By Walid Shoebat (Shoebat Exclusive)
In the Middle East, everything could turn on a dime. Who would have imagined that powers such as Turkey and Iran, which both recognized Israel soon after it declared independence in 1948 would become now two of its arch enemies, while Arab states who were Israel’s arch enemies have come to realize that Israel is no longer their primary concern, but Iran is? Who ever dreamt that Israel which years ago sought close relations with the Shah of Iran to counter the threat posed by the Arab states would today becomes its arch enemy while Israel makes overtures to Arab leaders to support them against Iran? But who ever dreamt, that Israel years ago had its greatest ally in the Muslim world, Turkey, which today it has become its arch enemy? But what is not conceivable today is that the very Arabs who caused all this hatred towards the Jew will be the one paying for such hatred by having the very nations which Arabia poisoned with Islam, come against her, burn her and consume her? Furthermore, if I argue, that while Iran is a major concern for Sunnis, who would believe me that in few years, Iran will unite with Sufi Muslim Turkey to go against the Wahhabist Saudi Arabia and destroy it completely?
Today Saudi Arabia seeks to build an alliance of Sunni Muslim states, yet, the very league that she tries to build will eventually come against her, destroy and burn her completely:
The beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire. (Revelation 17:16)
A prophecy against the Desert by the Sea …Elam, attack! Media, lay siege! … Babylon has fallen, has fallen! … A prophecy against Arabia … Within one year, as a servant bound by contract would count it, all the splendor of Kedar will come to an end (from Isaiah 21)
Today, a new season of Game of Thrones is well underway in the Middle East which its consequences could be profoundly significant across the region which calls for creating a Sunni Muslim united front against Shia Iran and its allies. To be effective, that would require an easing of Riyadh’s recent campaign to crush the Muslim Brotherhood and to focus on Iran’s leading role in the fight against ISIS in Iraq, Tehran’s Yemeni allies overthrowing the government in Sana’a, and by the emerging diplomatic rapprochement between the U.S. and Iran.
But such a plan ignores the religious makeup of Islam. For example, while Saudi Arabia, a Wahhabist nation hates the Muslim Brotherhood, we have Turkey, a Sufi nation that loves them. And while we have Saudi Arabia, a Wahhabist nation, it hates Iran’s Shiism, we have Turkey, a Sufi Muslim nation that has no qualms with Shiism.
Saudi Arabia is on a path of destruction. This new alliance would mean a rise of Islamism on both spheres, Sunni and Shiite since Turkey’s alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood is firm it is pushing Saudi Arabia to set aside its differences over political Islam and focus on what it sees as more urgent threats from Iran and Islamic State. Finding common ground against Iran while working around disagreements over the Muslim Brotherhood has been the focus of King Salman’s flurry of summit meetings with Gulf Arab leaders, Jordan, Egypt and Turkey. Saudi Arabia’s declaration of war on Islamist groups which was meant to preserve the Kingdom’s survival while being indulgent of Islamist allies Turkey and Qatar (both advance the Muslim Brotherhood) is a sure recipe for not just failure, but destruction of the Saudi Kingdom since these Muslim states would have to choose between Islamism (the very spiritual food which stems from Arabia) and the monarchy which is hated by the majority of Muslims be it Shiite or Sunni.
In the short run, Saudi Arabia has its plate full. The most immediate target of a Sunni alliance against Iran would be Yemen, which shares the Arabian Peninsula with Saudi Arabia and where Iran’s Houthi allies have taken over the capital. Add to this, Saudi Arabia must also limit Iran’s gains from its leading role in fighting ISIS and to top it all off, it wants to topple Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and move back Iran’s influence on its neighbor Iraq.
All this, while trying to keep this alliance, which has major further hurdles, Abu Dhabi and Egypt are anti-Muslim Brotherhood. So would Egypt re-rework their war on the Muslim Brotherhood for Saudi and UAE money while the Muslim Brotherhood creates a threat for both Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia?
No matter what Saudi Arabia does, its king is in check. And as if that is not enough, to top it all off, all this bothers Al-Sisi of Egypt especially over Saudi Arabia’s apparent rapprochement with Turkey and Qatar, two of Egypt’s arch enemies which have been criticized by Sisi as backers of terrorism and the Muslim Brotherhood is Al-Sis’s main threat. The alliance, which is an attempt to put together back a sunni Humpty-Dumpty would merge two confronting rival-axes: Egypt-Saudi Arabia-United Arab Emirates (UAE) versus Qatar-Turkey, to all become one.
Saudi Arabia has lost half the battle already. In the past, eliminating Saudi Arabia’s most dangerous enemy, Saddam Hussein empowered Iraq’s Shia majority, which has voted in Iran-allied governments since the first free elections in 2005 and with the 2011 Arab rebellion forced open a “second front” of anxiety for the Sunni monarchies — the new democratic spaces opening up across the world not only threatened the monarchic principle, but they empowered the Muslim Brotherhood, whose ideology of political Islam also challenged the religious legitimacy claimed by the monarchs. Add to all this the willingness of the Obama Administration not only to accept the ouster of stalwart autocrat allies like Hosni Mubarak, but also its newfound willingness to engage with the Muslim Brotherhood on the basis of its popularity among Arab electorates.
A comeback of the Muslim Brotherhood and giving the green light for Islamists would mean further vengeances on the servants of Mecca. It was Saudi Arabia and the UAE who were major supporters of the military coup that ousted the elected government of President Mohammed Morsi in Cairo, and more recently have reportedly backed Egypt’s support for Libyan strongman Gen. Khalifa Heftar — now defense minister of the Tobruk-based government — who has vowed to rid Libya of political Islam. All this will not bode well with Qatar and Turkey.
The region-wide offensive against the Brotherhood also put Riyadh and its allies at odds with Turkey and Qatar which means that now, a move to repair that relationship and ease pressure on the Brotherhood, in the interests of closing ranks against Iran, potentially changes the regional dynamic. It means isolating Libya, Egypt and Syria in order to gain Brotherhood-aligned parties against Iran’s allies.
All this now explains why in Daniel 11, Turkey moves in on Egypt and Libya while Sheba and Dedan (the Arabs) stand by while Gog and Magog (the Turks) invades Israel. The media said that Saudi diplomats even expressed their willingness to lend Saudi Arabia’s airspace to Israel for a possible attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities. While this talk was considered gossip, truth is, that Saudi Arabia and Israel both feel betrayed by the current negotiations underway between Obama and Iran, and both feel they need to make alternative plans to cope with what both view as an existential threat to both of there existence. Yet this is a major dilemma for Saudi Arabia: is it possible that all of the sudden, the servant of Mecca sits down to commune with Zionists?
While the dilemma over interpreting “Sheba and Dedan” being on the sidelines when Gog attacks Israel is easily resolved since Saudi Arabia would have to pullout of such an alliance; the unity between Turkey and Iran (Gog leads Persia in Ezekiel 38), and the eventual animosity towards Arabia, including its destruction by Muslim states, is also resolved once we understand the divisions within Islam since Saudi Wahhabists and Turkish based Sufis are hostile to a large degree. While Sufis, like Iranian Shiites, they build and visit shrines, and celebrate religious events with song and dance, Wahhabists destroyed many Sufi shrines and religious buildings. Wahhabists consider Sufism to be heresy which is an irreparable schism between Salafi/Wahhabism and Sufism.
Sufism is a unifying factor, not between Salfists and Shiites, but between Shiites and Sufis who are culturally diverse, embracing cultures from India to North Africa. Relations between Sufis and adherents of other non-Sunni religions and sects is largely friendly. This is especially true given the deep-rooted idea of pluralism in the eschatological salvation of Sufism, in addition to its diverse cultural nature, which makes it more open to neighboring religions and cultures. Sufis (Turks) and Shiites (Iran) converge on esoteric and gnostic aspects that are shamanistic in nature, according to famous Iraqi scholar Kamel Mustafa Shibi in his book, The Link Between Sufism and Shiism.
Prominent cleric in Najaf, (the third holiest city of Shi’a Islam and the center of Shia political power in Iraq), Sheikh Mohammed Sanad, called last month to reactivate ties between Shiites (Iran) and Sufis (Turks) in various parts of the Islamic world, in the framework of the fight against Wahhabism. This is why the U.S. seems to be looking towards Iran and Turkey since they believe that Sufi Islam as moderate. This will be the greatest error in which through ISIS (Wahhabists) the U.S. sees Wahhabist hostility toward Shiites (Iran) and Sufis (Turks), as Wahhabists view these two denominations as heretical and not belonging to the true Islamic religion. While Saudi based Wahhabism have great political power in the Islamic world, Sufism is still seen as a widespread way of life in the Islamic street, from Morocco to India. This will play a great role in the Islamic world to unite against and not for Saudi Arabia, especially for its hated monarchy which in the past was the key that helped end Abd al-Madjeed al-Thâni, the last Sunni Caliph of Islam from the Ottoman Dynasty, nominally the 37th Head of the Ottoman Imperial House in 1924 which Turkey wants to revive.
The Last Caliph: Abd al-Madjeed al-Thâni
Sufism is ‘Islamized shamanism’, and Shia Islam in Iran follows metaphysical Sufism covering the geographic areas of modern-day Turkey, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kirghizstan, northern Afghanistan, the Turkoman province of Iran and even the Uygur district of Xinjian province of China will play a major role in the end times and we predict that the Antichrist is likely to be Sufi Muslim.
Ezekiel and John warned about a Gog (Ezekiel 38) who is chief prince of Meshech and Tubal which are in Turkey. Ezekiel also warned about the beautiful Cherub (Ezekiel 28) including the very nations who are cast into the pit with him. Most seem to be within the Sufi regions. Isaiah warned about a man who makes the earth tremble and is an angelic being (Isaiah 14) and only Sufi Islam allows for the deification of man. Sufi Islam teaches the theology of Fana in which the Muslim becomes God himself, a theology which consumes one-fifth of the Muslim world who are touted in the West as the most peaceful of Muslims and is why such deception did not only encompass the U.S. government, but fallen Christians as well. Even the region in which this multitude stemming from “the north” is as Jesus foretold would be the seat of the devil in Pergamum (Turkey).
In the end, the source of this harlot religion, Saudi Arabia will face its doom.
SOURCES
Al-Jazeera