John,  I do not think anything is "simple" nor can it be relegated to just our earthly understanding...for sure.  By that, I mean, in order to understand the Bible, we also need to understand the dark side of what God warns us to be upon our toes (paraphraised) and know our enemy.
 
You spoke about the two groups that make up the enemy of Revelation as having their seat in Roman Catholism and in Islam.  So, with that, I decided to go back to what I had heard some time ago when I was researching the goddesses and gods of mythology.  You are absolutely correct in the fact that Mary and even the terms Magdalene, Maddona are part of the belief system of these two groups....yes, even Islam.   Mohammed had a daughter named Maddona, didn't he?  Course it all goes back to Satan and those that followed him.
 
What I found very interesting is that this Queen of Heaven, which Jeremiah 10, among other prophets, warned the Children of Israel NOT to have anything to do with  (do not bake cakes to her and worship her)  has many names and folklore depending on the locale.  The Hebrews, when they went to Babylon didn't all remain true to God like Daniel and his friends did.  Instead they returned to Israel bringing their Babylonian mixture of Occultic Hebrew teaching with them.  Thus, we have the very priests that tried to trap the Lord Jesus Christ but couldn't so decided that He must be killed.  Course that was Satan's plan all along; to put a stop to the Redeemption that our Redeemer purschased for us by shedding His blood on the cross.   That priesthood is alive and well to this day, vestments and all.  Even the head-dress of the Fish god Dagon continues to be used.  Nothing has really changed.
 
This goddess has many names besides the Queen of Heaven.  She is well known as Lilith.  She is also  known as Stella Maris (the Star of the Sea)  Is this a relationship to the sea also Leviathian?  That is another part of Satan and   is referred to as the female part of Satan.  That makes me think of this year as The Year of The Dragon as being the designated time  that this demonic being will be coming out of the sea.  We see many pictures of goddess representations that seem to be part male and female.   Even a Lion God has now been judged to be more female than male.   It is these allurring female goddess that appeal to the occult worship that is taking place within these groups.  The Lord clearly has told us to have no other gods before Him.  Apparently, there were many of these demons that claimed the title of gods.  Lilth is also known as a Moon Goddess.  Whoa!  Did it say "Moon"?    The Moon and the Star are both part of the Islamic flags, right?  As you said, the promise of all of these goddess when Islamic men die as martyrs is very appealing to men that don't seem to have much else to live for than death and a future harem.
 
http://www.thaliatook.com/AMGG/virginmary.html
 
Here is a copy & paste from another link below.
 
LILITH/LILITHU (Hebrew, Babylonia, Sumeria): Moon Goddess; the patroness of witches; female principle of the universe; demon goddess to the Jews and Christians. Her sacred bird was the owl. Her name may have come from the Sumerio-Babylonian goddess Belit-ili or Belili. A tablet from Ur, about 2,000 BCE, mentions the name Lillake. Protectress of all pregnant women, mothers, and children. Wisdom, regeneration, enticing sorcery, feminine allure, erotic dreams, forbidden delights, the dangerous seductive qualities of the Moon (p. 281).
http://lafondd.tripod.com/Lilith.html
 
I noticed that she is also a Vampire and what is being fed to our very young  big time now through the books about the love story of a human and a vampire?  Everything is so timely.
 
Notice the picture below.  That is the Sacred Spiral.  Such a Spiral appeared over Norway not so long ago which left people clueless to what it was or what it meant.  Course those in the 'know' were not in the dark about it.  Norway is also where the underground Seed Bank is located.

Some reliefs show her lower half as being the body of a serpent or she is shown as a serpent with the head and breasts of a woman.  Lilthe is also seen as the serpent that swallows it's own tail.

http://www.sacredspiral.com/articles/lm/lilith.htm

So, I say all of this,  that your view of the a/c and false prophet seem to be inter-twined in a very twisted, dark, past that is known as the Illuminati these days we are now living.  I don't believe anyone dare be completely dogmatic of who is whom because of the tentacles (your term) of the Babylonian Hiaracy that includes religious and political.

The more I learn, the less I know.  Thank you for your reply.

gerlinda