night flight, but is that it? Many people don’t believe it is. Iran’s planned announcement, in their eyes, will shock the world, but who in their right mind actually believes the same nation that has deceived the IAEA for years and made certain the IAEA fires a lead investigator for concluding Iran was intent on building a bomb would actually suspend uranium enrichment? It’s an Islamic right and shows the glory of the ummah, Iran tells us while using Western technology and twisting it into something religous.

For me though, I know for a fact the apocalypse is on August 22, for that is the date the dastardly state of Texas decided I get to have jury duty for the second time in ten months. So while I’m sitting in a courtroom or jury hall or whatever else actually happens, every other time I have been sequestered the cases were canceled, the world may go up in the flames of an Iranian announcement they will refuse the proposed compromise.  I suppose the case will be canceled if the 12th Imam rises from the well in Qom?