According to eminent eschatological scholars/spiritual warriors, there will be nine signs of the imminent End:

• Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies
• Rivers and seas boiling
• 40 years of darkness
• Earthquakes
• Volcanoes
• The dead rising from grave
• Dogs and cats living together
• Mass hysteria.

The eighth has arrived; the others might soon follow:

Although I write about many topics on this blog (Shakespeare, science fiction, rock music, Tolkien), as much as possible I focus on eschatology and messianism–mainly Muslim, since my doctoral studies and several subsequent books dealt with that topic.

But Islam’s Mahdi/Twelfth Imam is not the only apocalyptic game in town. Non-Western (and Islam is a Western religion, coming out of Judaism and Christianity, with a little help from Zoroastrianism) cultures have their own brands of beliefs in a supernatural deliverer. My friend Dr. Richard Landes covers some of these in his brilliant work Heaven on Earth. The Varieties of the Millennial Experience (Oxford, 2011). However, I just discovered that Chinese history is rife with examples of such, as well. Matthew Dentice breaks down many of them in a series of “Patheos” posts, such as this one: “Other Themes in Chinese Eschatology.” I had some knowledge of Buddhism’s messianic Maitreya(s). But I had no idea that Taoism and even Confucianism also held doctrines. As near as I can determine (not being an expert in East Asian cultures or religions), the Taoist and Buddhist “messiahs” were more of a religious nature, while the Confucian sect espousing such looked for a “sage-emperor” who would usher in a political golden age. These beliefs became especially prominent during, and after, the Han Dynasty (202 BC-220 AD).

Thus, the Taiping Uprising (1850-1864), which killed at least 20 million Chinese, might not be solely attributable to Christianity, as it’s usually presented. It very possibly had deeper roots in Chinese society, which Hong Xiuquan bloodily tapped into. And the Communist rulers of modern China might not just fear the “foreign religions” of Christianity or Islam; they probably know full well their own civilization’s millennia-long history of having to deal with intrinsic apocalyptic insurrections.

There was one man who dealt with both Chinese and Islamic messianic movements. Major-General Charles Gordon, who died defending Khartoum from the forces of the Sudanese Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad, had earlier in his career helped the Qing rulers put down the apocalyptic Taiping cultists.

Yours truly honoring General Gordon, London, 2019.

This site is billed as focusing on “culture, geopolitics and religion–particularly Islamic eschatology.” Since my last half-dozen posts have been on that latter topic, I thought I’d throw some (Western) culture back into the mix; specifically, Shakespeare.

In the last 15 months, I’ve published five articles on the Bard over at The Stream:

“Send Prospero Back to the Island” (September 2, 2023)

“‘Henry IV Part I:’ When the Personal First became Political” (July 27, 2023)

“When It’s Not Good to be King” [On Julius Caesar] (June 30, 2023)

“Was Shakespeare a Christian Writer?” (June 23, 2023)

“The Play’s the Thing–to Bring Us Together” (July 31, 2022)

In addition, back in 2018 I wrote a LONG post (about 3000 words), “Dictator or Deliverer? Applying Shakespeare to Trump.”

Check these out. As I caveatted in one of the above articles, I’m just a history PhD and amateur thespian masquerading as a Shakespeare analyst. But at least I don’t subject you to any post-modern drivel. (Except insofar as to critique it.)

Yours truly during summer 2022 rehearsals for Henry IV Part 1.

[The title quote is from Othello, Act III, Scene 1.]

Back in 2008, on my old website, I posted a Q & A with the leader of a (then) new Mahdist group in Iraq, one Sayyid al-Yamani–also known as Ahmad al-Hasan. His Ansar al-Mahdi, “Supporters of the Mahdi,” believed that al-Hasan was the son of the out-of-occultation Twelfth Imam (although they were a bit vague on the details). Well, that group has now evolved into the “Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light” (not to be confused with the much larger Ahmadiyya community–which dates from the 19th century, and also believes its founder was the Mahdi, as well as the returned Jesus). Its leader is Ahmad al-Hasan’s son, Abdullah Hashem Aba al-Sadiq, whom they refer to as the “second Mahdi.”

These folks are syncretistic (every major prophet and thinker is history is revered), oh-so-progressive, and even open to those of the LGBTQ persuasion. Those sorts of beliefs, coupled with their overt Mahdism, makes them a target for mainstream, especially Sunni, Muslims. And that’s what happening in Turkey. A hundred or so of them have been detained in Turkey, trying to get into Europe via Bulgaria. Some report being held in horrible conditions, and even abuse. Members are said to have come from Thailand, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Algeria, Azerbaijan and the Palestinian territories. Their leader is said to have been raised in Egypt. On the website of a Western follower, al-Sadiq is shown wearing a toboggan cap pulled down over his eyes, sporting a close-cropped beard and stylishly clad in black. He published a book on the group’s teachings in 2022, which include reincarnation and that these are the end times.

Screenshot from the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light website.

If a more belligerent Mahdi is your cup of tea, then the latest news out of Iran should thrill you. Last month, Professor Gholamreza Qasemian, “director of the Majlis [Parliament] library, museum, and archives and expert in religion for Iran’s broadcasting” had some interesting public comments. “Israel only has three years left to exist. There is even no need for a war….[it] will self-destruct.” And so the Islamic Republic’s main enemy will not be the Jewish state. “Who will we face at the final war? The Hejaz, Saudi Arabia, which is the America of the Arabian Peninsula. This will lead to the conquest of the main Qibla [the direction facing the Ka`abah in Mecca] and the Hidden Imam will reappear there.” Qasemian also opined that “since they know this, they have snipers all around the Masjid al-Haram” [the Sacred Mosque of Mecca]. I wonder if it takes some kind of magic bullet to kill the Mahdi? Those snipers better hope they don’t miss. Because if they do, the Twelfth Imam will probably wreak a terrible vengeance.

These quite different Islamic messianic figures stand at the two opposite poles of Twelver Shi`i eschatology. The latter view presented has the advantage of being supported by a rich and powerful nation (which just got richer, thanks to Joe Biden). That of Abdullah Hashem Aba al-Sadiq seems destined to fail. But since it’s much more in tune with the zeitgeist, perhaps not. Time will tell.

We Christians, looking at the Ahmadis’ one-size-fits-all messianism, might be forgiven for seeing hints of Antichrist. Especially their claim that al-Sadiq’s teachings constitute a “new Gospel.” St. Paul warned “even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse” (Galatians 1:8).

Russia’s #2 man, Dmitry Medvedev (currently Security Council Deputy Chairman; former PM and President), has been waxing eschatological lately. Last year he warned that the horsemen of the Apocalypse might well be riding out (by the way, Newsweek: why do you capitalize “New Testament” but not “bible?”); and he stated that Russia’s war in Ukraine is part of its struggle against Satan. Last week he doubled down, claiming that “the prophecies of the Apocalypse are getting closer.” This echoes, albeit in more overtly Christian language, what Numero Uno Vladimir Putin says. Whether these two men are true believing Orthodox Christians, or deceptive opportunists, is debatable. (Although why couldn’t they be both?) But when the chaps in charge of the world’s largest nuclear arsenal talk like this, we need to take them seriously–not scoff at their beliefs (a phenomenon about which I was interviewed two weeks ago). The folks in our government and media who do so are making the same arrogant mistake they do with Islam and Muslims: “REAL Muslims (or Christians) wouldn’t believe or act like that. Those religions are PEACEFUL.” Can such types be any more ignorant, willfully or not, of religions in history?

“Ragnarök,” Wikipedia (Public Domain). Maybe Hela is the Sixth Horseman, er, Horsewoman?

Speaking of the world’s second-largest religion, there’s End Times news on that front, too. In Gujarat, India, some Muslims have been arrested for “targeting interfaith individuals” by “intercepting the couple” and then “thrash[ing] them in the name of moral policing”–after which they would upload the videos thereof to social media. This group called themselves the “Army of Mahdi.”

Of course, it could be a lot worse than just some “thrashing.” Mainstream Sunni and Shi`i commentators on the End Times believe that the Mahdi and Jesus (who returns as a Muslim) will give non-Muslims the Hobson’s choice of conversion or death. (When I attended a Mahdism conference in Iran in 2008, I sat through an entire panel on this topic. I refrained from commenting during, however.) The Mahdi may as well mount up and ride out with the Four Horsemen, then.

Russia’s Orthodox Christian leadership is simply warning about the intersection of geopolitics and their faith’s eschatological elements. Some Muslim leaders, however, especially in Iran, do seem to want to get the End Times timer counting down. It remains to be seen whether you can hotwire a horse.

Yesterday I chanced upon on article entitled “4 Areas Recommended by the Prophet Muhammad to Live in Before the Apocalypse.” It’s on the website Ruetir, which bills itself as a “Professional News Website Platform.” It’s apparently Muslim, based on the content and the byline for this particular piece being Jakarta; but I cannot find any more information about Ruetir.

The piece says that according to Islam’s founder, presumably drawing upon hadiths (traditions and/or sayings attributed to him), the four best places to ride the eschatological storm out will be:

• Mecca
• Medina
• Yemen
• Sham (traditionally Syria, but here said to include Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan, as well)

Specifically, Mecca will be protected by angels. Medina will “shake three times” and expel non-Muslims. Yemen counterintuitively makes the list, despite it not being an Islamic holy site. And [al-]Sham (the Levant, to Westerners) is here because of some traditions the Dajjal, the “deceiving messiah,” will be killed there. Curiously, there’s nothing about the Mahdi’s End Time activities mentioned, however. Wouldn’t a Muslim want to be where he’ll show up?

Isa (Jesus) fighting the Dajjal, from “Al-Masih_ad-Dajjal,” Wikipedia (Accessed 8.31.23)

If you’re not Muslim, you might be better off looking at other locales. One recent global list reads as if written by an Anglosphere travel booker: New Zealand, Iceland, the UK (?), Australia (On the Beach, anyone?) and Ireland. For us Yanks, survivalists say the best bets are the Rocky Mountain West, remote parts of New England, and eastern Kentucky.

The latter two lists rely on data like food and water availability, population density, distance from potential nuclear targets, etc. The first list relies solely on Islamic traditions.

You be the judge. But Arabia might be a target-rich environment in WWIII–and after.

Earlier today I was honored to be on the “Break It Down Show” with the intrepid Pete Turner. We discussed the US government’s inveterate inability/refusal to understand religion in foreign affairs.

Yesterday a Philadelphia teenager was arrested for terrorism, accused of working online with the Islamic group Kata’ib al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad (“The Battalions of Unity and Jihad”). This reminded me that I hadn’t perused the State Department list of designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations for a year or two–since I’ve not taught history of terrorism lately. It’s dirty work, but someone has to do it. So here goes.

The State Department list has no date, but the most recent group was added on December 1, 2021. This is curious, since the aforementioned KTJ was designated March 7, 2022 but is not on the list itself. In any event, there are 68 total terrorist organizations listed, 55 of which are Muslim (81%). Another 6 are Marxist-Leninist (9%); 6 are nationalist (9%); and 1 is anarchist (1%).

Of the Muslim ones, in comparison to the whole, 49 are Sunni, 5 Shiite and one Sufi. [I have to use the archaic term for the smaller branch of Islam, and the Western transliteration of Bin Laden’s group, as WordPress goes bonkers when you attempt to use the proper symbols for the actual Arabic transliterations of those terms.} As you might expect, the specific countries with the most terrorist groups operating on their soil–four each–are Iraq, Syria, the Palestinian territories, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Afghanistan would have more, but since the Taliban retook control of the country, following the Biden Administration’s humiliating withdrawal, that group has been de-listed from many countries’ terrorist lists. (In fact, American aid is likely making its way to the Taliban government, as well as to other groups. Well-played, former insurgents.)

Islamic State (IS) and its branches, along with al-Qa`idah (AQ) and its, remain the world’s deadliest terrorist groups. Of the 6700 people killed by terrorists in 2022, IS was responsible for 62% of those deaths.

Logo of the Egyptian terrorist group Harakat Sawa`d Misr, “Egyptian Arms Movement.” The AK-47 is twisted into the acronym HSM. The subtitle says “With our arms we defend our revolution.”

The biggest takeaway here is this: despite the Biden Administration’s incessant efforts to gin up “white supremacy” as a terrorist threat (which I examined at length in May of this year), it’s simply not. While some anarchists and Marxist-Leninists are white, they are motivated by ideologies other than melanin content. What about Nationalist groups, of which there are six on the list? These are the Continuity Irish Republican Army, New Irish Republican Army, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (in Sri Lanka), Palestine Liberation Front, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and PFLP-General Command. It’s problematic to cast Sri Lankans and Palestinians as white supremacists. So that leaves the Irish options to support Uncle Joe’s tired thesis propaganda. But the CIRA and NIRA just want to, as they see it, give Ireland back to the Irish. Not to hand out Klan hoods.

By the way, the FBI (no doubt inadvertently) refutes Biden’s ridiculous claim. There are 24 individuals “charged with federal crimes in the United States” on its “Most Wanted Terrorists” page. Of those, 22 are Muslim. Another is a black woman who killed a New Jersey state trooper. Only one is white, and he’s wanted for blowing up biotech facilities in California. On the sub-page for “Domestic Terrorism” you won’t find Donald J. Trump, PTA members, or your local Catholic parish. Instead, there are 10 folks, four black and six white. Here are the latter’s ideologies or acts: anti-apartheid activist who threw acid in a policeman’s face; Animal Liberation Front/Earth Liberation Front activist who torched government buildings; Black Panther-sympathetic plane hijacker; criminal Communist seeking to overthrow the US government; bomber of a building at University of Wisconsin; and Hispanic chap who hijacked a plane to Cuba.

Most of the world’s terrorists are Muslim. And the most deadly terrorist groups are Muslim. Yet the new “National Intelligence Strategy” of the US mentions “terrorist organizations” only once; and “counterterrorism” only in terms of the “tools, techniques and procedures” learned from it being adapted to “other missions.” Notably “climate change.”

It won’t be possible to subdue this legion of Islamic jihadists as long as our government pretends, purely for political purposes, that the real threat is something else. Until then, it’s we who are shackled by chains of deceit–not the strong man of terrorism.

[The blogpost title, and the final paragraph, reference the account of the Gerasene demoniac in the Gospel of St. Mark 5:1-20.]

In terms of foreign affairs priority, the Islamic world has taken a back seat lately to Ukraine, China/Taiwan and aliens. But like time, the Apocalypse waits for no one. And so in recent months self-styled harbingers of Allah’s End Times agenda have appeared.

Of course, the main Muslim eschatological figure is al-Mahdi, the “divinely-guided one” who will usher in the Islamic Age on Earth. Fifty-one supporters of Iraqi cleric-politician Muqtada al-Sadr were recently arrested for claiming that al-Sadr is actually the Mahdi. Al-Sadr has long been involved in Iraqi affairs; for many years he headed a group called Jaysh al-Mahdi, the “army of the Mahdi,” although he had been a more conventional politician in recent years. The head of the arrested clique was said to have believed himself to be the angel Jibril (Gabriel), “tasked with announcing the appearance of the long-awaited Mahdi.” Another news story on this incident merely reports the angel-addled chap preparing the way for the Mahdi, sans any connection to al-Sadr.

A 16th-century Siyer-i Nebi image of angel Gabriel visiting Muhammad [Wiki, Public Domain}

(The Mahdi is the major eschatological figure of Islam, slightly outranking `Isa, “Jesus.” Unlike the latter, the former is nowhere mentioned in the Qur’an, but only in hadiths, alleged sayings of Muhammad. Still, belief in the Mahdi is deeply held by many Muslims–both Sunni and Shii. The major difference between the two main branches of Islam in this regard is that for Sunnis the true Mahdi will step onto the stage of history towards The End, mainly proving his worth as a politician and military conqueror. For the largest branch of Shiis, the Twelvers, he has already been here as the 12th “Imam,” or rightful leader of the Islamic world–a count that starts with Ali, Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law. However, he disappeared in the 9th century AD and will reveal himself, again, in all his power before The End.)

In a related story, two months ago a woman in Pakistan claimed to be a “prophet”–a big no-no in Islam, since Muhammad is believed to have been the final such sent to humanity. She also said her name was Qiyamat, which means “day of resurrection/final judgment.” She was of course arrested by Pakistani authorities for being a “false prophet.” So while she made no reference to the Mahdi, she did wax eschatological.

One of these days, one of these messianic pretenders will avoid the authorities, gain a sizable following, and take over. It’s happened before: medieval Morocco and Egypt, 19th century Sudan, barely avoided in 1979 Saudi Arabia. Let’s hope it won’t be in a place like Pakistan, with nuclear weapons. But as 2076 approaches–the turn of the next Muslim century (1500 AH)–eschatological fervor will ramp up in the Islamic world. Count on it.