*Islamists seeking heaven could spark apocalypse, Princeton expert warns*

Posted: August 9, 2006
Bernard Lewis (courtesy Princeton University)

A top expert on the Mideast says it is possible Iran could pick Aug. 22,
the anniversary of one of Islam's holiest events, for a cataclysm Shiite
Muslims believe will forever resolve the battle between "good" and "evil."

Princeton's Bernard Lewis has written an opinion piece in the Wall
Street Journal advising that the rest of the world would be wise to bear
in mind that for those who believe the end of the world is imminent and
good, there is no deterrent even to nuclear warfare.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has urged his people to prepare
for the coming of an Islamic "messiah," raising concerns a nuclear-armed
Islamic Republic could trigger the kind of global conflagration he
envisions will set the stage for the end of the world.

He's also said, that Islam and its followers must prepare to rule the
world, because it is a "universal ideology that leads the world to justice."

Now comes Lewis, who notes that the world must be concerned about a
leader for whom the possibility of death is not a deterrent.

"In this context, mutual assured destruction, the deterrent that worked
so well during the Cold War, would have no meaning," Lewis wrote. "At
the end of time, there will be general destruction anyway. What will
matter will be the final destination of the dead – hell for the
infidels, and heaven for the believers.

"For people with this mindset, MAD is not a constraint, it is an
inducement," he said.

Lewis noted that Ahmadinejad has referred to Aug. 22 several times,
including when he rejected – until that date – United Nations requests
for nuclear program information.

Lewis, joining several other Mideast experts who have expressed similar
concerns, said Aug. 22 corresponds to the 27th day of the month of Rajab
of the year 1427.

"This, by tradition, is the night when many Muslims commemorate the
night flight of the prophet Muhammad on the winged horse Buraq, first to
'the farthest mosque,' usually identified with Jerusalem, and then to
heaven and back," Lewis wrote.

In Islam, as in other religious, certain beliefs describe the "cosmic
struggle" at the end of time. For Shiite Muslims, Lewis wrote, this will
be "the long awaited return of the Hidden Imam, ending in the final
victory of the forces of good over evil."

The significance, he said, is that there's a "radical" difference
between Iran and other governments with nuclear weapons.

"This difference is expressed in what can only be described as the
apocalyptic worldview of Iran's present rulers," he wrote. Iran's
leaders now "clearly believe that this time is now, and that the
terminal struggle has already begun and is indeed well advanced."

As for intent, a passage from the Ayatollah Khomeini, quoted in an
11th-grade Iranian schoolbook, reveals priorities: "I am decisively
announcing to the whole world that if the world-devourers (i.e., the
infidel powers) wish to stand against our religion, we will stand
against their whole world and will not cease until the annihilation of
all them. Either we all become free, or we will go to the greater
freedom which is martyrdom."

Lewis wrote, "This might well be deemed an appropriate date for the
apocalyptic ending of Israel and if necessary the world. It is far from
certain that Mr. Ahmadanejad plans any such cataclysmic events precisely
for Aug. 22. But it would be wise to bear the possibility in mind."

Lewis, the Cleveland E. Dodge professor emeritus of Near Eastern Studies
at Princeton University, specializes in Muslim history and interaction
between Muslims and the West.

His comments echoed those made just a few days earlier by Robert
Spencer, another scholar of Islamic history, theology and law and the
director of Jihad Watch.

In an article for FrontPageMagazine.com, he wrote that Farid Ghadry,
president of the Reform Party of Syria, noted the commemoration of
Muhammad's ascent to heaven from the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

Spencer said the Night Journey, or Miraj, is what makes Jerusalem a holy
site for Islam, and Islamic tradition believes Muhammad, along with the
angel Gabriel, went to the Temple Mount, and then to heaven in a bathing
of light over Jerusalem.

Spencer reported that Ghadry talked of Ahmadinejad's plans for an
illumination of the night sky over Jerusalem to rival the light of that
Islamic belief.

Ghadry said what the Iranian president is "promising the world by August
22 is the light in the sky over the Aqsa Mosque," Spencer said.

He said a nuclear attack on Jerusalem, or even a conventional attack,
would be consistent with the references that have been made, including
Ahmadinejad's talk that Israel "pushed the button of its own
destruction" by returning fire for Hezbollah's rocket barrage.

Also, "Atomic Iran" author Jerome Corsi notes that it's less significant
whether Hezbollah survives, "but it's really the first chapter in the
play for Iran and the Shiite Islam nation to come to ascendancy in the
Muslim world."

First is the battle against Israel and the United States, he said, then
against Sunni Islam. Where that group is more dominant, he said, is in
Saudi Arabia and Egypt, where group members are "not unhappy to see Iran
contained."

"They may launch an attack, but I still think if they had a weapon they
would just go ahead and use it," Corsi said. "Terrorists don't brag
about things they're going to do until after they do it."

He said the recent comments are more typical of terrorists' efforts to
get attention.

"When Ahmadinejad is capable of taking action he will do it without any
warning or bravado; he'll just do it," Corsi said.

In the updated edition of "Atomic Iran: How the Terrorist Regime Bought
the Bomb and American Politicians," Corsi discusses many of the
disturbing developments related to Iran.

Meanwhile, Tanzanian customs officials have uncovered an Iranian
smuggling operation transporting large quantities of bomb-making uranium
from the same mines in the Congo that provided the nuclear material for
the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima 61 years ago, according to a recent
report in the London Sunday Times.

A United Nations report, outlining the interception last October, said
there is "no doubt" the smuggled uranium-238 came from mines in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo's mineral-rich Katanga province.

The smuggled uranium discovered by Tanzanian customs agents was hidden
in shipment of coltan, a rare mineral used to make chips in mobile
telephones. According to the manifest, the coltan was to be smelted in
the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan after being shipped to Bandar
Abbas, Iran's largest port.

Uranium-238, when used in a nuclear reactor, can be used to create
plutonium for nuclear weapons.