God's War on Terror: Islam, Prophecy and the Bible

by Walid Shoebat

  In light of the various blatantly anti-Semitic statements and threats that are made regularly by leaders throughout the Middle East, one cannot help but view such an optimistic outlook as being ridiculously naïve. As Palestinian leaders regularly claim that Islam commands destroy Israel and that they will never accept a peace with the Jews, Olmert and others like him still believe that peace with the Palestinian people is possible. This is 1938 all over again. I remind you of Neville Chamberlain’s now infamous declarations of optimism regarding the peace agreement that he had established with Adolph Hitler. On September 30,1938 the newspaper read as follows: “PM Neville Chamberlain arrived back in the UK today, holding an agreement signed by Adolph Hitler which stated the German leader’s desire never to go to war with Britain again. Mr. Chamberlain declared the accord with the Germans signaled ‘peace for our time,’ after he had read it to a jubilant crowd gathered at Heston airport in west London. The German leader stated in the agreement: ‘We are determined to continue our efforts to remove possible sources of difference and thus to contribute to assure the peace of Europe.’“39

  Likewise, and even more frightening, is the Apostle Paul’s warning to the Church regarding Christ’s return: “Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:1-3). But beyond the fact that the Saudi Initiative peace deal is truly a joke, it is also not really even an Arab peace deal at all, rather a plan set-forth by the leaders of the Sunni nations, who are trying to protect their own power while isolating Iran, Syria and any other nations that do not wish to bow to the Saudi power block. As a result, this “peace plan” has actually caused Ezekiel’s coalition of radical nations to continue strengthening their ties. It has been almost eerie to watch as it unfolds.

  TAKING SIDES

  One of the most obvious developments is that Libya’s President Qaddafi boycotted the Saudi gathering. According to Qaddafi the event was sowing division amongst the Muslim community because Iran and Syrian leaders weren’t invited: “I will not take part in a summit that splits Islam in two and pits Sunni and Shi’a against each other,” he said in an interview on Al-Jazeera television.” I will not take part in a summit that pits Arabs against the Fars (Iranians)..to benefit the colonial (Western) powers,” Qaddafi said.40

  Qaddafi made his feelings clear when he stated directly that “Libya has turned its back on the Arabs (read: Saudi Arabia and its allies), and has despaired of them. The Arab nation’s time is up, and it is on its way to disintegration…I will not be a party to a conspiracy to mobilize the Arabs against the Persians. Only the forces of colonialism benefit from such a conspiracy. I will not be a party to a conspiracy that splits Islam into two - Shiite Islam and Sunni Islam—mobilizing Sunni Islam against Shiite Islam.”41

  Moreover, of course by referring to the “Arab’s” time being up, Qaddafi is referring to Saudi Arabia and its allies. Observers of the Middle East have not missed this dynamic of siding with Iran as well as Hezbollah. Because of Iran’s firm stand against America and Israel, as well as Hezbollah’s alleged successes against Israel in 2006, many more radically minded Muslims have begun to side with Iran and turn against the Saudi power block. On one side, they see Iran and Hezbollah acting valiantly against the infidels and on the other hand, they see the Saudi block as being compromised and in bed with the West. This move of support for Iran is seen not only by Libya’s Qaddafi, but also in many Sunni Muslims who, over the past few years, have converted to Shi’a Islam. “Mustafah al-Sada, a religious Shiite Muslim, told al-Arabia that many Sunnis are now asking him, ‘What must I do to become a Shiite?’ Al-Sada said that he knows of 75 Sunnis from Damascus who have converted to the Shiite sect since the beginning of the [Israeli/Hezbollah] war…Munir A-Sayed, a 43-year-old lawyer says: ‘I’m Sunni, but I belong to Hassan Nasrallah…I’ve converted politically,’ he explained.”42

  A spokesman for the Reform Party of Syria went even further elaborating that “whole villages and urban areas are adopting the Hezbollah model whereby clinics, schools, and social services are provided by Iran in return for Syrians to convert to Shi’ism.”43

  According to some reports, officials in Damascus were not happy with this trend. However, other Syrian political commentators have claimed that the Syrian regime is actually encouraging an increase in Iran and Hezbollah’s popularity in order to hold up President Bashar Assad’s own popularity. As evidence for this claim, they point to the surfacing of stickers and posters that have typical Middle Eastern iconic images of Hezbollah’s Nasrallah, Syrian President Bashir Assad and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad all together like the three Musketeers.

  QADAFI CALLS FOR A FATAMID CALIPHATE

  Beyond Iran and Hezbollah’s growing Shi’a influence, even more significant—and actually quite shocking—was Libya’s blatant appeal to Iran for a Libyan/Iranian unity when Qaddafi made a public call for the establishment of a Fatimid Caliphate on Easter Weekend, 2007. Let me explain what this meant. The Fatimids were a Shfa group that controlled much of North Africa during the 10th century. After conquering Egypt, they transferred their headquarters there from 969-1171. The Fatamids were an imperial mili-tantly-expansionist state. They desired to overthrow their main opponents, the Sunni empire of the Abbasids, who were centered in Baghdad and the Ummayids, who controlled Spain. At their height, The Fatamids ruled Egypt, much of what are now Israel, Palestine and Syria, as well as Saudi Arabia’s western region encompassing Mecca and Medina; their desire was ultimately to conquer the entire Muslim world. According to Middle East scholar Timothy Furnish, the fact that Libya, which is a Sunni majority nation, would call for a return to a Shi’a Caliphate is not something to be brushed aside lightly.44

  Furnish is correct. This call from Qaddafi was a direct appeal for an Iranian/Libyan axis to stand against the Saudi/Sunni power block. In other words, as if foreseeing the strong horse of the future, Libya is trying to get on board with Iran. Further supporting this idea of a blossoming Iranian/Libyan alliance is the fact that the Iranian revolution both historically and in very recent days has also, like Qaddafi, made some strong appeals for Sunni/Shi’a unity, all the while papering over fourteen hundred years of division. The mixed Sunni/Shi’a makeup of the forming coalition is significant in that it fulfills the “kingdom will be divided” prophecy in Daniel 2. As an Arab/Persian coalition, it would also fulfill the prophecy, which says the people of the Antichrist Kingdom would be “a mixture” (Daniel 2:43).

  IRAN AND SYRIA ARE UNIFYING

  Of course, for those that follow Middle East news, little needs to be said regarding the growing alliance between Syria and Iran. This alliance has been seen in numerous meetings between Syrian President Bashir Assad and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Syria and Iran also entered into a mutual war agreement. In the case of war (whether offensive or defensive, it was never declared), either nation will fight on the behalf of the other. And on June 9, 2007, it was reported that Syria and Iran were in intense war consultations planning on a collaborated attack against Israel. One Israeli intelligence news outlet reported on some of the happenings, “…two high-ranking Iranian delegations spent time in Damascus. One was composed of generals who held talks with Syrian leaders on coordinated preparations for a Middle East war in the coming months. At the Iranian end, a similar high-ranking Syrian military delegation called in at Iranian army and Revolutionary Guards headquarters to tighten operational coordination between them at the command level, as well as inspecting the Iranian arsenal. The Syrian general staff will draw up a list of items it is short of for a possible military confrontation with Israel…”45

  And of course, Iran and Syria are largely seen by Western and Israeli intelligence as the primary influence in the fall of the Gaza strip to Hamas. So once agai
n, Iran, a Shi’a nation is deeply invested in supporting Hamas, a Sunni group. Again, the purpose of Iran is to establish influence and power using any means or any alliances necessary.

  SUDAN AND IRAN ARE UNIFYING

  The budding alliances between Iran, Syria, Libya, Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas are certainly not where the story ends. For among the nations that are also specifically mentioned by Ezekiel, is Sudan. Not surprisingly then, Sudan—a renegade regime that is brazenly supporting a racially motivated genocide in its midst—and Iran are quickly becoming bosom buddies. In January of 2007, Iranian President Ahmadinejad visited Sudan to express his support for the Sudanese government and to stand united with them against the United States and the West. Al-Jazeera reported: “On his first visit to Sudan, Ahmadinejad extended full support to (Sudanese President) Bashir, blaming the United States and its Western allies for the region’s troubles. Ahmadinejad stressed that Iran considers progress, dignity and power of Sudan as important as its own, and extends ideological support to the country. ‘There is no limit to the expansion of relations with Sudan,’ he said. For his part, Sudan’s President al-Bashir said Tehran was within its absolute right to pursue a nuclear program.”46

  And in March of 2007, despite Western pressure aimed at convincing Iran and Sudan to accept terms imposed by the U.N. Security Council, the two nations, at least rhetorically, continued to harden their defiance against the rest of the world. While Iran refused to discontinue its uranium enrichment, Sudan refused to allow any international forces into Darfur to protect villagers who have been systematically massacred by the Government supported Arab Muslim Janjaweed.47

  Then, as the UN deadline for Iran to suspend its nuclear activities loomed in April, Iran, rather than taking even a slightly humble posture, not only announced that it had achieved nuclear capability, but that it would also give this technology to other countries.

  Although Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, was not quoted as saying who might be a recipient of the nuclear know-how, he made the comment during a meeting with Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, who last month said his country would look into the possibility of nuclear power.48

  This report becomes even more frightening in light of the CIA warning to the US Congress in January of 2007 to the effect that Libya, Syria and Sudan were all mutually pursuing weapons of mass destruction. “As the United States is consumed with proliferation crises in Iraq and North Korea, other counties such as Libya, Syria and possibly Sudan are quietly trying to acquire or expand secret arsenals of weapons of mass destruction, the CIA has warned.”

  The US Central Intelligence Agency has also concluded that suspected terror mastermind Osama bin Laden, blamed for the September 11 attacks on the United States, “has a more sophisticated biological weapons research program than previously discovered. Nuclear, chemical, biological, and ballistic missile-applicable technology and expertise continues to gradually disperse worldwide.”49

  So to recap: We have the blossoming alliance between Iran, Sudan, Libya, Hamas and Syria, the specific nations that the Bible said would unite in a bid to destroy Israel and dominate the region. Meanwhile, Turkey, the nation that will lead these nations has fallen to the Islamist party and is establishing itself as a leader in the region. Three thousand years ago the Hebrew prophets made these prophecies. Today they are all coming together with staggering accuracy. We have reached a time in history when we can actually watch as these things come together. The end of this age and the beginning of next is no longer on the horizon—it is now literally looming right before us.

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  The Reality Islam’s Explosive Growth

  Muslims are increasing more then any other religious group in the world. Their growth rate is four times faster than Christians.50 Presently, those who practice Islam make up approximately one-fifth of the world’s population. One seasoned Bible teacher from England, after reviewing the statistics, recently commented that, “if present trends continue, half of all global births will be in Muslim families by the year 2055”.51 Something dramatic and revolutionary is happening before our eyes, and most Western Christians are oblivious to it.

  Not only are Muslims the fasting growing religious group in the world, but also in the United States, Canada and Europe.52 The annual growth rate of Muslims in the US is approximately 4%, but there are also strong reasons to believe that it may have risen to as high as 8% over the past several years. There are two primary reasons for the growth of Islam. They are birthrates and conversions. In this chapter we will briefly walk through each of these two factors in order to paint a realistic picture of what the immediate global future will look like.

  THE DEMOGRAPHICS DON’T LIE

  An article featured in the Brussels Journal, entitled “The Rape of Europe”, reported the German author Henryk M. Broder telling the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant (12 October) that young Europeans who love freedom, better emigrate. Europe as we know it will no longer exist 20 years from now. Whilst sitting on a terrace in Berlin, Broder pointed to the other customers and the passers-by and said melancholically, “We are watching the world of yesterday.”53

  Broder is correct. Any simple examination of the present birth rates of the native Europeans versus Europe’s Muslim immigrant population leads us to one very clear and ominous conclusion: Europe will soon pass away and will become what many observers have dubbed Eurabia. Author Mark Steyn, in his New York Times bestseller America Alone, drives this point home in a way that leaves little room for challenge. Steyn notes that “In 1970, the developed nations (the non-Muslim majority nations of the world) had twice as big a share of the global population as the Muslim world: 30 percent to 15 percent. By 2000, they were at parity: each had 20 percent… The salient feature of Europe, Canada, Japan, and Russia is that they are running out of babies. What’s happening in the developed world is one of the fastest demographic evolutions in history.”54

  In other words, most of the developed non-Muslim nations are simply not having enough children to maintain their populations. Meanwhile, Muslims are having far more children than any other group on the earth. It is only a matter of time then before many European nations are overrun by Middle-Eastern and Northern African immigrants—and thus Islam. Consider the following figures: “The number of Muslims in contemporary Europe is estimated to be 50 million. It is expected to double in twenty years. By 2025, one third of all European children will be born to Muslim families.”55

  Did you catch that? At present birth rates—in less than twenty years—one third of all Europeans will be Muslim. Once thriving Christian nations are literally breeding (or failing to breed) themselves into absolute extinction.

  “In 2050, 60% of Italians will have no brothers, no sisters, no cousins, no aunts; no uncles.56 The other 40% will be Muslim. By mid-century, the tiny Muslim nation of Yemen will have a greater population than Russia, one of the largest countries in the world. Seventeen European nations are now at what demographers call ‘lowest-low’ fertility: 1.3 births per woman. In theory, those countries will find their population halving every thirty-five years or so. In practice, it will be much quicker than that, as the savvier youngsters figure that there’s no point in sticking around a country that’s turned into an undertakers waiting room.”57

  Facts and figures like this can roll on and on. In the United Kingdom, Mohammed is already the most popular name for boys. In Spain, as the native Spanish population is literally knocked in half every generation, the Muslim immigrant population is doubling in far less time. The result is that Spain will have a Muslim majority before we know it. The same can be said for France—and soon enough, for most of Europe. Consider the following statistics regarding the percentage of the population that is under the age of fifteen: “Spain and Germany have 14%, the United Kingdom 18%, the United States 21%, Saudi Arabia 39%, Pakistan 36%, and Yemen 47%.”58

  Is it hard to extrapolate the meaning of these figures? Whoever has the youth has the future. The simpl
e fact of the matter is that within only a couple of generations—well within this century—the Western world as we know it will completely cease to exist. For this reason and more, I say that Islam is the future, albeit only temporarily so.

  CONVERSION TO ISLAM

  Beyond the most obvious and ominous factor of demographics, there is also the potential for a genuine global Islamic revival. The Bible makes it very clear that just prior to the return of Jesus, there would be what is called the “great apostasy”. Islam is fully capable of fulfilling this prophecy. Whether you believe it or not, every year, tens of thousands of Americans convert to Islam. Prior to 2001, most reports seem to have the number roughly around 25,000 American converts per year.59 This may not sound like that much, but this yearly figure, according to some Muslim American clerics, has quadrupled since 9-11.60

  Since 9-11, the number of American converts to Islam has skyrocketed. As early as one month after the World Trade Center attacks, reports were flowing in from Mosques all over America. Ala Bayumi, the Director of Arab affairs at the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) on November 11, 2001, in the London daily newspaper, Al-Hayat said this: “Non-Muslim Americans are now interested in getting to know Islam. There are a number of signs… Libraries have run out of books on Islam and the Middle East… English translations of the Koran head the American best-seller list… The Americans are showing increasing willingness to convert to Islam since September 11… Thousands of non-Muslim Americans have responded to invitations to visit mosques, resembling the waves of the sea crashing on the shore one after another…”61