Unleashing the Beast

C LUES FROM THE B IBLICAL P ROPHETS / 117

Islamic justice, especially on infidels who resist his leadership. The sword of Islam also alludes to jihad, or a holy war that can be called against the infidels. The color red is also interesting because of an Islamic tradition involving dying martyrs in a jihad. During the war between Iraq and Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini needed to clear the land mines on a battlefield. He gave a call and 10,000 young boys, some as young as eight and others as old as 13, answered the call for jihad. The Ayatollah then strapped red tape across the forehead of these youths and gave each a plastic key he named the "key to paradise." The children, now ready to open the doors of paradise with plastic keys, ran into the field, blowing themselves apart, so that the older soldiers could cross the field and fight the opposing army. The red tape, a visible marking on their foreheads, showed their desire to die for Allah. A passenger on the doomed flight that crashed in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001, called his wife from the plane. He described the hijackers as Middle Eastern men wearing red headbands and holding a red box they claimed was a bomb. Red cloth is often connected to fanatical Muslims who desire to die as martyrs. Could the red horse with a great sword in Revelation allude to the so-called jihad, or sword of Islam, being called against the world? This prophetic horse and rider "takes peace" from the earth (Revelation 6:4). The red horse and rider is seen in John's vision early in the Tribulation. The Bible says, "They should kill one another" (Revelation 6:4). Certainly this is a picture of modern fanatical jihad.