Religião e Política: Cristianismo, Ahmadinejad e o Fim do Mundo

Na selva povoada por católicos e neopentecostais, ambos fortemente representados no lulismo, Ahmadinejad foi muito bem vindo. Isso não supreende, vejam o coquetel de bobagens em que esse crente muculmano acredita [similares aos desatinos do cristianismo]: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad belongs to a minority sect of Shia Islam with a pronounced strain of anti-clericalism. One of the mainstream teachings of Shia Islam is that the Prophet Mohammed's authority was inherited by a line of spiritual leaders known as Imams, and that in the 10th century the last of them, the 12th Imam, went into what's known as occultation - that is to say he didn't die, but he has been hidden from humanity ever since. One day, the teaching goes, he will return, ushering in an age of justice and peace and, shortly thereafter, the end of times.It is very like the Christian doctrine of the Second Coming, and most Shia Muslims understand it in a similar way - as something that will happen in God's good time.
But Mr Ahmadinejad belongs to a minority sect called the Hasteners; they believe that it is the duty of the faithful to prepare the way for the return of the Hidden Imam - or Mahdi - and perhaps even to create propitious conditions.
Professor Ansari says this has led to some eccentric behaviour by the president's entourage. They have meals where they leave a place at the table in case the Imam appears, they have spent large amounts of money refurbishing a well at a shrine where it is thought the Imam may appear, and, Professor Ansari says, "they've even had fanciful notions of, when they write their cabinet proposals, taking a note and dropped it down the well so the imam can be aware of it".
Many Iranians find this kind of behaviour eccentric, and most orthodox clerics regard it as something akin to heresy. But beyond that it is accompanied by some inflammatory anti-clerical language.
Mehdi Khalaji, a Shia theologian now teaching in the United States, quotes a warning from one of the president's close aides; when the Hidden Imam returns, he said, "the first thing he does is to behead the clerics because... they've been corrupted by money and politics".