August 31, 2007--Fanaticism LXXXVIII: Waiting

1,033 years is a long time to be waiting. But the Shiites are a patient people. Since 974, after a villager in Qum reported that in a dream Imam Mahdi told him he would be “returning,” including where that would occur (in Qum of course), every year on the Imam’s birthday current-day Shiite Iranians hold a fun-filled celebration. In a carnival-like atmosphere they set up booths to distribute food, picnic, receive personal advice from clerics, and enjoy elaborate fireworks displays. There is even a stall near the mosque that marks the spot the Imam pointed out as the place for his return that warns people about “Satan worship.” There over the entrance to welcome visitors is a Star of David mounted atop a replica of the Washington Monument—that familiar obelisk-shaped satanic symbol. (See NY Times article linked below.) But back for a moment, to the religious significance of the festival. Imam Mahdi is claimed to be the 12th imam in a direct genetic line to the prophet; and to Shiites, who are Shiites because they believe this makes him the inheritor of the founder of Islam (Sunnis reject this lineage) his birthday is worth celebrating. And waiting for, because they believe that he is in fact not dead. He has chosen to remain invisible since the 9th century. To the faithful the time is not yet right for his reappearance. This sounds familiar to anyone who follows the beliefs of the most-orthodox Jews who have been waiting for millennia for the appearance of the Messiah and to millennialist Christians who for two-thousand years have been looking forward to the Second Coming. Both groups, just like the Shiites, have been making preparations for these various returns. Fundamentalist Jews, for example, to pave the way for a return to ritual animal sacrifice at a rebuilt Temple (unfortunately this must be at exactly the spot where Muslims have their Doom of the Rock) have been looking for an appropriate red heifer, one without even a single white hair, to sacrifice and burn so they can use its ashes to purify the new Temple; and they have been sewing special sanctified garments for the priests of that temple to wear. Fundamentalist Christians, in order to smooth the way for the Second Coming, have been working to encourage and help all Jews in the Diaspora to return to Israel so that once there they can convert to Christianity, which is required, and then proceed to convert everyone else. Those who fail to do so, Jews first among them, will be slaughtered and condemned to hell once Christ is again enthroned. Thus, these three religions of the Book have much in common. Not only are they each waiting for the return of their messiah, but in all cases, as with Imam Mahdi, these returns will not occur until and unless corruption and injustice reach their zenith. As I look at the world situation, that should be by next Thursday.