Iran-Is there a mahdi in the house?

One of the chief areas of speculation in the latest news cycle on Iran is `what's driving Ahmadinejad and Iran? Why are they being so confrontational?

There are lots of reasons....Iran feels strong because its nuclear program is nearing completion, because money is rolling in due to high oil prices and because Iran feels its strategic position, thanks to the worldwide lust for oil, America's large committment in Iraq and Iran's de facto alliance with both Russia and al Qaeda make it immune to sanctions and isolation.

These statements are all true, but it is the Freedom Fighter's contention that there's might be a little more to this. Iran may actually be seeking a confrontation with the West as a 'divine mission'. Notice I said Iran, not Ahmadinejad...important to rememeber that he's merely a hired hand of the Supreme Council of Guardians and Khamani.

All streams of Islam believe in a divine saviour, known as the Mahdi, who will appear at the End of Days. Several Islamic demogogues have raised vast armies and taken territory by utilizing this belief through history.

Iran's dominant Shia "Twelver" sect believes this will be Mohammed ibn Hasan, regarded as the 12th Imam, or righteous descendant of the Prophet Mohammad.

He is said to have gone into "seclusion" in the ninth century, at the age of five. His return will be preceded by chaos, war and bloodshed. After a cataclysmic battle with evil and darkness, the Mahdi will lead the world to an era of universal Dar Islam..domination of the world by Islam and Sharia law.

Ahmadinejad is reportedly consumed with his devotion to this Hidden Imam,and his belief that his government must prepare the way for his return. Ahmadinejad and the Council appear to be acting on the throes of a religious ferver, a sense of divine mission.

This first began to be noticed in the West with Mr Ahmadinejad's international debut, a speech to the United Nations.

The UN delegates expected a conciliatory speech aimed at defusing the nuclear crisis after Teheran restarted its nuclear program in August.

Instead, they heard Ahmadinejad speaking in apocalyptic terms of Iran and Islam struggling against an evil West and ending with the messianic appeal to God to "hasten the emergence of your last repository, the Promised One, that perfect and pure human being, the one that will fill this world with justice and peace".

In a video widely released in Iran in November, Ahmadinejad is shown telling a cleric that he had felt the hand of God entrancing world leaders as he delivered a speech to the UN General Assembly last September. He described how his Iranian colleagues had seen an aura of light around him as he began his speech to the UN.

"I felt it myself too," Mr Ahmadinejad said. "I felt that all of a sudden the atmosphere changed there. And for 27-28 minutes all the leaders did not blink…It's not an exaggeration, because I was looking."

"They were astonished, as if a hand held them there and made them sit. It had opened their eyes and ears for the message of the Islamic Republic."

Ahamdinejad followed this performance up with a number of statements, such as the one about Israel being wiped off the map that startled Westerners but are perfectly in tune with the Qu'rannic vision of the return of the Mahdi and the Last Days. In the Qu'ran, on the Day of Judgement the very rocks and trees will call out to Muslims to kill the Jews hiding behing them.

Ahmadinejad and the Council seem to appear to believe that these events are close at hand and that they can hasten the timetable.

Are Ahmadinejad and the Supreme council now pushing for a clash with the West because they feel safe in the belief of the imminent return of the Hidden Imam?

And are they trying to speed up things in the hope of hastening his reappearance?

People have believed stranger things.And fought wars over them.

In any event, these are not the sort of people most of us would want playing around with dangerous toys like nukes.