Word: twelfths
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...Many Happy Returns, Twelfth Imam! The Mahdi, an imam who happens to be Ahmadinejad's favorite, has become the object of frenzied and government-nurtured worship
...Many Happy Returns, Twelfth Imam! The Mahdi, an imam who happens to be Ahmadinejad's favorite, has become the object of frenzied and government-nurtured worship
...Many Happy Returns, Twelfth Imam! The Mahdi, an imam who happens to be Ahmadinejad's favorite, has become the object of frenzied and government-nurtured worship
...assured destruction) would not ward off confrontation between a nuclear-armed Iran and its foes. This misunderstands both the role of Shi'ite mysticism in Iranian culture, and Ahmadinejad's real political motivations. Like the majority of Shi'ite Muslims around the world, Ahmadinejad believes that Shi'ism's Twelfth Imam will emerge near the end of time to do apocalyptic battle against the forces of evil. This is pedestrian Shi'ite piety, not a cause for international alarm. The majority of Shi'ites believe this, and such views are not unique to Islam; other prophetic religions have their...
...generation for whom such devotional piety is commonplace. Such mysticism was forged in the trenches of the Iran-Iraq War, a war that was fought on the Iranian side by poor young men indoctrinated to believe they were fighting for Islam; legends developed at the front of the Twelfth Imam riding past on horseback, and when the fighting stopped, such myths found their way into popular culture. Ahmadinejad fought in this war, and absorbed its sensibilities. What matters is that this mysticism is much like saint worship; it does not insist the apocalypse is now, or imminent. No sane, educated...