Information Related to "What Motivates Ahmadinejad?"
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It's difficult to comprehend, but could a 5-year-old boy who went missing more than 11 centuries ago be the cause of the world's next nuclear conflict?
Adherents of Shia Islam believe that leadership of the Muslim religion was transferred from Muhammad to his son-in-law and then down through a series of descendants. Shiites refer to each of these successors as an "imam"—Arabic for "leader."
The 12th of these imams was born in 868 or 869. A few years later, in 874, he disappeared without a trace, bringing an end to Muhammad's lineage. The Shiites believe that this boy, the 12th imam, survived, "that he merely withdrew from public view when he was five and that he will sooner or later emerge . . . to liberate the world from evil" (Matthias Kuntzel, "A Child of the Revolution Takes Over: Ahmadinejad's Demons," The New Republic, April 24).
Some refer to him as the Mahdi, meaning "divinely guided one." In Shiite ideology—dominant in Iran and Iraq —"legitimate Islamic rule can only be established following the reappearance of the Twelfth Imam" (ibid.). As Christians wait for the second coming of Jesus Christ to establish the Kingdom of God over the earth, Shiite Muslims await the Mahdi's return to make Islam the dominant—and eventually only— religion throughout the world.
Shiite beliefs shape Iran
Because most people in the West do not take religion seriously, it's almost impossible for Westerners to understand the power of religion in the Middle East. In Islamic countries, politics and religion are inseparable.
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