ZEALOTRY PUTS IRAN ON APOCALYPTIC PATH

With negotiations over Iran's nuclear program looming once again, understanding the country's new President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is critically important. Perhaps the best place to start is the moment the world first gained a glimpse of Ahmadinejad's character and hardline program.

When he addressed the UN in New York last September, Ahmadinejad suddenly felt himself surrounded by light. It wasn't the stage lighting, he said -- it was light from heaven. Ahmadinejad related his otherworldly experience in a videotaped meeting with a prominent ayatollah in Tehran. A transcript of his comments and sections of the videotape wound up on a hardline, pro-regime internet site, baztab.com.

According to the transcript, Ahmadinejad said a member of his entourage at the UN meeting first told him of the light. "When you began with the words 'In the name of God', I saw a light coming, surrounding you and protecting you to the end (of the speech)," the member said.

Ahmadinejad confirmed sensing a similar presence. "I felt it myself, too, that suddenly the atmosphere changed and for 27-28 minutes the leaders could not blink ... They had their eyes and ears open for the message from the Islamic Republic," he told Ayatollah Javadi-Amoli.

Ahmadinejad's "vision" at the UN could be dismissed as political posturing if it weren't for a string of similar statements and actions that suggest he believes he is destined to bring about the "End Times" -- the end of the world -- by paving the way for the return of the Shia Muslim messiah.

Given that Iran continues to pursue suspect nuclear programs, which could bring the Islamic Republic dangerously close to weapons capability, a leader with messianic visions is worrying. After all, this is the man who recently pledged to use Iran's newfound powers to "wipe Israel off the map" and to "destroy America". In a November 16 speech in Tehran to senior clerics who had come from all over Iran to hear him, the new President said the main mission of his Government was to "pave the path for the glorious reappearance of Imam Mahdi (may God hasten his reappearance)". The mystical 12th Imam of Shia Islam disappeared as a child in 941AD, and Shia Muslims have awaited his reappearance ever since, believing that when he returns, he will reign on earth for seven years, before bringing about the Last Judgment and the end of the world.

In order to prepare for the Mahdi, Ahmadinejad said, "Iran should turn into a mighty, advanced, and model Islamic society". Iranians should "refrain from leaning toward any Western school of thought" and abstain from "luxurious lives" and other excesses.

Reports in government media outlets in Tehran have quoted Ahmadinejad as having told regime officials that the Hidden Imam will reappear in two years.

While many Shia Muslims worship the 12th Imam, a previously secret society of powerful clerics, now openly advising the new President, are transforming these messianic beliefs into government policies. Led by Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, who frequently appears with Ahmadinejad, the Hojatieh society is considered by many Shi'ites as the lunatic fringe. During the early years of the Islamic Revolution, even Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini found their beliefs too extreme and sent them scurrying underground.

Since taking office last August, Ahmadinejad has installed Hojatieh devotees in his cabinet and throughout the bureaucracy. The Ministry of Information and Security, largely sidelined by former president Mohammed Khatami, has re-emerged as a powerful repressive force, using plainclothes agents, allied with the paramilitary Bassij and non-government vigilantes, to crack down on potential opponents of the regime.

As the world prepares to confront an Iranian regime that continues to defy the International Atomic Energy Agency on its nuclear programs, we must listen to what Iran's leaders say as we watch what they do. A religious zealot with nuclear weapons is a dangerous combination the world cannot afford to tolerate.

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Excerpt USA Today Editorial: In nuclear challenge, Iran bets world will blink first

"An all-out international effort is needed to stop Iran's nuclear program. If that failed and Iraq acquired nuclear weapons, the likeliest outcome would be a Middle East living with the Cold War concept known as mutually assured destruction (MAD). If one nuclear power were to use a weapon, it would bring retaliatory nuclear destruction.

Not a pleasant thought. MAD assumes rational leadership, not rule by fanatics. What if a leader such as Ahmadinejad, who calls for the destruction of Israel and contends the Holocaust is a myth, were to turn a whole country into a suicide bomber? Sobering fuel for thought — and action."