Iran’s ruling clerics don’t represent all of Islam—far from it. Twelver Shiism, practiced by about 10-13% of the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims, is a specific branch with a unique and troubling end-times belief at its core: the return of the hidden 12th Imam, known as the Mahdi. According to Twelver doctrine, this figure vanished in 874 AD and will reappear only after a period of global upheaval and chaos. What sets Iran’s mullahs apart is their interpretation that they must actively engineer this turmoil through revolution, proxy wars, and terror to hasten his arrival. This isn’t a fringe view among the regime’s elite; it’s embedded in the writings of Ayatollah Khomeini and current Supreme Leader Khamenei.

Consider the foundational texts. Twelver hadiths, drawing from collections like those in Sahih Muslim and elaborated in Shia works such as Kitab al-Ghayba by al-Nu’mani, describe the Mahdi emerging amid widespread destruction—”calamities” that some modern clerics, like Hossein Ali Montazeri in Light for the Shi’a World, link to “red sulfur” forces of holy war. Khamenei has publicly tied Iran’s actions to this eschatology, as in his 2015 Qom sermons envisioning a world primed for the Imam. This mindset fueled the 1979 Revolution, funds Hezbollah’s rockets, and backs groups behind the October 7 attacks—not as political moves, but as steps toward apocalypse.

Critically, this isn’t “Islam” broadly. Sunni Muslims, who form about 85-90% of the faith, reject the Imam’s occultation entirely and don’t anticipate hastening doomsday through state terror. Peaceful traditions like Sufism or groups like the Ahmadis stand in stark contrast. Iran’s Twelver regime is as unrepresentative of Muslims as Westboro Baptist is of Christians—an extremist politicization of faith.

The dangers are real and documented. The regime’s IRGC has been linked to over 40,000 deaths worldwide via terrorism, per U.S. State Department reports. Ahmadinejad’s 2005 UN speech openly invoked Mahdi-endorsed nuclear pursuits, with fatwas permitting weapons of mass destruction in this context. Domestically, it’s led to over 100,000 executions of dissidents since 1979, according to Amnesty International. Iranian women protesting after Mahsa Amini’s 2022 death cried “death to the dictator,” not allegiance to the mullahs’ vision—showing many reject it outright.

From a Christian perspective, this echoes biblical warnings about deceptive end-times figures and false christs . Jesus offers true redemption—no hidden imam required . Iran’s underground church, now over a million strong per Elam Ministries, grows amid this oppression, a testament to hope beyond any earthly apocalypse.

The peril lies in the ideology: a theocratic machine chasing a violent utopia that endangers the world. It’s why critiquing Twelver Mahdism isn’t Islamophobia—it’s recognizing a specific threat, much like calling out Aum Shinrikyo’s cult without indicting all Buddhists. Iranian voices are rising against it; let’s amplify them and pray for truth to prevail .

During much of the Old Testament, the Phoenicians and Canaanites were known to worship an idolatrous local deity named Baal (pronounced bah – all). While this makes for interesting ancient history, do we find remnants of Ba-al worship today? Actually, we do find just that.

“According to the Encyclopedia of Religion, Allah corresponded to the Babylonian god Baal, and Arabs knew of him long before Mohammed worshipped him as the supreme God. Before Islam the Arabs recognized many gods and goddesses, each tribe had their own deity. There were also nature deities. Allah was the god of the local Quarish tribe, which was Mohammed’s tribe before he invented Islam to lead his people out of their polytheism. Allah was then known as the Moon God, who had 3 daughters who were viewed as intercessors for the people into Allah. Their names were Al-at, Al-uzza, and Al-Manat, which were three goddesses; the first two daughters of Allah had names which were feminine forms of Allah. Hubal was the chief God of the Kaaba among the other 360 deities. Hubal was the chief God of the Kaaba among the other 360 deities. Hubal was a statue likeness of a man whose body was made of red precious stones whose arms were made of gold. (Reference Islam George Braswell Jr., quoted in http://www.letusreason.org/islam6.htm)”

When you think about the linguistic progression it makes sense. Ba-al becomes Ba-alla, and then Allah. Ever wonder why mosques have a crescent moon atop them? Makes sense if you are worshipping a moon God. So, far from being the same God as the One worshipped by Christians and Jews, Allah is in fact the ancient enemy of the people of God. 

The Biblical and historical evidence shows that the Moabites worshiped Baal. The pre-Islamic and Muslim sources show (a) that the Meccans took over the idol Hubal from the Moabites and (b) that Allah and Hubal are actually identical. Thus, whether the Meccans are Ishmaelites or not, the evidence is still strong and sufficient to conclude that Muhammad’s Allah is actually Hubal, i.e. the Baal of the Moabites and thus not the God of the Bible. Muhammad incorporated the characteristics and names of various other gods into his new monotheistic message about Allah, but he apparently started the construction of Allah with Hubal, the chief god of the Meccans. (http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread139336/pg1)

Is it any wonder, then, that worshippers of this god would hate the Jews as well as Christians. When Muslims pray to Allah, they are praying to a demon, not to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! Heed Paul’s warning to the in 1 Corinthians 10:19-21:

“What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons.”

Don’t fall for the politically correct trap of assuming that Jehovah God and Allah are the same being. May it never be! 

“Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, and my servant whom I have chosen; that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am Jehovah; and besides me there is no saviour. I have declared, and I have saved, and I have showed; and there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, and I am God. Yea, since the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who can hinder it?” (Isaiah 43:10-13 ASV)