Unleashing the Beast

T HE M AHDI , I SLAM ' S M ESSIAH / 99

very thought of someone hiding in a desert area reminds me of the warning Jesus gave concerning false prophets and false christs, when He said: Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not (Matthew 24:26). T HE O SAMA F ACTOR The name, Osama bin Laden, became a household word after September 11, 2001. Credited with the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, along with the suicide bombing of the U.S.S. Cole battleship in the Persian Gulf, this evil-inspired Islamic radical was able to hide in Afghan caves and train terrorists who would later fly planes into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Few Americans were aware that after September 11, many of the poor, uneducated Muslims throughout the world began whispering that bin Laden may be the Mahdi. While in Charlotte, North Carolina, I was informed by a Muslim, a businessman from Iran who watches Middle East television via satellite that some Muslims throughout the world actually believed that bin Laden fits the description of the Mahdi. The Muslims who whispered among themselves the bin Laden-Mahdi connection did so on this basis:  Bin Laden is from Saudi Arabia, the general area from which the future messiah of Islam will originate.