Syria’s President Blames Conspiracy

Bashar al-Assad (Source: Agência Brasil, Wikipedia)
بشار الأسد

According to Syria’s President Assad, the problems in his nation are due to a conspiracy:

30 March 2011President Bashar al-Assad has told parliament Syria will defeat those behind a “plot” against his country.

It was Mr Assad’s first speech since anti-government demonstrations erupted two weeks ago. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12909991

By MICHAEL SLACKMAN Published: March 30, 2011

CAIRO — In his first address to the nation after bloody protests and calls for reform, President Basher al-Assad blamed a broad conspiracy from beyond his borders on Wednesday for Syria’s turmoil and offered no concessions to ease his authoritarian regime’s grip on public life…

“It is not a secret now that Syria is being subject to a conspiracy,” he said. “The timing and shape depends on what is happening in other Arab countries. “ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/world/middleeast/31syria.html?src=twrhp

The above statements are interesting for many reasons.

Those of us in the Living Church of God believe that Bible prophecy tells of a time when the Arab nations will unite under a leader shown as the final King of the South in the Book of Daniel (e.g. Daniel 11:40). It is possible that a group like the Muslim Brotherhood would be behind trying to coordinate such a “plot”/confederation as having a pan-Arabic caliph is one of that group’s stated goals.

Another reason that the Syrian president’s statements were interesting is that Syria maintains a close relationship with Iran. And only last month, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed that the Imam Mahdi was behind the current turmoil in the world (for details, see Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: World Order About to Collapse, Mahdi Behind it). Iran expects to provoke the rising up of this somewhat mythical figure (the Shi’ite version of this suggests that the Imam Mahdi has been somehow alive for over 1000 years and is waiting for Middle East turmoil to come and rule the Islamic world).

So, it somewhat sounds like Syria’s Assad is not as positive about the unrest in the Arab world that Iran’s President has embraced and encouraged.

The President of Iran has long believed that it is his special calling to create enough chaos in order to stimulate the arrival of an Islamic leader that he and others refer to as the Imam Mahdi (see also Iran’s Ahmadinejad to Conquer Jerusalem?). This leader is supposed to unite Islam and root out problems within its religion (see also Iran’s Ahmadinejad Does Not Want Peace).

For various reasons, the Imam Mahdi that Iran wants sounds a lot like the final King of the South that the Bible foretells (Daniel 11:40-43). While the King of the South will not fulfill everything related to Iran’s Mahdi predictions, this may not matter too much to the Arabs.

Iran remains likely to attack Israel and/or provoke Israel to attack it, and Syria may support Iran. And while Iran hopes to win such an encounter in order to get the Muslim world behind it, it is much more likely that Israel would hit back hard. So hard, in fact, that the Arab world will be even more upset with Israel than it is now. Enough so that the Arab world will be more likely to accept a pan-Islamic leader, that they will refer to as a type of Caliph, that happens to be the same one that the Bible refers to as the final King of the South (though a caliph that is not the final King of the South could also be in place for a while). I suspect that if Iran has an unsuccessful attack on Jerusalem that a Caliph-type leader will rise up from elsewhere in the Middle East and that many in Iran will support him anyway (even if all the Mahdi predictions do not come to pass).

So, whether or not there is an organized conspiracy in the Arab world, the reality is that many of the Islamic nations in North Africa and the Middle East will ultimately turn over their sovereignty to the biblically expected king of the South. And yes, Syria will also be affected (and perhaps very badly, cf. Isaiah 17:1).

Perhaps I should mention that at least two sources that I have found state that the Mahdi will end up being based in Damascus (the capital of Syria):

“Having done this his next step would be to proceed on to Damascus, where the bulk of the Nasara (Christian) forces along with the tribe of Kalb would be deployed, as was previously mentioned. In Damascus, the Imam will set up his headquarters. From here, he will conduct military operations against the enemies of Islam and defeats them (such as the ones in Jerusalem), and from here, he will rule.”

“The Mehdi will be very just and his capital will be Damascus. The Mehdi is NOT a prophet but he is the final Rightly Guided Khalifah. The Mehdi will lead Muslims to a great victory against the Sufyaani and the Romans. This great war or Armageddon…”

If the final King of the South ends up being based in Damascus, this may be part of the reason that it gets destroyed (Isaiah 17:1). On the other hand, it is also possible that as an act of desperation, Syria will support Iran in a battle against Israel that probably will not turn out well for Syria–and this would be sooner than what Daniel 11:40-43 is foretelling.

What is happening in Syria seems to aligning with the idea of a pan-Arabic confederation that all should watch for.

Some articles of possibly related interest may include:

The Arab World In the Bible, History, and Prophecy The Bible discusses the origins of the Arab world and discusses the Middle East in prophecy. What is ahead for the Middle East and those who follow Islam? What does Islam teach about the Imam Mahdi?
Is There A Future King of the South? Some no longer believe there needs to be. Might Egypt, Islam, Iran, Arabs, or Ethiopia be involved? Is he the Imam Mahdi? What does the Bible say?