Joel Richardson has postulated that the False Prophet and Anti-Christ will arise from and be part of the Islamic belief system. I won't go into detail into his reasoning, but would note that it is not just based on Christian scriptures, but also on Muslim end-time scriptures and beliefs. Essentially, however, he indicates that Islam foretells a final apocalyptic confrontation between Islam and Jews and Christians, where Muslims will be led by a returning Jesus (Isa) and the Mahdi. In his book, Anti-Christ--Islam's Awaited Messiah, Richardson describes Isa as fulfilling the role of the False Prophet in Revelations, while the Mahdi fulfills the role of the Anti-Christ. (Although I have not read them, I would note that Richardson has updated his thesis in a couple subsequent books, including one published this year according to Amazon).
Richardson acknowledges some potential problems with his thesis, including that the Anti-Christ "religious system" will require worship of the Mahdi and worship of the image of the Mahdi, but that Islam presently forbids the worship of any man or the use of images. So, is Richardson's basic thesis wrong, or is there some way to reconcile it? In his book noted above, Richardson suggests that by the time the Anti-Christ demands worship, Islam will have so much invested in him as the Mahdi that Islamic leaders will not be in a position to repudiate him.
I would suggest that, perhaps, Islam may undergo a fundamental transformation that would make it more amenable to alternate methods or modes of worship. We know from recent experience that Islam is malleable because of the spread of Wahhabism over the last several decades. However, Wahhabism is proving to be an embarrassing failure. Some of its strictest adherents--the Taliban and Al Queda --have suffered excruciating defeat at the hands of the West, and alienated the local populations in many areas, including Iraq. When the "Arab Spring" results in further disasters and wide-spread starvation, will Muslims continue to follow the hyper-conservative sect on the path to self-destruction, or will something else offer itself?
One of the more interesting Muslim sects and religious leaders arose in Turkey. In his book, How Civilizations Die (And Why Islam Is Dying Too), David Goldman notes:
Some American analysts, for example the American Enterprise Institute's Michael Rubin, warn that Turkey may be headed toward an Iranian-style Islamic revolution, and point to the huge influence of the Islamic spiritual leader Fethullah Gulen in Erdogan's Turkey.
Further:
Gulen now helps set the political agenda in Turkey using his followers in the AKP as well as the movement's vast media empire, financial institutions and banks, business organizations, an international network of thousands of schools, universities, student residences ..., and many associations and foundations. He is a financial heavyweight, controlling an unregulated and opaque budget estimated at $25 billion. It is not clear whether the Fethullahist cemaat (community) supports the AKP or is the ruling force behind the AKP. Either way, however, the effect is the same.Goldman suggests that Gulen is mad, at least by Western standards:
When he speaks about the virtues of science, Gulen means something entirely different from what Westerners do. This "imam from rural Anatolia," as his website describes him, inhabits a magical world of jinns and sorcery. Science is just a powerful form of magic of which Turks would avail themselves to enhance their power....
... Science for Gulen means simply the management of jinn. Gulen, in short, is a shaman, a relic of pre-history fixed in the cultural amber of central Anatolia.While I'm not suggesting that Gulen is the False Prophet, I am suggesting that his brand of Islam, incorporating jinn and angels, and suggesting that they can be used to advance the cause of Islam, is a form of Islam that may be more amenable to the false miracles and alternative forms of worship than other sects of Islam. Therefore, it is worth taking note of and watching.
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