Hamid Mir
Who is giving a religious colour to the US and Israel’s war against Iran? Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump had declared the main goal of the war to be to destroy Iran’s nuclear capability, but who organised a special prayer for victory in the war in the Oval Office with Christian pastors and religious leaders? The world media has published a picture of this special prayer in which several religious leaders, including Pastor Greg Laurie, are placing their hands on Trump’s shoulders and promising victory in the war against Iran. All these people have been preparing Americans for years for a big war before the appearance of the Antichrist, which is called (ہرمجدون) Armageddon. Several Western newspapers, including the British newspaper The Guardian, have revealed that the US Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has so far received more than 200 complaints, stating that US military commanders are telling their subordinates that Trump has been told by Jesus Christ to attack Iran because he is returning to earth and this is the same Armageddon (ہرمجدون) that has been mentioned in the Bible. A joint complaint sent by 15 US soldiers includes 11 Christians, one Muslim and one Jewish soldier. This complaint means that the religion card has divided the US military. This religion card played by Trump clearly shows that despite the martyrdom of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, there has been no major movement for regime change in Iran now, so Trump wants to achieve some other goals by giving this war a religious colour before mentioning these goals, it is important to mention that Trump is not the first US president to They are declaring the support of the Islamic State as their religious duty and are waiting for Jesus (peace be upon him) after (ہرمجدون) Armageddon. Armageddon is a combination of two Hebrew words. Har means mountain and Mejdud is the name of a valley in Palestine. Much has been written in the books of Muslims, Christians and Jews about the causes and consequences of this war. The article titled “Clash of Civilisations” that Professor Samuel P. Huntington of Harvard University wrote in Foreign Affairs Magazine in 1993 revolved around the concept of Armageddon. Later, he turned this article into a book. Huntington also quoted a Saudi scholar, Dr Safar Al-Hawali Al-Ghamdi, in his article, who said that the next war would be between the West and Islam. In 1994, Huntington presented the theory of the clash of civilisations at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, and I was also there. I As a journalist, I interviewed the head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Yasser Arafat, and the Israel Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres, on the sidelines of this conference. I remember a meeting between Yasser Arafat and Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in which the Palestinian leader requested the Pakistani Prime Minister not to recognize Israel or talk to them. Benazir Bhutto asked Yasser Arafat that you sat with the Israelis at the Madrid Conference and then you signed the Oslo Accords with them, so why are you stopping us from sitting with them? Yasser Arafat replied that we are doing all this at gunpoint. We have been pushed against the wall. In this weak position, we want to establish an independent Palestinian state with the help of countries like Pakistan, but Israel is deceiving us in the name of negotiations. Israel and the US together really betrayed Yasser Arafat in the name of negotiations, which resulted in Hamas replacing the PLO as the identity of the Palestinians. In 2009, I saw Israelis in the streets of Gaza. I had the opportunity to see scenes of tanks and Palestinian stone throwers fighting. One day, Israel bombed a church in Gaza. When I reached the ruins of the destroyed church, I had the opportunity to have a detailed conversation with the Christian priest there. He told me that we Palestinians have become prisoners of the misleading ideology of Zionist extremists and American Christian extremists, (ہرمجدون) Armageddon. This Palestinian priest said that there is no consensus among Jews on Armageddon. Many fundamentalist Jews do not accept Israel as a state. They believe that the work of gathering the scattered Jews around the world will happen after the return of Prophet Jesus (peace be upon him), while extremist Zionists say that after the establishment of Israel in 1948, we have to establish the Temple of Solomon in place of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and extend the borders of our state from the Nile to the Euphrates. This Palestinian priest said that we Christians also have differences on this issue and we do not agree with the position of American priests on (ہرمجدون) Armageddon. This Palestinian priest was a supporter of Hamas. In 2024 While covering the Lebanon-Israel war, I met many Christians in Beirut who supported Hamas and Hezbollah. There is no consensus between Jews and Christians about (ہر مجدون) Armageddon. The only point is that Donald Trump has declared the attack on Iran as the beginning of Armageddon, which, if it happens, will benefit anti-American extremists in Muslim countries. Dr Safar al-Hawali was arrested in 1994 after the lecture in which Huntington quoted Dr Safar al-Hawali said that the next war would be between the West and Islam. Safar al-Hawali based his argument on the Zionist position on Armageddon and the position of American clergymen that a major war was going to take place between the West and Muslims, so the Arab countries Do not allow the US to establish military bases on your soil. He was arrested again in 2018. Will what Trump is doing now not increase sympathy for Safar al-Hawali? Trump is not the first US president to play the religion card. Before him, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George Bush I have also been saying similar things. All these US presidents were followers of Jerry Falwell, who founded Liberty University in the US. Jerry Falwell also used to define Israel’s borders from the Nile to the Euphrates, which includes Gaza, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Kuwait. Now, Britain and Europe are trying to distance themselves from the recent attack on Iran because if this war spreads, the global economy could be devastated. Now let’s come to the question: does Trump really want to destroy Iran from his heart and soul, considering it a religious duty? A large majority of Americans neither consider this war to be Armageddon (ہرمجدون) nor do they consider Trump to be a religious person. A large majority of Americans believe that Trump is trying to divert attention from the Epstein files. Israeli intelligence has evidence against him that he is abusing underage girls. Because of this evidence, he is being blackmailed and, under pressure from Netanyahu, he attacked Iran to divert media attention from the expected sex scandal against him. When Rahim could not be changed after this attack, he started playing the religion card. Trump’s religion card may or may not have worked for him, but it will definitely work for the school of thought in Muslim countries that agrees with Dr. Safar al-Hawali. Trump’s war is in the interest of extremists on both sides.
