Joel C. Rosenberg - Inside the Revolution: How the Followers of Jihad, Jefferson, and Jesus Are Battling to Dominate the Middle East and Transform the World

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Inside the Revolution: How the Followers of Jihad, Jefferson & Jesus Are Battling to Dominate the Middle East and Transform the World

Copyright 2009, 2011 by Joel C. Rosenberg. All rights reserved.

Cover photo of Osama bin Laden copyright by epa/Corbis. All rights reserved.

Cover illustration of Thomas Jefferson copyright by Rembrandt Peale/Getty Images. All rights reserved.

Cover illustration of Jesus used by permission of Bridgeman Art Library. All rights reserved.

Author photo copyright 2005 by Joel C. Rosenberg. All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible, copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from The Holy Bible , King James Version.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version , NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible , New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

Rosenberg, Joel C., date.

Inside the revolution : how the followers of Jihad, Jefferson & Jesus are battling to dominate the Middle East and transform the world / Joel C. Rosenberg.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4143-1931-5 (hc)

ISBN 978-1-4143-1932-2 (sc)

1. Middle EastPolitics and government1979- 2. Jihad. 3. Islamic fundamentalism. 4. Terrorism. I. Title.

DS63.1.R67 2009

956.05'4dc22 2008049076

ISBN 978-1-4143-1932-2 (sc)

Build: 2014-03-13 10:55:59

To Caleb, Jacob, Jonah and Noah,

our revolutionaries in training

Note to Readers

Though there are a number of different ways to spell the name of the founder of Islam, I have chosen for clarity and simplicity to use the standard spelling Muhammad. In the case of those individuals cited in the book who go by the same name, I use the spelling of their choice. Some prefer Mohammed; others prefer Mohammad.

In addition, while there are several ways to spell the name of the book Muslims believe contains their Islamic scriptures, I have chosen for clarity and simplicity to use the standard spelling Quran. The specific edition cited throughout this book is The Quran with Annotated Interpretation in Modern English by Ali Unal, produced by Light Publishers in New Jersey in 2006. This edition was both given to me and recommended to me as the best English translation by my friend Dr. Ahmed Abaddi, one of the top Muslim scholars in Morocco.

Unless otherwise noted, citations from the Bible throughout this book are from the New American Standard translation of The Holy Bible . I note the use of other translations with the abbreviation NIV for the New International Version and KJV for the King James Version.

Introduction

Not If but When

On April 1, 1979, Iran became the first Islamic republic in history.

Three decades later, the shock waves from the Iranian Revolution are still being felt around the globe. Iran today is the most dangerous terrorist state on the face of the planet. Whats more, we are rapidly approaching the most dangerous moment in the history of the Iranian Revolution.

Irans senior leaders have taught in recent years that the Revolution is now reaching its climax. They have stated publicly that the end of the world is imminent. They have taught that the way to hasten the arrival or appearance on earth of the Islamic messiah known as the Twelfth Imam, or the Mahdi, is to destroy Israel, which they call the Little Satan, and the United States, which they call the Great Satan. They have vowed to annihilate the United States and Israel and have urged Muslims to envision a world without America and Zionism. They have come to believe that Allah has chosen them to create chaos and carnage on the planet.

The key leaders in Iran seem hell-bent on accomplishing their apocalyptic, genocidal mission. They are feverishly trying to build, buy, or steal nuclear weapons. Iran is actively testing advanced ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads. Tehran is building alliances with Russia, China, and North Koreaall nuclear-armed powersand has cooperated on the development of offensive and defensive weapons systems with those countries.

Irans leaders are building a network of thousands of suicide bombers ready to strike American targets. They are sending suicide bombers and other insurgents, money, and weapons into Iraq to kill Iraqis as well as American and Coalition forces. They are harboring scores of al Qaeda terrorists and leaders inside Iranian cities and allowing terrorists to crisscross their territory. They are making a concerted effort to enlarge the reach of terrorist operations by building strategic alliances with other jihadist organizations, regardless of their theological differences.

The Iranian leaders are digging hundreds of thousands of new graves in Iran itself to bury the enemies of Islam. They are calling for the unification of the Islamic world politically and economically, including the creation of a single currency. They are aggressively exporting their Islamic Revolution to countries throughout the Middle East and around the world.

Put simply, the leaders of Iran believe that Allah is on their side, the wind is at their back, and the end of Judeo-Christian civilization as we know it is near.

I believe just the opposite. As an evangelical Christian with a Jewish father and a Gentile mother, I worship the God of the Biblethe God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who is also the God of the New Testament. I do not believe that God is on the side of the zealots that run Iran. Rather, I believe that the end of their reign of terror is increasingly close at hand. Every day I pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Every day I pray for peace throughout the Middle East. Whats more, I pray for the salvation of the leaders of Iran and the salvation of their terrorist allies, and I encourage others to do the same. And because I serve a prayer-hearing and prayer-answering God, a wonder-working God of miracles, I firmly believe that God in His grace can change the leadership in Iran.

That said, the God of the Bible may have other plans. If, in His sovereignty, He chooses not to remove the Radicals from Iran peacefully, then I believe a major, cataclysmic war or series of wars is coming soon as a direct result of the Iranian Revolution that was set into motion by the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. The United States, NATO, Israel, or some combination thereof could initiate a preemptive strike to neutralize the Iranian nuclear threat. If they do not, Iran will soon be poised to launch the apocalyptic war required by its theology to destroy the West and usher in the end of days. The question we all must be asking is not if there will be war with Iran but when it will begin and who will strike first.

A Clear and Present Danger

Iran, however, is not the only threat.

Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda terrorist network remain a clear and present danger to the national security and economic vitality of the United States, the State of Israel, and our Western allies. While al Qaeda has certainly been badly damaged by U.S. and Coalition forces in recent years, they are by no means defeated. Rather, they are doing everything they can to reconstitute themselves in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, North Africa, and elsewhere around the world. They are building new alliances, recruiting new jihadists, raising more money, acquiring more weapons, and plotting new attacks.