Here is some important news that Bush and the "pundits" on FOX/MSNBC
WON'T tell you.......

The world will end at the very same moment 50 million hippies light
their joints on 4/20!

check it out!

"He will appear as a handsome young man, clad in neat clothes and
exuding the fragrance of paradise… He has a radiant forehead, black
piercing eyes and a broad chest. He very much resembles his ancestor
Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

“Heavenly light and justice accompany him. He will overcome enemies
and oppressors with the help of God, and as per the promise of the
Almighty the Mahdi will eradicate all corruption and injustice from
the face of the earth and establish the global government of peace,
justice and equity."

"O mighty Lord," Mr. Ahmadinejad intoned to his surprised audience, "I
pray to you 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."

Check out this YOUTUBE:
Ahmadinejad preparing Iran for Imam Mahdi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_H7af26_Gk

Iran website heralding 'Mahdi' by springtime
State media: Shiite messiah to kill archenemy in Jerusalem, may arrive
during next equinox
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53577

An official state media website in Iran http://english.irib.ir/IRAN/Leader/Illumination.htm
has posted a message heralding the coming of the Shiite messianic
figure, Imam Mahdi, noting he could arrive with Jesus by the spring
equinox.

"Imam Mahdi (may God hasten his reappearance) will appear all of a
sudden on the world scene with a voice from the skies announcing his
reappearance at the holy Ka'ba in Mecca," the message says.

The Islamic Republic of Iran broadcasting website said in a program
called "The World toward Illumination," that the Mahdi will form an
army to defeat the enemies of Islam in a series of apocalyptic
battles, in which the Mahdi will overcome his archvillain in
Jerusalem.

The Mahdi's far sightedness and firmness in the face of
mischievous elements will strike awe. After his uprising from Mecca
all of Arabia will be submit to him and then other parts of the world
as he marches upon Iraq and established his seat of global government
in the city of Kufa.

Then the Imam will send 10 thousand of his forces to the east and
west to uproot the oppressors. At this time God will facilitate things
for him and lands will come under his control one after the other. ...

After his appearance the Imam would remain in Mecca for some time,
and then go to Medina. ... a descendant of the Prophet's archenemy Abu
Sofyan will seize Syria and attack Iraq and the Hejaz with the
ferocity of a beast ... finally Imam Mahdi sends troops who kill the
Sofyani in Beit ol-Moqaddas (Jerusalem), the Islamic holy city in
Palestine that is currently under occupation of the Zionists.

The Iranian series also claims the Mahdi will reappear on Earth with
Jesus: "We read in the book Tazkarat ol-Olia, 'the Mahdi will come
with Jesus son of Mary accompanying him.' ... Imam Mahdi will be the
leader while Prophet Jesus will act as his lieutenant in the struggle
against oppression and establishment of justice in the world. Jesus
had himself given the tidings of the coming of God's last messenger
and will see Mohammad's ideals materialize in the time of the Mahdi."

As WND reported this month, in a greeting to the world's Christians
for the coming new year, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he
expects both Jesus and the Mahdi, to return and "wipe away
oppression."

"I wish all the Christians a very happy new year and I wish to ask
them a question as well," said Ahmadinejad, according to an Iranian
Student News Agency report cited by YnetNews.com

"My one question from the Christians is: What would Jesus do if he
were present in the world today? What would he do before some of the
oppressive powers of the world who are in fact residing in Christian
countries? Which powers would he revive and which of them would he
destroy?" asked the Iranian leader.

"If Jesus were present today, who would be facing him and who would be
following him?"

Ahmadinejad's mystical pre-occupation with the coming of the Mahdi is
raising concerns that a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic could trigger
the kind of global conflagration he envisions will set the stage for
the end of the world.

In a videotaped meeting with Ayatollah Javadi-Amoli in Tehran,
Ahmadinejad discussed candidly a strange, paranormal experience he had
while addressing the United Nations in New York last September.

He recounts how he found himself bathed in light throughout the
speech. But this wasn't the light directed at the podium by the U.N.
and television cameras. It was, he said, a light from heaven.

According to a transcript of his comments, obtained and translated by
Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, Ahmadinejad wasn't the only one who
noticed the unearthly light. One of his aides brought it to his
attention.

The Iranian president recalled being told about it by one of his
delegation: "When you began with the words 'in the name of Allah,' I
saw a light coming, surrounding you and protecting you to the end."

Ahmadinejad agreed that he sensed the same thing.

"On the last day when I was speaking, one of our group told me that
when I started to say 'Bismillah Muhammad,' he saw a green light come
from around me, and I was placed inside this aura," he says. "I felt
it myself. I felt that the atmosphere suddenly changed, and for those
27 or 28 minutes, all the leaders of the world did not blink. When I
say they didn't move an eyelid, I'm not exaggerating. They were
looking as if a hand was holding them there, and had just opened their
eyes – Alhamdulillah!"

Ahmadinejad's "vision" at the U.N. is strangely reminiscent and
alarmingly similar to statements he has made about his personal role
in ushering in the return of the Shiite Muslim messiah.

He sees his main mission, as he recounted in a Nov. 16 speech in
Tehran, as to "pave the path for the glorious reappearance of Imam
Mahdi, may Allah hasten his reappearance."

According to Shiites, the 12th imam disappeared as a child in the year
941. When he returns, they believe, he will reign on earth for seven
years, before bringing about a final judgment and the end of the
world.

Ahmadinejad is urging Iranians to prepare for the coming of the Mahdi
by turning the country into a mighty and advanced Islamic society and
by avoiding the corruption and excesses of the West.

All Iran is buzzing about the Mahdi, the 12th imam and the role Iran
and Ahmadinejad are playing in his anticipated return. There's a new
messiah hotline. There are news agencies especially devoted to the
latest developments.

"People are anxious to know when and how will He rise; what they must
do to receive this worldwide salvation," says Ali Lari, a cleric at
the Bright Future Institute in Iran's religious center of Qom. "The
timing is not clear, but the conditions are more specific," he adds.
"There is a saying: 'When the students are ready, the teacher will
come.'"

------------

Waiting for the rapture in Iran
By Scott Peterson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1221/p01s04-wome.html

JAMKARAN, IRAN - For those who believe, the devotion is real. Tears
stream down the cheeks of 2,000 men ripe for the return of the Mahdi,
the 12th Imam they expect will soon emerge to bring justice and peace
to a corrupt world.

Eyes stare upward and arms open wide to receive God's promised
salvation. The storyteller's lyrical song speaks of tragedy on the
path to salvation, prompting cries of anguish and joy.

As at a Christian revivalist meeting that promises healing and
redemption, many weep as they pray for the Shiite Muslim version of
the second coming of the Messiah. "Sometimes I feel they don't need
me," says Mahdi Salashur, the religious storyteller, after leading
congregants on an emotional late-night journey. "They are wired to God
in their hearts."

Among the true believers is Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, who predicted with "no doubt" his June election victory,
months in advance, at a time when polls gave him barely 1 percent
support. The president also spoke of an aura that wreathed him
throughout his controversial UN speech in September.

"O mighty Lord," Mr. Ahmadinejad intoned to his surprised audience, "I
pray to you 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."

Later, at a private meeting with a cleric that was caught on video,
Ahmadinejad shared his views of the moment. "I felt that all of a
sudden the atmosphere changed, and for 27 to 28 minutes the leaders
did not blink," he said. "They were astonished.... it had opened their
eyes and ears for the message of the Islamic Republic."

A spokesman last week dismissed the video as fake (other sources
confirm it is authentic), and denied that Ahmadinejad bases decisions
on "heavenly affairs." But this presidential obsession with the
Mahdaviat [belief in the second coming] yields a certitude that leaves
little room for compromise.

the United States and Israel and enhancing Iran's power with nuclear
programs, every issue is designed to lay the foundation for the
Mahdi's return.

Ahmadinejad's executive self-confidence contrasts sharply with the
eight-year presidency of Mohammad Khatami, a moderate cleric who
advocated a "dialogue of civilizations" and Iran's return to the
international fold.

Ahmadinejad is instead transporting Iran back to the first radical
years after the 1979 Islamic revolution, defined by battling imperial
US and Soviet powers and Zionism. The former Revolutionary Guardsman
says Israel is a "tumor" that must be "wiped off the map." He denies
the Holocaust. And he is pushing the Iran's nuclear-power card;
stalled talks with the European Union to curb those plans resume
Wednesday in Vienna.

"This kind of mentality makes you very strong," says Amir Mohebian,
political editor of the conservative Resalat newspaper.

"Bush said: 'God said to me, attack Afghanistan and attack Iraq.' The
mentality of Mr. Bush and Mr. Ahmadinejad is the same here - both
think God tells them what to do," says Mr. Mohebian, noting that end-
of-time beliefs have similar roots in Christian and Muslim theology.

"If you think these are the last days of the world, and Jesus will
come [again], this idea will change all your relations," says
Mohebian. "If I think the Mahdi will come in two, three, or four
years, why should I be soft? Now is the time to stand strong, to be
hard."

That mind-set also hearkens back to the missionary ambition of the
newly forged Islamic Republic. "What Ahmadinejad believes is that we
have to create a model state based on ... Islamic democracy - to be
given to the world," says Hamidreza Taraghi, head of the conservative
Islamic Coalition Society. "The ... government accepts this role for
themselves."

Any possibility of détente with the US may also be in jeopardy, if the
US-Iran conflict is cast in Mahdaviat terms. That view holds that the
US - with quasireligious declarations of transforming the Middle East
with democracy and justice, deploying military forces across the
region, and developing a new generation of nuclear weapons - is
arrogantly trying to assume the role of Mahdi.

A top priority of Ahmadinejad is "to challenge America, which is
trying to impose itself as the final salvation of the human being, and
insert its unjust state [in the region]," says Mr. Taraghi.

Taraghi says the US is "trying to place itself as the new Mahdi." This
may mean no peace with Iran, he adds, "unless America changes its
hegemonic ... thinking, doesn't use nuclear weapons, [or] impose its
will on other nations."

Final rulings on such issues rest with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, whose position of velayat-e-faqih - God's jurisprudent on
earth - is meant to serve as the direct link with the divine.

And while rule by clerics might suggest joy over a leader who believes
he is divinely guided, Shiite religious texts ban all claims of such
revelations and warn against "false prophets." The punishment for
"fooling" people is so great, notes one, that "hell's fire and its
occupants are crying."

Analysts say a lay president who demonstrates such a connection may
also be a danger by undermining the role and authority of Ayatollah
Khamenei.

"One objection [to the government] is they take advantage of Islamic
religion and Imam Zaman [Mahdi] - they exploit them," says Grand
Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a ranking dissident cleric in Qom.
"If the government uses religious slogans and religion as a tool [to
gain power], this makes people fed up with religion and is wrong."

The Mahdi's eventual return is an article of faith for Shiite Muslims
that taps deeply into Persian consciousness and mystical tradition.
Signs began to appear in Tehran three years ago, announcing that "He's
Coming." But only a portion of Iranians actively prepare for that
moment.

Part of the tradition holds that the Jamkaran mosque was ordered built
by the Mahdi himself, during a dream revealed to a "righteous man"
some 1,000 years ago. It is here that believers are closest to the
Mahdi. Written prayers dropped into the adjacent well (which, local
guides point out has no religious basis) are thought by pilgrims to be
divinely answered.

Officials deny rumors that Ahmadinejad, as mayor last year, secretly
tasked the Tehran City Council with reconfiguring the capital to
prepare a suitable route for the Mahdi's return. They also deny that a
list of Ahmadinejad's new cabinet members has been dropped into the
well - a superstition that even Ayatollah Khomeini, the father of
Iran's revolution, refused to associate with.

"The legitimacy of Khatami came from the religious elite. But the
legitimacy of Ahmadinejad comes from traditional religious thought
[over half a century ago]," says Mohsen Kadivar, a reformist cleric
and philosophy professor in Tehran. "Ahmadinejad and his men believe
it is popular, [but] it's a very simple interpretation. We don't
believe in it; the majority of academics don't believe in it."

Still, an early cabinet decision earmarked $17 million for Jamkaran.
And there is talk of building a direct train link from Tehran to the
elegant blue-tiled mosque, which lies 65 miles south of the capital,
east of the Shiite religious center of Qom.

Already, Jamkaran is estimated to receive the second-largest number of
pilgrims of any holy site in Iran. Devotees, many from Iran's legions
of poor and less-educated who voted heartily for Ahmadinejad, line up
by the hundreds to receive food, and on Tuesday night settle in family
groups on blankets outside.

With hands over their hearts in supplication, they approach the
radiant mosque for evening prayers, and scrawl requests to the Mahdi
on preprinted prayer forms. Many pilgrims say their prayers are
answered, and health problems are healed.

"When you come here, you get your [prayer] request fulfilled, if you
are clean and pure," says Fatima, speaking through a small gap in her
head covering as she tends to a pot of rice boiling on a portable gas
stove. Her family is holding vigil outside the mosque after dark.

She attributes a significant healing 10 years ago to a Jamkaran visit,
but says the "Mahdi does not allow me to talk about it with anybody
else."

Pilgrims are not limited to the poor or infirm, however. One young
couple - he's a banker in Qom, and wears a stylish suit - say they had
their prayer answered after coming 40 Tuesday nights in a row. Now
they have another request, and will be here 40 times again.

"We Iranians have very strong beliefs, and this is a holy place," says
Mahdi Abdulahi, holding a late-model motorcycle helmet as he stands
near the mosque entrance. "I don't think it's a matter of
[presidential] propaganda to crank you up. It depends upon your own
belief."

Critics, many of them clerics, accuse Ahmadinejad of manipulating
public sentiment, even if he is personally sincere in his belief.

"They pay more attention to the facade of religion, rather than the
jewel of religion," says Mohammad Ali Ayazi, a professor at the
influential seminary in Qom. "Having sincerity or honesty does not
make any difference to the results.

"It's very dangerous, a person exploiting religion for political
achievement, because everyone has their own relationship with God,"
says Mr. Ayazi, who estimates that focus on the Mahdi's imminent
return appeals to 20 percent of Iranians. "It makes me sad that
someone would endanger that."

Ayazi says that Ahmadinejad uses religion to motivate the public
because he lacks political legitimacy. "You don't expect such a thing
from a leader, because it turns comic. You laugh, but you become sad,
because it is not supposed to be funny."

Sayed Hadi Hashemi, a black-turbaned senior cleric in Qom, says that
"The Mahdi will rise, and it's a reality that needs [study] by
religious science. But if you say, as Ahmadinejad says, 'We should
construct an avenue in Tehran for the Mahdi to arrive,' this is only
fooling the public."

But few doubt the sincerity of Ahmadinejad's belief. Some point to his
seemingly impossible prediction of electoral success, three months
before the June vote.

"You will see, on the day of the election, I will be the winner - I
have no doubt about it," says political editor Mohebian, quoting those
who heard the remarks. "People change, and we can calculate
[politically] why he won. But this [gives a] kind of self-confidence,"
he says. "Mr. Ahmadinejad thinks he has a mission."
Worshippers wail for redemption before Mahdi's second coming

Even as the last lilting note of the night fades, burly guards
surround the religious storyteller, linking arms to protect him - not
from assassination, but adulation.

As the Madoh - a Shiite Muslim storyteller - rises from a sea of red-
eyed, kneeling men at the Jamkaran Mosque, devotees surge forward to
try to hug, kiss, or touch him.

Later, like a rock star leaving a backstage exit, Mahdi Salashur puts
on a basiji militia jacket, pulls the hood over his head in
semidisguise, and steps out the door.

For the previous two hours, he has relentlessly rallied his listeners
around the belief in the Mahdi, the all-powerful 12th Imam, whom
Shiites expect to return to earth.

"Don't let the wish stay in our hearts! Come on, come on! I have a
fear of not seeing You!" Mr. Salashur tells the crowd in a poetic,
longing voice. "Everybody wants to see the Lord and Master of the Age!
Mourn, raise your hands."

People chant. Men cry.

"Those who sinned, cry more!" orders the Madoh.

Salashur's voice steadies as he tells a story of a faithful friend
"martyred" during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. The friend dreamed
that Imam Hossein, who was killed in battle in the 7th century,
appeared and said he would take him away.

"The night before he becomes a martyr, he was crying," Salashur
recalls, raising the emotional heat. His friend worried that he was
not "pure enough" to stand before the martyrs.

"If they ask: 'How do you justify yourself?' I have no answer,"
Salashur quoted his friend saying. That night, he was killed.

"Yah, Imam of the Age! I ask you to swear, whom [do] you love more?"
says Salashur, sitting quietly with hands folded, his voice choking.

Then, imploring: "For Heaven's sake, take us away in a way that we can
look at your eyes [without shame]!"

The Madoh cools the crowd with a lengthy standard prayer, the Tavasol,
and then begins more stories. One is of Zeinab, aunt of the Imam, when
she entered Damascus.

"Aye, cry! Love your own crying!" Salashur cringes, before he even
starts. "Akhh, [it is so bad] I want to die! I want to die!"

"They wanted to pour flowers on the head of Zeinab," he says, as the
crowd approaches meltdown. "Yah Imam of the Age, our apologies! All of
a sudden, people were throwing stones at Zeinab from the top of the
buildings..."

The audience bursts, and wails as if at a funeral. The Madoh cries out
in God's name, again and again.

---------------

Observers of Iran have been puzzling over Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad’s actions lately.
http://www.ashbrook.org/publicat/guest/05/vonheyking/twelfthimam.html