Word: millenarian
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...virtual civil war weren't a problem enough, Iraq had to face down an armed uprising by a group that allegedly had a lot in common with the Branch Davidians - a millenarian cult led by a charismatic messiah figure who believed that it could bring about the end of the world. Indeed, the man who was hailed as the Mahdi - an Islamic figure who arrives with the cosmic apocalypse - wasn't just defending a military encampment in the holy city of Najaf from the Iraqi Army. He and his followers were protecting land that had been the cult's home...
...resistance. But a U.S. helicopter was shot down, killing two American soldiers. Yamani died along with an unknown number of his fighters; many others were captured. Iraqi officials have offered varying descriptions of the fighters. They were first portrayed as al-Qaeda terrorists. Officials then acknowledged the Shi'a millenarian nature of the Army of Heaven, but still claimed the group was supported by Sunni terrorists and included foreign Arabs of the kind who flock to Iraq to fight under the banner of Sunni jihad...
...eagerly awaits the coming of the twelfth Imam, who has reputedly been hidden for a millennium and who, it is said, will redeem the world when he returns. These bits of knowledge may seem pedantic, but they matter to a great many people (Iran’s unstable and millenarian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, to name a notable one) who, in turn, matter a great deal to the West. We cannot see how such important knowledge, with its attendant modern-day relevance, would be imparted by the Reason and Faith requirement as is. One thing is certain?...
...worship that stress miracles and personal inspiration through prayer. A number of cultlike, pseudo-Christian offshoots have sprung up in the Chinese countryside in recent years, apparently inspired by this ecstatic form of worship. Often spawned by the personal ambition of their leaders, these highly secretive groups usually espouse millenarian views that make the authorities profoundly nervous. Members of a sect called the Three Grades of Servants were convicted earlier this year in Heilongjiang province on 20 murder charges, involving attacks on its main rival, Eastern Lightning, a sect that relies on kidnapping and beating to make converts...
...China's religious freedom is by no means absolute. Seeking personal salvation is fine, but public displays of religiosity outside the confines of state-controlled institutions are not. China's history is filled with religious uprisings against the state, like the millenarian cults that helped usher out China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing. Hence the continuing crackdown against the meditation movement Falun Gong or the raid last month on an unofficial Bible study in central Henan province that was termed "evil cult" activity by the police. In northwestern Xinjiang, where the Chinese government is fighting a separatist movement...