As the military conflict between the United States and Iran approaches its third week, many are asking questions like, “How many warheads do we have left?”; “How many missiles do they have left?”; “What is this going to cost?”; and “What is this going to do to oil?” says Glenn Beck.
While these kinds of questions are only natural, the bigger concern, he says, is “what [we’re] fighting.”
“I’m not making a case to fight Iran or this war or anything,” he assures.
But “you have to understand what you’re dealing with.”
And what we’re dealing with is an apocalyptic form of Islam known as “Twelver Shi’ism.”
On this episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn exposes this radical theology that has guided Iran’s top leaders, military operations, and possibly even its lethal responses to Trump and Israel’s joint attacks.
“The name [Twelver Shi’ism] comes from their belief in the 12th Imam — divinely appointed leader … that succeeded Muhammad. … Muhammad was the first; the 12th one, Muhammad al-Mahdi, he was believed to have disappeared in the ninth century in a well when he was a child,” Glenn explains.
“According to the Twelver belief, he’s going to climb out of that well, and he’s going to return in the end days, OK? And when he returns, he’s going to establish a perfect Islamic justice that will oversee the entire world; he’s going to defeat all evil; he will convert everyone to Islam; and he’ll rule from Jerusalem, and the world’s transformed,” he continues, emphasizing the parallels in Christian end-times prophecies.
But what does this have to do with the current conflict with Iran?
“[Twelvers] truly believe that they can hasten [Mahdi’s] return if they plunge the world into chaos. … That crisis prepares the ground for the final victory of Islam,” says Glenn, drawing a parallel to Revelation’s prophetic warnings of “global upheaval, wars, famine, [and] pestilence” followed by “a powerful figure … promising peace and justice,” who is actually the Antichrist — “the deceiver.”
“The hero in one story looks very much like the villain of the other story.”
Even though “not every Shia Muslim believes in accelerating chaos … the most powerful clerical authorities in Iran do believe it,” says Glenn.
“In fact, Iran’s leadership, they frame the military mission in these terms,” he adds, noting that Iran’s “armies reference the Mahdi directly” and are taught that “they’re preparing for the Mahdi’s return.”
Even Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini — the central religious and political leader of the Iranian regime that drove out the Shah in 1979 — thought the “Twelvers were too dangerous,” despite believing in hastening the return of the Madhi through chaos.
“The ones [Khomeini] said were too dangerous because they were so unpredictable and could get everybody killed … those are the people that are in charge of [Iran] right now,” Glenn warns.
“That’s not religious speculation. This is state ideology. And these are the people that are arming the terrorist groups and sending signals to sleeper cells possibly here in America.”
Currently, Iran is actively launching missile and drone strikes on several of its Arab neighbors, which seems counterintuitive to us.
But we have to “stop thinking like a Westerner,” says Glenn.
If Iran’s goal is to “get everybody at war with each other,” starting with “setting the Arab world on fire” makes sense in its grand scheme to hasten the Mahdi’s return.
“So we have to ask ourself: Who are we actually dealing with?”
To hear more, watch the video above.
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