Editing Islamic eschatology (section)

===Jihadist references===

In the early 1980s, when [[Abdullah Azzam]], called on Muslims around the world to join the jihad in Afghanistan, he considered the fight "to be a sign that the end times were imminent".   Also around that time, popular Islamic writers, such as Said Ayyub, started blaming Islamic decline in the face of the Western world, not on lack of technology and development, but on the forces of the Dajjal.<ref name="Akyol-nyt-3-10-16">{{cite news |last1=Akyol |first1=Mustafa |title=The Problem With the Islamic Apocalypse |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/04/opinion/the-problem-with-the-islamic-apocalypse.html |access-date=29 January 2022 |agency=New York Times |date=3 October 2016}}</ref>

[[Al-Qaeda]] used "apocalyptic predictions in both its internal and external messaging" according to Jessica Stern, and its use of "the name [[Greater Khorasan|Khorasan]], a region that includes part of Iran, Central Asia, and Afghanistan, and from which, it is prophesied, the Mahdi will emerge alongside an army bearing black flags", was thought to be a symbol of end times.<ref name=JSISISCFB2015:220/> But these claims were "mostly symbolic",<ref name=JSISISCFB2015:220/> and according to Wood, [[Osama bin Laden|Bin Laden]] "rarely mentioned" the [[Apocalypse]] and when he did, "he implied he would be long dead when it arrived" (a reflection of his more "elite" background according to Will McCants).<ref name=GWWotS2016:252>[[#GWWotS2016|Wood, ''The Way of the Strangers'', 2016]]: p.252</ref> According to J.-P. Filiu, out of the mass of Al-Qaeda documents seized after the fall of the Taliban, only one letter made any reference to the apocalypse.<ref name=JPFAiI2011:185>[[#JPFAiI2011|Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011]]: p.185</ref>

A prominent jihadist, [[Mustafa Setmariam Nasar|Abu Musʿab al-Sūri]], (called a "sophisticated strategist" and "articulate exponent of the modern [[jihad]]"),<ref name="Malise">{{cite magazine | url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21438 | title=The Rise of the Muslim Terrorists | magazine=[[New York Review of Books]] | pages=33–36, 34 | author=Malise Ruthven | date=29 May 2008 | access-date=20 January 2009 }}</ref><ref name="Reuters">{{cite news| url=https://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLA456186 | title=Al Qaeda ideologue in Syrian detention – lawyers | date=10 Jun 2009 <!-- 12:54&nbsp;pm EDT -->  | access-date=2 Sep 2009| quote=In brief remarks to Reuters, Nasar's wife, Elena Moreno, said she had also come to believe her husband was probably in Syria, following what she called recent but unofficial confirmation.| first=William| last=MacLean}}</ref>  somewhat independent and critical of Al-Qaeda, was also much more interested in end times. He wrote, "I have no doubt that we have entered into the age of battles and tribulations [''zāman al-malāhim wal-fitan'']"<ref>page 62 of the Arabic version of ''A Call to Global Islamic Resistance'' that was published via a now-defunct website in January 2005; quoted in [[#JPFAiI2011|Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011]]: p.187</ref>  He devoted the last 100 pages of his magnum opus on jihad (''A Call to Global Islamic Resistance'', made available online around 2005) to matters such as the proper chronology and location of related battles and other activities  of the [[Mahdi]], the [[Al-Masih ad-Dajjal|Antichrist]], the mountain of gold to be found in the Euphrates river, the [[Sufyani]], [[Gog and Magog]], etc.<ref name=JPFAiI2011:186-191>[[#JPFAiI2011|Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011]]: p.186-191</ref>

Abu Musʿab al Zarqawi, the founder of what would become the [[Islamic State]] "injected" the apocalyptic message into jihad.<ref name=GWWotS2016:252/> [[Islamic State|ISIS]] has evoked "the apocalyptic tradition much more explicitly" than earlier jihadis. [[Dabiq, Syria]] –  a town understood "in some versions" of the eschatological "narrative to be a possible location for the final apocalyptic battle" –  was captured by ISIS and made its capital. ISIS also declared its "intent to conquer [[Constantinople]]" –  Muslims conquering Constantinople being another end times prophesy.<ref name=JSISISCFB2015:220/> Interviews by the ''[[New York Times]]'',<ref name=JSISISCFB2015:222>[[#JSISISCFB2015|Stern, ''ISIS'', "The coming final battle",  2015]]: p.222</ref> and Jurgen Todenhöfer<ref name=GWWotS2016:268>[[#GWWotS2016|Wood, ''The Way of the Strangers'', 2016]]: p.268</ref> with many dozens of Muslims who had traveled to fight with Islamic State, and by Graeme Wood with Islamic State supporters elsewhere, found "messianic expectation" a strong motivator to join Islamic State.<ref name=JSISISCFB2015:222/>
;Shiʿi Islam
While Al-Qaeda and Islamic State are Sunni, Shia insurgents/militants have also been "drawn to the battlefield" by "apocalyptic belief", according to William McCants, who quotes a Shia fighter in Iraq saying, "'I was waiting for the day when I will fight in Syria. Thank God he chose me to be one of the Imam's soldiers.'"<ref name="McCants-BI-2014">{{cite web |last1=McCants |first1=William |title=The Foreign Policy Essay: The Sectarian Apocalypse |url=https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/the-foreign-policy-essay-the-sectarian-apocalypse/ |website=Brookings Institution |access-date=22 April 2022 |date=26 October 2014}}</ref>

Some dissident Shiʿa in Iraq, oppose not only Sunni, US and Iraqi government forces, but the Shiʿi religious hierarchy as well.  In Najaf, in late January 2007, at least 200 were killed in the [[Battle of Najaf (2007)|Battle of Najaf]],<ref>{{cite web
|url = https://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq19jan19,0,4037083.story?coll=la-home-center
|title = 80 killed in clashes in Iraq
|first = Alexandra
|last = Zavis
|work = Los Angeles Times
|date = 2008-01-19
}}</ref>
<ref>{{cite news
|url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/18/AR2008011803321.html
|title = Dozens Killed in Clashes In S. Iraq: Obscure Sect Presents First Major Challenge For Area's Iraqi Forces
|first = Amit R.
|last = Paley
|newspaper = [[The Washington Post]]
|date = 2008-01-19
}}</ref><ref>[http://www.juancole.com/2007/01/fighters-for-shiite-messiah-clash-with.html Fighters for Shiite Messiah Clash with Najaf Security, 250 Dead Over 60 Dead in Baghdad, Kirkuk Violence], Informed Comment, Juan Cole</ref> when several hundred members of an armed [[Iraq]]i [[Shia|Shi'a]] [[messiah|messianic]] [[sect]] known as the [[Soldiers of Heaven]] or ''Jund As-Samāʾ''({{langx|ar|جند السماء}}), allegedly attempted to  start a "messianic insurrection" during the holy day of [[Ashura]] in the holy city of [[Najaf]];<ref name=JPFAiI2011:160>[[#JPFAiI2011|Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011]]: p.160</ref> planning to disguise themselves as [[pilgrims]] and kill leading Shi'a [[cleric]]s.<ref>[http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/us-iraqi-forces-kill-250-militants-in-najaf/2007/01/29/1169919241141.html?page=2 Page 2], US, Iraqi forces kill 250 militants in Najaf, The Age, 29 January 2007</ref> The group allegedly believed that spreading chaos would hasten the return of the [[12th Imam]]/[[Mahdi]],<ref name=depillis>{{cite web
|url = http://www.slate.com/id/2182511/
|title = Today's Papers: Kick in the Pants
|first = Lydia
|last = DePillis
|publisher = Slate
|date = 2008-01-19
}}</ref><ref name=theage-2007>[http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/us-iraqi-forces-kill-250-militants-in-najaf/2007/01/29/1169919241141.html "US-Iraqi Forces Kill 250 Militants in Najaf"], [[The Age]], 29 January 2007</ref><ref name=cnn-cult-2007>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080125052818/http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/01/29/iraq.main/index.html Cult plotted attack on Shiite clerics, Iraqis say] - [[CNN]] 29 January 2007</ref>  or alternately, that their leader, [[Dia Abdul Zahra Kadim]], was the awaited Mahdi.<ref name="Abu Zeed-2-2-2015">{{cite news |last1=Abu Zeed |first1=Adnan |title='Messengers of God' multiply amidst Iraqi chaos |url=https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2015/02/iraq-imam-shiite-messenger-disciples.html |access-date=2 June 2022 |agency=Al Monitor |date=2 February 2015}}</ref> The next year during Ashura a reported 18 officers and 53 militia members were killed in clashes between "millenarian rebels" and police,<ref name=JPFAiI2011:162>[[#JPFAiI2011|Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011]]: p.162</ref> the violence blamed on followers of one [[Ahmad al-Hassan]], a man claiming the [[Occultation (Islam)|Hidden Iman]] had designated him as his (the Hidden Imam's) representative (''wassi''), and who accused Ayatollahs/Shia clerics of being guilty of "aberration and treason, of occupation and tyranny".<ref name=JPFAiI2011:159>[[#JPFAiI2011|Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011]]: p.159</ref>